The Auckland Theatre Company have announced eight plays in their 2024 season, including the West End hit Girls & Boys, a large-scale production of Peter Pan, and a stage adaptation of the 2023 local hit movie Red, White and Brass.
Spanish-born, London-trained Beatriz Romilly, who impressed with her performance as Edmund in the ATC’s production of King Lear, will star in the one-woman Girls & Boys, which won acclaim for screen star Carey Mulligan when the Dennis Kelly play debuted in 2018.
Romilly plays a woman who falls for a European antiques importer, with director Eleanor Bishop guiding its exploration into the dark side of marriage and motherhood.
One of the ATC’s big family fare offerings is a new version of Peter Pan, adapted by veteran actor and playwright Carl Bland and co-directed by Ben Crowder in what promises to be a visually exciting show for the October school holidays.
And Leki Jackson-Bourke, a writer on the Tongan Kiwi film Red, White and Brass, has created a stage adaptation. John-Paul Foliaki reprises his role as the guy who forms a brass band to get into the Tongan game against France in Wellington during the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
The year kicks off in February with Hyperspace, a 1990s dance-movie nostalgia piece set in Aotearoa, written by Albert Belz and directed by Tainui Tukiwaho, who also directed Belz’s earlier love letter to the 1980s, Astroman. Expect some impressive moves choreographed by former aerobics champion Jack Gray.
March sees the debut of a family drama set in Sāmoa’s not-so-distant past, titled O le Pepelo, le Gaoi, ma le Pala’ai: The Liar, the Thief, and the Coward. The darkly comedic political piece by Natano Keni and Sarita So stars Semu Filipo (Shortland Street, Kura).
Originally staged in 2012 at Britain’s National Theare and currently undergoing a revival there, The Effect by Lucy Prebble is a love story set in a clinical trial where two participants struggle to figure out whether their attraction to each other is real or just the medication. The production has cast Celebrity Treasure Island co-host Jayden Daniels and Wheel of Time star Zoë Robins in their ATC debuts, with television veteran Sara Wiseman returning to the company’s stage for the first time in 20 years.
There is another collision of science and people in Australian playwright David Finnigan’s Scenes from the Climate Era. It’s a genre-bending, wide-ranging look at the climate crisis in a production directed by Keagan Carr Fransch (seven methods of killing kylie jenner) that doubles as a call to action.
ATC closes the year with a mixtape for maladies by Ahi Karunaharan, which sweeps from 1950s Sri Lanka to modern-day Aotearoa. Directed by Jane Yonge (Scenes from a Yellow Peril), it’s both a love letter to Sri Lanka and a lament playing out over 17 songs ranging from Dusty Springfield to La Bamba.
The company’s Artistic Director & CEO Jonathan Bielski says he’s excited to showcase both major stars and local heroes this year after a great 30th anniversary in 2023.
Sensory relaxed performances will also be introduced in the 2024 season to offer a more laid-back theatre atmosphere for audiences who might benefit from them, including people who are neurodivergent.
Auckland Theatre Company 2024
Hyperspace by Albert Belz
February 7-24
O le Pepelo, le Gaoi, ma le Pala’ai | The Liar, the Thief, and the Coward by Natano Keni and Sarita So
March 5-23
The Effect by Lucy Prebble
April 15-May 11
Red, White and Brass adapted by Leki Jackson-Bourke
June 18-July 6
Scenes from the Climate Era by David Finnigan
August 2-24
Girls & Boys by Dennis Kelly
September 10-28
Peter Pan by Carl Bland
October 8-28
a mixtape for maladies by Ahi Karunaharan
November 19-December 7
