Tim Bray has turned Mahy’s iconic classic into a fantastical pirate party. Photo / David Rowland, One-Image Photography
Plan your weekend with fun and exciting activities in Auckland. We’ve got musicals, adventures, and shows that even your little ones can enjoy over the school holidays.
The team at Tim Bray Theatre Company are up to their usual school holiday shenanigans this month with Margaret Mahy’s The Great Piratical Rumbustification. As we roll into week two of the holidays and kids start really climbing the walls, a morning or afternoon at the Pumphouse is a great way to break up the monotony. Like all the company’s shows, Tim Bray has adapted the story for stage and turned Mahy’s classic into the kind of fantastical pirate party that Kiwi kids’ dreams are made of. It’s a 50-minute show, ideal for 4-10-year-olds. Add on a run around by Lake Pupuke and/or pack a picnic and you’ve got a fairly fabulous school holiday outing. After the holidays, The Great Piratical Rumbustification will have Saturday shows at Due Drop Events Centre (May 4) and Māngere Arts Centre (May 11), with school/ECE shows during the week. Tim Bray Theatre Company gives 200 tickets to children who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford to go, so whether you can make it or not, consider supporting their Gift a Seat campaign so others can enjoy the magic of live theatre.
On now until April 27, 10.30am and 1pm Monday to Saturday. The Pumphouse Theatre, 2a Manurere Avenue, Takapuna, Auckland. Tickets $28-$32 + booking fees from timbray.org.nz or visit boosted.org.nz to donate to Gift a Seat.
This weekend is your last chance to see the stunning solo show, Manu Kōingo - Birds of Yearning, by contemporary portrait photographer Jae Frew at Parnell Gallery. Frew has spent a large portion of his career taking portraits of people, including heads of state, television personalities and sports stars. In this collection of portraits of Aotearoa’s extinct and endangered birds, he imbues his avian subjects with the same sense of esteem and reverence one would give a human. In his own words, “I want to elevate the bird to a higher status, to the status of ‘ancestor’.” Many of Frew’s subjects come from museum collections, including Te Papa, where he spent hours studying the birds before taking their portraits. The artworks have heavy native timber frames and darkened Victorian backgrounds and are truly a sight to behold.
April 20, 10am-4pm; April 21, 11am-4pm. Parnell Gallery, 263 Parnell Rd, Parnell, Auckland.
School may be out for a couple of weeks but kids can still get their learning on these holidays, not that you need to tell them that. Motat is a great place for some stealth learning and this week they continue with their Into The Lab holiday experience. It’s provided by Science Roadshow and has more than 45 interactive displays all about the body, energy and scientific discovery. There’s a live show every hour about physical and chemical changes and there’s the opportunity to employ your detective skills in identifying the faeces of various creatures with the “Whose Poos?” experiment. A brief tram ride away, at the Aviation Hall, there are microscopes and a digital lab with a virtual reality experience. On Sunday, it’s a Live Day where the Pumphouse and Forge will be in operation and you can learn about printing technologies and have a go at sun printing and 3D printing.
On now until April 28, 10am-4pm (Live Day April 21). Motat, 805 Great North Rd, Western Springs, Auckland. Entry $10-$19 from motat.nz or on the gate.
Sunday evening at the Auckland Town Hall is your chance to see highly dexterous fingers at work when Belgian pianist and composer Daniel Verstappen performs with violinist Beth Georgiou. The pair have taken their Reconnection World Tour through the EU, the US and most recently to the Sydney Opera House before gracing our shores this Sunday. The concert includes classical pieces such as The Hall of the Mountain King, Danse Macabre and Swan Lake, as well as Daniel’s original neoclassical compositions. Joining them on stage is Polynesian group the Musika Collective, directed by Samoan New Zealand composer Dr Matatamua Opeloge Ah Sam. It’s set to be a truly unique evening of classical music coupled with contemporary innovation and virtuosic performance.
April 21, 5pm. Auckland Town Hall, Queen St, Auckland CBD. Tickets $25-$69 + booking fee from aucklandlive.co.nz
If Kung Fu Panda 4 is on your kids’ school holiday activity wish list, whatever you do don’t tell them about the kung fu hero adventure they can go on at the Sky Tower unless you’re willing and able to take them. For the remainder of the holidays, kids visiting the Sky Tower can test their ninja skills with the Fruit Ninja game and, while they’re admiring the aerial view of Tāmaki Makaurau, complete the Kung Fu Panda-themed activities. On the ground floor, there’s a bamboo forest where they can participate in a Dragon Warrior training class (11am-2pm) and, on weekends only, there’s a roaming dragon warrior panda-in-training to spot. Skadoosh!
On now until April 28. Sky Tower, Federal St, Auckland CBD. Sky Tower admission starts at $18 from skycityauckland.co.nz Free parking available with your admission. Visit Skycity.co.nz/schoolholidays/ for more information.
This weekend anime and manga culture fans will be descending on The Cloud and Shed 10 for Overload. The two-day convention will host an impressive array of anime artists exhibiting and selling their creations along with a range of competitions, performances, art exhibitions, collectibles to purchase, a cosplay parade and more. Overload is as much about the visitors as it is about the exhibitors - it’s a place for the fandom to convene and connect with others who share their same interests and obsessions. And with so much cosplay on display, it’s just a great place for people-watching.
April 20-21, 10am-6pm. The Cloud & Shed 10, 89 Quay St, Auckland CBD. Tickets start at $13.50 + booking fees from eventfinda.co.nz
Classical music enthusiasts, don’t miss the opportunity to see the NZSO’s last performance in the national tour of their Testimony concert this Saturday. The evening’s programme features music from all corners of the globe: Lilburn’s Diversions for String Orchestra, Bruckner’s String Quintet, Adagio, Rautavaara’s Pelimannit, Tchaikovsky’s Andante cantabile, TH63 and Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony. The closing piece is an arrangement of Shostakovich’s Eighth String Quartet, written in response to the bombing of Dresden in 1945. If you get there nice and early, you can catch a pre-concert talk led by violinist Jessica Oddie, who will discuss “how music is a testimony of its time… ” and specifically how Shostakovic’s Chamber Symphony speaks to the era in which it was written. Resist the urge to laze away your Saturday night on the couch and get some last-minute tickets to the NZSO.
April 20, 7.30pm (pre-talk 6.45pm in the Supper Room). Auckland Town Hall, Queen St, Auckland CBD. Tickets start at $17 + booking fee from ticketmaster.co.nz
If you want to be inspired by a group of singing and dancing children then get tickets to see National Youth Theatre’s production of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Musical. The performers in next Friday’s production haven’t even met yet - the show will be cast, rehearsed and staged all within the five-day school holiday programme which starts on Monday. It’s a 60-minute version of the full-length original musical, which has only this year been made available for international licensing and this will be its New Zealand premiere. If you’ve got kids who’ve read or are even just vaguely familiar with the hugely popular Jeff Kinney book series, take them along to see the charming and funny story of Greg Heffley brought to life in song. You’ll be blown away by what can be achieved in just four days.
April 26, 2pm and 7pm. Dorothy Winstone Centre, Auckland Girls Grammar School, 16 Howe St, Freemans Bay, Auckland. Tickets start from $14.95 + booking fees from ticketmaster.co.nz
There’s a time and place for quietly humming, “I am woman, hear me roar” under your breath, and there’s a time and place for belting it out at the top of your lungs - the Wild Women’s Weekend in Whangamata is probably the latter. Celebrating their seventh event next month, the weekend is a chance for women to get together and participate in a wide range of activities from art, music and golf to cooking, kayaking and sexology. Possibly the most unique thing about the Wild Women’s Weekend is that it’s entirely self-guided: you book your own accommodation and book tickets for whichever events you’re interested in attending. Book yourself some me time or rally your girlfriends – a weekend in Whangamata could be just what the doctor ordered.
May 17-19. Whangamata. Visit wildwomensweekend.co.nz for more information and to book tickets.
Washington Post: Sweatpants? No. But elastic waistbands? Absolutely.