Revamped square focus of festival

Photo / Supplied

Aotea Square will become a flooded rice field for Vietnamese water puppets to romp in during next year's Auckland Arts Festival.

Puppetry is an ancient art form from the Red River Delta and will be performed by the Thai Long Troupe, standing in chest-deep water which they use as a stage and to conceal the puppets' rod and string mechanisms, which also make waves and splashes.

The show headlines the family programme of the festival, to be held from March 2 to 20.

It will be one of many productions using a festival hub in the new Aotea Square, which will sport a $26 million upgrade as well as a $45 million repair to a leaky carpark roof.

Festival artistic director David Malacari said yesterday the troupe was appreciated around the world for rescuing a 1000-year-old art from oblivion.

Works at the biennial festival will come from four continents.

"Our goal is to inspire people to enlarge their horizons, visit captivating new creative worlds and have exhilarating cultural experiences."

A work from India, The Manganiyar Seduction, is described as a theatrical spectacle and a concert of Rajasthani music presented in a set inspired by Amsterdam's red light district and the Hawa Mahal, or Palace of the Winds, in Jaipur.

In contrast, La Odisea, a work from Bolivia's Teatro de los Andes, tells in music and song the story of a Latino immigrant seeking to return to South America.

The festival also offers the Lautten Compagney of Berlin, featuring works by Handel.

More than 500 artists will be in the festival, which chief executive David Inns said could cost more than $8.5 million.