“To be or not to be, that is the question” - but in the case of Auckland’s failed Pop-up Globe, it’s once again “to be”, after it was revived this month at the city’s Q Theatre.
That move has surprised some who are claiming $1.03 million from the
Shakespearean Pop-Up Globe: To be again - to repay creditors
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“The big news is we’re taking our first step on the road to recovery by putting on one of your faves from Season 1, Twelfth Night. For just five nights only, the Q will be a riot of Shakespearean drama, just like old days. The big change is that we’ll have a roof!” announced the business, once open-air and built of scaffolding, its first home very near the Q Theatre, then moving later to Ellerslie.
Twelfth Night tickets are being advertised from $20, with performances pitched around Labour Weekend, on October 17, 18, 20, 21 and 22.
The show at 7.30pm on Friday October 20 is shown as “not available” on Q Theatre, with only two tickets left at each of the October 17 and 18 shows and only three left for Saturday October 21.
Gareth Hoole and Clive Bish, liquidators of the Pop-Up Globe Foundation, issued their six-monthly report on the failed business last Thursday, revealing there they had consented to the performances to generate much-needed revenue.
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“The liquidators have reached an agreement whereby, through a licensing arrangement, the assets of the liquidation estate will be utilised as required in that production, which will take place during October.”
Those liquidators of Ecovis KGA are themselves creditors, owed more than $17,000 in unbilled time and costs, but that’s a small amount compared to many others, bitter about the way things have gone.
Hoole told the Herald the liquidators own the intellectual property and other rights to the business, which they have run for the past two years since it failed.
They had given permission for the Q Theatre performances to go ahead, otherwise, the prospects of recovering any cash were even more grim.
“They’re going to use the name and costumes and it’s all done under a licence agreement between me and them. I own the intellectual property, costumes, set and I give them permission to use that to try to get money to pay the ANZ and other creditors,” Hoole said.
He hopes the venture will be successful and perhaps continue after the Labour Weekend performances.
“In a perfect world, this thing will succeed and more people will come back and buy tickets and we’ll continue to license the use of the Pop-Up Globe concept and continue to pay people,” Hoole said.
In 2021, the Herald reported how $1.03m was owed by one of the Pop-Up businesses. Secured creditors wanted $384,000, preferential creditors $329,000 and unsecured creditors about $319,000.
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ANZ, Inland Revenue and scaffolding specialists Camelspace were some of the creditors listed by the liquidators. Bunnings, CSL Container Hire, Elephant Publicity, Ellerslie Event Centre, Eventfinda, iSite, Mediaworks, director and founder Miles Gregory, Phantom Billstickers, Portacom, SEA Containers, Spark and Superloo Sanitation are others.
Nicholson Print, Kenderdine Electrical, Just Water, James Bell Accounting, Perceptual Engineering, Raw Vision, The Canvas Company, Dominion Law, Apra New Zealand and AON Insurance New Zealand are other creditors.
Assets are an overdrawn cash bank account at -$150,000 and fixed assets of $453,000, which include the theatre and receivables of $3000, giving a total asset balance of just $309,079 - well short of the $1.03m of liabilities.
Businesses which failed were The Pop-up Globe Foundation, Pop-up Globe Auckland and Pop-up Globe International.
These companies were incorporated in 2015 and 2106 but all are in liquidation after Covid kept audiences away from the theatre’s Ellerslie home.
The company had cashflow difficulties because it was unable to trade through pandemic lockdowns. Those cashflow constraints prevented it from paying debts as they fell due.
Hoole said Tobias Grant, one of the original founders, was involved in the Q Theatre performances but not Dr Miles Gregory, who had also been involved originally.
In 2015, Gregory said he conceived it after his daughter asked why she couldn’t go to the Globe.
The concept was praised and in 2018, Gregory won a Blake Leader Award.
The former regional producer for Globe London said: “I was reading Nancy, my daughter, a bedtime story. It was a picture pop-up book and one of the pop-ups was the Globe theatre. Nancy asked whether we could go there. I said, ‘we can’t. The nearest Globe replica is a long way away...’ Then I stopped and thought... a Pop-up Globe... And now here we are!”
Former Auckland Mayor Len Brown joined with Gregory to laud the concept, announcing it together.
In 2020 and 2021, the Pop-Up Globe Foundation received $141,000 in Covid cash from the Government - but even that wasn’t enough to keep it afloat.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
