As Adesola Osakalumi speaks, the native of The Bronx, New York, slips between his own accent and that of Nigerian activist and musical legend Fela Kuti.

Entertaining a discerning audience of 2- to 4-year-olds is a never-ending challenge for British theatre artist Andy Manley.

With two cooks, 12 drummers and no words The Kitchen is more than just a play - it's a metaphor for life.

Te Uru is an attractive venue for music, especially in the more informal space of the gallery's workshop, with the ambience of Titirangi greenery outside the windows.

Two cooks, high drama and hypnotic rhythms - yet this illustrated drumming show from South India is emphatically not some relaxed mix of My Kitchen Rules and Stomp!.

Notable Kiwis share their favourite and ‘brave’ picks — shows that will challenge their perceptions — from the Auckland Arts Festival.

Chicago-based hip-hop crew the Q Brothers bring plenty of verve to their remix of Shakespeare's cross-cultural tragedy Othello.

The It company from New York City boasts 14 of the best dancers that the money of its founder and funder Wal-Mart heiress, Nancy Laurie, can buy and what those 14 fabulously honed and interestingly diverse beings can do is certainly superb.

Since this is the first time New York dance company Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet has come to New Zealand, members can be forgiven for not being sunsmart.

Forget bleak Scottish moors, foreboding castles and cackling crones; Brett Bailey’s Macbeth, one of the Auckland Arts Festival’s topline imports, immerses us in the volatile brutalities of African politics.

An Auckland Arts Festival show doesn't just blow things up, blow things over, and blow people's minds, it proves that science isn't just for boys.

Congolese refugees, gun-toting warlords, multinational double-dealing and glittering Chinese imports are not things one would immediately associate with the opera.

Mirrored towers make up the art installation Field, by Angus Muir and Alexandra Heaney, on display in Wynyard Quarter this month as part of the Auckland Arts Festival.

Activism through art specialist Lemi Ponifasio and Mau take Colin McCahon's iconic painting as a huge and architectural backdrop to their spellbinding tribute to the fallen of World War I - and take....

House of Dreams was an ambitious time trip courtesy of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, transporting us through the homes of 17th and 18th-century music and art-lovers.

If you know anyone who thinks the arts festival isn't for blokes take them to see BLAM! - a 75-minute blast of testosterone-driven mayhem with amped-up, gaming style SFX and a heavy-metal soundtrack.

"It's going to be a family reunion mixed with work." Since his sister moved to the North Shore in 1999, David Shrigley has been a frequent visitor to New Zealand.

Groupe F's Skin of Fire at the Auckland Domain went off with a bang as fireworks boomed and the museum came to life as the backdrop for the spectacular sound and light display. For the show, part of the Auckland Arts Festival, Kiwi performers were suited head to toe in LED lights, and acrobats hung from the side of the museum, while a crowd of thousands watched on.

Elisabeth Easther takes a look at the Auckland Arts Festival’s crowd-pleasers and finds plenty to both amuse and delight.

Good humour softens collision of settler cultures, writes Paul Simei-Barton

It’s still spectacular stuff but doesn’t quite measure up to the group’s previous show, Janet McAllister writes.