Love's Labour's Lost, Carving in Ice Theatre Company

/ Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts/

The first Shakespeare production to be put on by Carving Ice Theatre.

“A King & his 3 best friends swear off women for three years. What will happen when a Princess & her 3 best friends comes to visit? Can the men possibly resist the women? Will the women ever accept the vows of foolish men?

Shakespeare’s seldom performed romcom takes us to the Kingdom of Navarre where the quest to be in love, & speak from your true heart is marked by flirting, fooling, hunting & composing love poems. Along the way expect some 'sudden breakings-out of mirth' and the longest word in English 'honorificabilitudinitatibus'.” – Carving Ice website

Read More

Lucrece, The Auckland Shakespeare Company

/

The hotly anticipated debut from the Auckland Shakespeare Company is here. Lucrece is a reimagining of Shakespeare's darkest poem, The Rape of Lucrece. Working from the original text, four actors take you on the heart stopping journey of Lucrece, the chaste wife of a noble lord, who is sexually violated in her own home by Tarquin, a Roman prince. As a result she commits suicide and her body is paraded through the streets of Rome.    

Read More

Macbeth, Black Friars Theatre

/ Mangere Arts Centre/

A version of Macbeth set in a fictitious pan-Polynesian Hawaiki and drawing on Polynesian cultural traditions in music, dance and staging. Part of an ongoing engagement with a Polynesian response to Shakespeare, following a 2014 production of The Merchant of Venice by the same company.

Read More

Shylock, Theatre Tours International

/

Told from the perspective of Shylock's friend Tubal, 'Shylock' presents one of Shakespeare's most controversial characters in a fresh light.

“Villain, victim, or is Shylock someone more intriguing? Celebrating Bill-400, Guy Masterson returns with his extraordinary, multi-award winning examination of Shakespeare's controversial Jew in one of the most successful globally acclaimed shows of the last two decades!” (description from the Edinburgh Fringe Programme)

Read More

King Lear, Circa Theatre

/ Circa Theatre/

"Circa Theatre celebrates its 40th anniversary with a brand new production of Shakespeare’s stunning tragedy King Lear. Acclaimed Shakespearean director Michael Hurst takes the helm while the title role is played by one of New Zealand’s theatre legends, Ray Henwood

King Lear cuts to the heart of the human condition, traversing the raw landscape of passion, sorrow, cruelty, love and redemption. An ageing king, mistaking false praise for love, makes a terrible decision that destroys his family and plunges his kingdom into chaos.

Four hundred years after Shakespeare’s death, Hurst, renowned for his compelling interpretations, throws a unique lens over the story, describing it as “a lean and muscular play that demands the utmost of its actors.”

There will be no hiding, no tricks, just high-octane acting in a timeless landscape of despair. Howl! Howl! Howl!" -Circa Theatre website

Read More

SolOTHELLO, Te Rēhia Theatre Company

/ Touring/

One man’s hilarious interpretation of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. Māori Performance Mask (Te Mata Kokako o Rēhia) comes to life as Regan Taylor unfolds an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello as a solo performance.  SolOTHELLO weaves together Shakespeare’s original prose, modern English and Te Reo Māori to deliver a dynamic and cheeky interpretation of one of history’s more tragic plays.

Read More