Auckland Arts Festival reviews 2025

Shaan Kesha plays Deepan, the New Zealand-born son of a Sri Lankan couple divided by civil war, in A Mixtape of Maladies, a play by Ahi Karunaharan at the Auckland Arts Festival in March 2025.

The Auckland Arts Festival is back for 2025, with dozens of events across the city running until March 23. For reviews on the big theatre performances hitting the stages throughout the festival, check back here for insights from the New Zealand Herald team.

a mixtape for maladies

Before the show starts, there’s a lot to take in for a mixtape for maladies. Auckland Theatre Company knows how to deliver production values, and the scale of the set for their latest work - designed by Rachel Marlow and Bradley Gledhill - is immediately engrossing. The exposed wood and stained curtains, all clearly parts of different areas, still fit together, whilst hiding what’s waiting behind.

It’s a telling sign of the scale of the show, a mixtape for maladies, the latest work by Agram Productions and prolific writer Ahilan Karunaharan, may not be your conventional epic, and for a long time it is largely a quiet family drama, but there’s a presence throughout that teases the dark secrets and bigger moments to come, and the giant, ever adapting set is one part of that.

To the side of the stage, New Zealand-born Sri Lankan Deepan (Shaan Kesha) is recording his music podcast in his mother Sangeetha’s (Ambika G.K.R.) basement. He’s found an old cassette mixtape in his mother’s possessions, and wants to go through it track by track. Sangeetha is initially reluctant, but ultimately relents, taking her son back through to 1950s Sri Lanka.

It leads into a jukebox musical of sorts. The characters of Sangeetha’s teenage years sing and dance as each track is played, sometimes accompanying the band on one side of the stage, but mostly filling the expansive set with dance numbers.

There’s a playful optimism throughout the show. The young Sangeetha (Gemma-Jayde Naidoo) and her siblings Subbalaxmi (Tiahli Martyn) and Vishwanathan (Ravikanth Gurunathan) are spending their days going to movies, listening to music and falling in love. The siblings have a natural chemistry together, as do mother and son, offering comedic commentary to the sides.

Karunaharan’s work often blends history into the narrative, and as the story progresses, the ethnic and political tensions in Sri Lanka at the time slowly creep into the forefront of the story. The creeping sense of dread underneath the romance and joy is masterfully blended together with the music.

There’s only so much you can say without giving it all away, but the script is a thing of beauty, hitting all the right notes exactly where they need to go. Director Jane Yonge has wonderfully brought it to life, and every actor rises to the challenge of their characters.

A powerful examination of memory and nostalgia, and where the two clash, a mixtape for maladies is close to a masterpiece, and is undoubtedly the best local production Auckland Theatre Company has delivered for some time.

a mixtape for maladies is on at the ASB Waterfront Theatre until March 23rd.

Smashed - The Nightcap

Whenever the Arts Festival announces its programme for the year, the first thing I always want to know is what show is going to be taking over the Spiegeltent

In some ways, the cabaret show that takes up residency in Aotea Square is the heart of the festival. It’s the show you want to see at the start of your night or early in the festival, gearing you up for the rest of whats on the menu.

The Nightcap, the latest show from Australian troupe Smashed, is designed to get you ready for a boozy night of debauchery. As soon as MC Victoria Falconer takes to the stage in a rainbow suit singing about alcohol, it quickly puts you in the mood to order a bottle of champagne and start cracking into the night.

Early on, Falconer says that she wants the vibe to be that an orgy could start at any moment - you just have to ignore the fact that the show starts at 6:30. And that is a slightly awkward element of the show - if you are used to seeing drag at 1:30 on a Saturday morning in an underground bar, there is something slightly jarring about seeing a show like this while the sun is still shining outside.

It helps though that The Nightcap is a more laid-back production than other recent shows in the Spiegeltent. Shows in years past have made a big deal about cramming as much nudity and awe-inspiring aerial tricks in as possible, but The Nightcap is deliberately more casual.

Don’t worry, the aerial tricks are there, and they definitely impress - it’s a new Spiegeltent this year and it seems to come with some new features, allowing for a spectacular flourish to the penultimate performance.

And the acts are great. Local drag star Elektra Shock brings a bolt of energy halfway through with an aerobics-inspired performance, while circus performer Malia Walsh brings a collection of unhinged characters that blend into spectacular performances.

But it’s not the same wall-to-wall lineup. There’s more crowdwork and singing from Falconer, more of a focus on music from the live band, more moments with silly little asides. Guest performer The Nomi Cohen pops up for a music quiz that sends a bolt of energy through the crowd. It all keeps the mood lively throughout, and when those big moments happen, they are felt more strongly.

As much as I love watching an endless stream of people doing incredible things with their bodies or in the air, I found The Nightcap to be a delightful, frothy bit of fun - a bit more relaxed, a lot sillier, sometimes a little mad, but there’s a healthy variety of performances to keep you entertained.

Smashed - The Nightcap is on in the Spiegeltent until March 23rd

The Suitcase Show by Trick of the Light Theatre Company.

Suitcase Show

Since its inception in 2011, Trick of the Light has fast become one of the most innovative and interesting theatre companies in New Zealand.

Run by Ralph McCubbin Howell and Hannah Smith, the company uses light, shadow, props and projection to tell their stories. Each show is always its own unique specimen while carrying through the same creativity, humour and emotion.

Their latest work, Suitcase Show, feels like an upgrade of their past work. It follows a mysterious traveller (McCubbin Howell) who arrives at an airport with a number of odd suitcases. A curious customs worker (Smith) pulls him aside for questioning, but rather than simply address her questions, the traveller opens each suitcase and tells a different story using what’s inside.

It leads to a series of short stories, each one told in its own style. In The Townsfolk, a hand-held torch against a small white town square tells the story the backlash against a mysterious preacher. An overhead projector tells the time-travelling adventures of a space traveller in The Astronaut. In Hand Luggage, McCubbin Howell’s hands are the stand in for two potential lovers who cross paths at an airport.

There’s a charm and appeal to each story, and the craft that has gone into each makes each one a treat to watch. They wisely kept each story to around the five minute mark to ensure they remain engaging. The more epic The Autocrat, about a deposed European leader trying to flee his own people, is probably the longest but also incorporates the most elements and changes in how the story is told.

Trick of the Light’s shows are always a technical marvel, and its impossible to look away from anything happening on stage. The interludes with the traveller and border agent between each story did become repetitive, but a twist near the end adds a new layer to the

My only critique would be that the small scale of some of the stories meant it was tricky to see every detail from the back of the theatre where I was sitting, particularly during The Townsfolk. There were also some political jokes in the latter sketches that felt needlessly tacked on without feeling properly ingratiated into the story.

Suitcase Show is overall a delight from start to end, combining the company’s typical technical prowess with some beautiful writing, all tied together with a slow burn reveal into a wickedly brilliant conclusion.

Suitcase Show is on at Q Theatre until March 9th, and then touring around New Zealand.