The Auckland Theatre Company's plans for next year are well under way, kicking off in February with Noel Coward's Design For Living to mark the comedy's 75th anniversary. Sia Figiel's novel Where We Once Belonged has been adapted by Dave Armstrong for the ATC, premiering at the NZInternational Arts Festival on March 8, followed by a season in Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber in late March.
In May, Elizabeth Hawthorne stars in Joanna Murray-Smith's The Female of the Species, a comedy based on a real-life hostage drama involving feminist Germaine Greer.
Roger and Pip Hall's comedy Who Needs Sleep Anyway?, a comedy written to celebrate Plunket's 100th anniversary, is the ATC's June production, while Shortland Street's Toni Potter stars as Maggie in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in July.
Ship Songs, which actor Ian Hughes wrote and will perform in, will tour four smaller theatres in the Auckland region, opening at the PumpHouse in August.
The most talked about ATC production of the year is likely to be in September with David Harrower's Blackbird, a drama about the sexual obsession between a man and a very young girl. The company's end-of-year production in November is Spelling Bee, a musical homage to geeks.
