The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [Abridged]
An irreverent, fast-paced romp through the Bard’s plays, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) was London’s longest-running comedy having clocked a very palpable nine years in London’s West End. Join our madcap cast as they weave their wicked way through all of Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories and Tragedies in one wild ride that will leave you breathless and helpless with laughter.
“IF YOU LIKE SHAKESPEARE, YOU’LL LOVE THIS SHOW. IF YOU HATE SHAKESPEARE YOU’LL LOVE THIS SHOW!”
Movie: Boy
The year is 1984, and on the rural East Coast of New Zealand , BOY is the hilarious and heartfelt coming-of-age tale about heroes, magic and Michael Jackson.
BOY is a dreamer who loves Michael Jackson. He lives with his brother ROCKY, a tribe of deserted cousins and his Nan.
Boys other hero, his father, ALAMEIN, is the subject of Boys fantasies, and he imagines him as a deep sea diver, war hero and a close relation of Michael Jackson (he can even dance like him). In reality hes in the can for robbery.
When Alamein returns home after 7 years away, Boy is forced to confront the man he thought he remembered, find his own potential and learn to get along without the hero he had been hoping for.
Starring Te Aho Eketone-Whitu, James Rolleston, Taika Waititi
Movie: Dirty Dancing
Baby (Jennifer Grey) is one listless summer away from the Peace Corps. Hoping to enjoy her youth while it lasts, she’s disappointed when her summer plans deposit her at a sleepy resort in the Catskills with her parents. Her luck turns around, however, when the resort’s dance instructor, Johnny (Patrick Swayze), enlists Baby as his new partner, and the two fall in love. Baby’s father forbids her from seeing Johnny, but she’s determined to help him perform the last big dance of the summer.
The Jailhouse Frocks by Devon Williamson
Dim-witted officer Dwayne’s tranquil evening at the Birchwood County Police Station is shattered with the arrest of three unlikely women; the Mayor’s wife, the local mad cat-lady, and a dangerous looking New Yorker. The already chaotic situation descends into mayhem as the night progresses, in the end leaving Dwayne wondering how on earth he managed to make the arrest of a lifetime.
OSPA is thrilled to finally bring this show with its talented cast and amazing crew to the community.
You’re guaranteed a great time with plenty of laughs. We look forward to seeing you there!
Adam McGrath
Adam McGrath is a folk singer stationed mostly wherever he lands, although he keeps
his dog and his landlord in Christchurch, New Zealand. He travels both the state and lost
highways of New Zealand, Australia, Europe and parts beyond, slinging songs and
offering up yarns and low rent bar philosophy for anyone who’ll spring for a ticket and
wherever he can get a key. Widely known in New Zealand as lead singer and songwriter
of one of the country’s most beloved and mythic roots bands, The Eastern, Adam
continues in the tradition of hard travelling, long touring, long shows and longer nights
laid down by his day band. McGrath takes on all comers and has played everywhere
from lounge rooms to bar rooms, street corners to theatres and a million and one
festivals, sometimes he’s even got paid! Any opportunity to play is a good one.
He hopes for the best, is always ready for the worst and believes in Smokey Robinson
and the Miracles, The Clash and anyone doing the best they can. He remains happiest in
front of a jukebox as the call for last drinks is given, because jukeboxes are getting
harder to find, and last drinks means the lock in is ever closer.
He has been described as a “National Treasure” by Radio New Zealand National and
his songs have gathered more than their share of good notices at home and overseas,
he's been nominated for a couple of serious music awards (including the Apra Silver
Scroll), and the NZ herald called him “NZ's toughest minded songwriter”. Barry
Saunders from kiwi country legends The Warratahs simply described him as “The
Truth”.
With The Eastern and solo he has shared stages with and opened for Fleetwood Mac,
Steve Earle, Old Crow Medicine Show, Paul Kelly, Jimmy Barnes and many, many more.
But he takes the most pride in getting up and putting it down, in towns both small and
big most nights of the year, shaking hands and sharing beers wherever and whenever
the road throws him up.
His song ‘Hope and Wire’ became the inspiration for the New Zealand TV drama series
of the same name directed by Gaylene Preston, and he was noted for his community
work during the Christchurch earthquake and service orientated approach to music in
the years since.
Both solo and with The Eastern, Adam is renowned for his at once ferocious and
tender roof raising live shows and has gathered a reputation for being among the
country's hardest working musicians playing up to and beyond 200 shows a year, every
year. The latest album from The Eastern ‘The Territory’ was described as one of the
best albums of the year from any band in any country by No Depression magazine and
proved a worthy follow up to 2012’s Gold selling ‘Hope and Wire’.
Although the gathering of such plaudits is at once good and bad for his shaky ego,
McGrath cops to being better than you thought, but not as good as he should be and yet
he remains very thankful and hopes that in some way this might help him to continue
paying his rent through his roundabout stories and bareknuckle approach to guitar
playing. A people’s player, he works his ass off for any audience he finds himself in front
of. Through yarns, ballads and barnstormers, he goes looking, night after night and year
after year, for all the alchemy and heart that singing for folks gets to make happen.
Described as “maybe part folk singer, part preacher, part boxer, and part rodeo clown
he is however all heart”. A McGrath show goes straight for the spirit level in all of us,
looking deep for the good parts and hoping to reach all the thoughtful bits that matter;
all the while singing and strumming his three and half chords like his life depended on
it. Which of course it does and as of course it should. He remains undefeated and
continues to write bios in the third person.
Mad Doggerel Cabaret
Two poets and a musician combine to present a comic and lyric portrait of Aotearoa New Zealand and its place in the South Pacific today. Their Mad Doggerel poetry cabaret is full of cascading words, wild musicality and lightning humour.
David Eggleton, the current Poet Laureate of Aotearoa 2019 – 2022, has been described as a a jazz-bop-beatnik poet ‘whose poems never cease to amaze and astound in their creativity … in performance he is no longer a just a poet but a ranter, a raver, a conjuror … his poetry spirals into today’s world from a Polynesian heritage’. David Eggleton, an acclaimed writer, has received just about every literary award for poetry it is possible to receive in New Zealand, from the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Poetry in 2016 to Best First Book of Poems in 1987. Overseas, amongst other events, he has taken part in the Poetry Olympics and the Ranters’ Cup Final, winning Street Entertainer of the Year for Poetry at the London Convent Garden Festival.
Daren Kamali was a founding member of the South Auckland Poets’ Collective in 2008 and a co-founder of Niu Navigations in 2013, an organization aimed at encouraging young Pacific writers to tell their stories. An accomplished performance and slam poet, as well as a musician, Daren Kamali has travelled the world presenting poems based on Polynesian and Pasifika legends and his own life story.
Richard Wallis is a Dunedin-based classical guitarist. As a soundscape musician he has worked extensively with David Eggleton in producing music recordings.
Michael Hurst is… The Golden Ass
Freely adapted from the notorious original by Apuleius, this brand new solo show is the
story of Lucius – a young man driven by sexual desire and insatiable curiosity who is
accidentally transformed into a donkey. Uh-oh!
What follows is a fantastical series of misadventures in a wicked world of witches, bandits,
virgins, cultists, slaves, circuses, soldiers, pastry-cooks, prostitutes and priests.
Marvellously, sidesplittingly ridiculous, The Golden Ass is the original donkey show, inspiring
such literary giants as Shakespeare, Boccaccio, Cervantes, Rabelais and Keats. It remains
today a powerful plea for empathy in a world gone mad.
With music and direction from acclaimed composer John Gibson, and performance by
renowned storyteller Michael Hurst, this modern take on one of the great classics will be a
rollicking ride, well worth the fare.
Rating: Adult themes. Not suitable for children.
**POSTPONED** AOTNZ present: Austen Found
Austen Found: The Undiscovered Musicals of Jane Austen – with Penny Ashton, Lori Dungey and Jason Smith
Addicted to Darcy? Bonkers for Big Balls? Lost all Sense and Sensibility? Well put down your cross-stitching and get ready to enjoy an entirely improvised musical in the style of Jane Austen. You saw their videos during the COVID lockdown, now see them in person.
Arts on Tour favourite Penny Ashton (Olive Copperbottom, Promise and Promiscuity, Hot Pink Bits) is back, with her most excellently accomplished friends! World Famous hobbit Lori Dungey (LOTR, Xena) and twinkle fingers Jason Smith (Emmy award-winning musical maestro and Lucy Lawless collaborator) will use your suggestions and spin instant literary magic as they swoon, romp and pianoforte.
“Jane Austen would turn in her grave with delight” Rip it Up
“full of fun and frivolity” – NZ Herald
**POSTPONED** The Jailhouse Frocks
The Jailhouse Frocks is by Tauranga playwright, Devon Williamson who’s keen to come along and see how OSPA handles his creation.
Shattering dimwitted Officer Dwayne’s tranquil evening at the Birchwood County police station is interrupted by the arrests of three unlikely women; the mayor’s wife in a state of complete alcoholic breakdown, the local mad cat-lady looking for somewhere to stay out of the rain, and a dangerous-looking New Yorker who has managed to crash her car into the police station while speeding through town.
The already chaotic situation descends into mayhem with the arrival of a New York gangster, disguised as an FBI agent, hell-bent on exacting revenge on his wife who is locked in the cell.
Aperture – The life and work of Ans Westra
“Baanvinger beautifully captures the era, the struggles, the insights and the awakening of self. A skillful storyteller” – M Giroux
Actor and director Martine Baanvinger, who wrote and starred in the award-winning play Solitude, returns in this creative and innovative one-woman play about Ans Westra, a NZ Arts Foundation Icon photographer.
In 1957, Ans Westra emigrated from the Netherlands to New Zealand and began to take photos of her new homeland. Fascinated by Maori culture in particular, she created an intimate and uniquely historical documentation of Maori life which led to a successful career capturing the essence of the people of Aotearoa.
DramaLAB’s visually stunning and intimate portrait focuses on Westra’s childhood in The Netherlands, her immigration journey to New Zealand and the start of her photography career in the 1960’s. Her first publications, including the controversial ‘Washday at the pa’, offered insight into the Maori way of life in rural Aotearoa at a time of urbanisation.
Martine Baanvinger is trained at the Theatre Academy in Amsterdam. She is the founder of DramaLAB and creates performances in a direct, transparent and intimate way. Martine invites her audiences to enter a space of innovation and simplicity that calls in emotional involvement with the story and the actor. The audience becomes part of the journey. This combined with physical theatre influences leads to unique creations where both drama and comedy are often equally present. Martine loves exploring a creative approach to lighting, sound, digital imaginary, transformation of set and costume.