Miriama McDowell stars in Lysander's Aunty. Photo / Supplied.
Miriama McDowell stars in Lysander's Aunty. Photo / Supplied.
A Kiwi twist on a Shakespeare classic, an adaptation of one of the most beloved films of all time and a host of collaborations are all on offer next year as one of the country's top theatre companies moves into a new era.
Auckland Theatre Company has unveiled its programmefor 2022, with eight plays on offer that offer a mix of Broadway classics, local commissions and big-budget adaptations.
It's the first programme by chief executive Jonathan Bielski, who took over the artistic director duties earlier this year.
He said that he wanted his first programme to reflect the continuing legacy of the ATC, which was founded in 1992, while giving off a sense of change.
"There's plenty of continuity and notes of familiarity and it doesn't fall to me to conduct a revolution, but it does fall to me to bring myself to it," Bielski said.
The season starts with Grand Horizons, a Tony-nominated play about a couple falling apart after 50 years of marriage, directed by Jennifer Ward-Lealand. That's followed by Lysander's Aunty, about an off-stage character from Midsummer's Night Dream, Witi's Wahine, exploring the East Coast women of Witi Ihimaera's work, and Scenes from a Yellow Peril, described as a "meta-analysis of Asian identity" that eschews the traditional play format.
Auckland Theatre Company CEO and artistic director Jonathan Bielski. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
Those three plays see the ATC collaborate with other companies – Trick of the Light, Hāpai Productions, and SquareSums&Co - to bring the stories to life. Bielski said that one thing he wanted to bring to the company was a collaboration with other companies and to better showcase the diversity in voices and talent that Auckland and New Zealand theatre have to offer.
Tanea Heke, who founded Hāpai Productions, said that in the past when ATC did collaborations, "you weren't in charge of the bus", but the dynamic and relationship has changed in recent years.
"The difference will be that Hāpai will be a partner in deciding what the creative team will look like, so that's quite a different model."
She said she is excited to see how this further develops with Bielski at the helm of the company.
Witi's Wahine debuted on the East Coast, but the play by the late Nancy Brunning will be showcased to its biggest audience yet when it arrives in Auckland in May.
"I hope that Nancy will get a kick out of this to know that from home we've gone to the biggest city with the widest range of people," Heke said. "And it's a big bloody theatre!"
In the second half of the year, ATC brings Tony Award-winning classic Long Day's Journey into Night before Oscar Kightley and Pacific Underground bring Dawn Raids to the stage. Local sci-fi creation The Made with Robyn Malcolm is followed by an adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock classic North by Northwest.
The last production Bielski said will have the scale of a musical, and brings home director Simon Phillips who last worked for the ATC 25 years ago before heading overseas and directing the musical adaptation of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
"It's quite a thrill to have one of our most successful artists come back into the company."
The only thing Bielski doesn't want to see more of next year is any more Covid restrictions – the pandemic forced the company to cancel most of its 2020 lineup, while the last two shows in this year's season also had to be cut due to Delta.
"We understand while we are a flexible organisation, there is a limit to our nimbleness," he said.
"Ultimately, this is a programme that's hopeful that we will have a degree of normality and return to theatre in a way we understand next year."
