Silly Season 2026
Pop the bubbles, dust off the tinsel and tell your boss you've got a thing on – Basement's Silly Season is back for its third year!
Nine shows across five nights, Tuesday 8 to Saturday 12 December. One week where Greys Ave becomes the best end-of-year do in Tāmaki Makaurau, no Secret Santa required. Basey regulars and brand new faces are bringing their festive best to both stages, and the line-up is stacked.
Leading the season is A Master of None: Brown Fala from Lila Crichton and The Woven Collective, our Pacific Collective in Residence. Told through the eyes of a small child, with animation, shadow play, song, and dance, it's a love letter to Pasifika women, queer whānau, our youth, and our indigenous families around the world – an invitation to lay down the mat, gather, and talk about the things families too often keep quiet. The Woven Collective are also curating our opening night party, so you can kick off the week right!
Under the tree this Silly Season:
🌺 A love letter to Pasifika women, queer whānau and our youth
🐂 A completely made-up Christmas musical from the Bull Rush herd
🎬 One of your fave Christmas flicks, performed entirely from memory
🏳️🌈 Tāmaki's best queer poets on all their silly season feelings
🍽️ A Yuletide dinner party with Bailey Poching and his funniest friends
🥊 Four writers, two musicians, 48 hours and one whānau Christmas lunch
🐟 A fully improvised family drama, with at least one scream about fish
🎲 Forty characters and a single D20 die
🎤 Courtney and Janaye, back to tell you everything about their year
Fish and family secrets, carols and comedy, and a love letter on the mat – that's Silly Season at Basey.
Tickets on sale now. Grab your mates, grab your aunties, grab whoever's still at their desk on the 12th – we'll save you a seat xx
BASEMENT THEATRE SILLY SEASON 2026 – 8-12 DECEMBER
Pacific Collective in ResidenceA Master of None: Brown Fala
8-12 December
A multi-layered love letter to Pasifika women, queer people, our youth, and our indigenous families around the world. Created by Lila Crichton, presented by The Woven Collective.
I'll Be Homo For Christmas
9 December
A line-up of Tāmaki's best queer poets share all of their feelings about the silly season.
Live Reel does Christmas
9 December
Some of Auckland's most crack-up comedians perform one of your fave Christmas flicks... all from memory.
'Twas The Night Before Bull Rush: The Musical
9 & 11 December
Whether you've been naughty or nice, there's a guaranteed gift waiting for you in this totally made-up, improvised Christmas show.
Now That's What I Call Improv Vol. 20
11 December
Bridie Thomson and Tyler Wilson-Kokiri bring 20 original characters each, and let a D20 die decide what happens.
Backyard Scraps
10 December
Stepping into the whānau Christmas lunch can feel like stepping into the ring. Four writers and two musicians have just 48 hours to build a show from scratch.
Family Drama: A Comedy
10 & 12 December
A fully improvised parody of those big, bruising family plays where the eldest daughter returns home and old wounds reopen over dinner.
A Very Courtney & Janaye Christmas 2.0
11-12 December
Courtney Dawson and Janaye Henry finish 2026 the only way they know how – a brand new stand-up show about it all.
Orphan's Christmas
12 December
Bailey Poching hosts his funniest friends for a Yuletide dinner party, and you're invited.
