Kia ora from Basement Theatre - everyone’s favourite cheeky lil venue floating along Te Waihorotiu. Spring has sprung yet again at Basement, but this year with a new do… FRINGE!
Fringe has moved house and now resides in September and we couldn’t be happier. It’s one of our favourite times of year and we are dedicating the first three weeks of Spring to it.
“Something that hasn’t changed is our annual Fringe provocation - a Fringe treasure since 2017, designed to stir up the creative juices of our artist community. Over the years, our artists have created performance salons, 1:1 works built for just one audience member at a time, politically charged manifestos, and a suite of four hour-long durational performances for audiences to come and go from. Last year we started thinking originality is so early 2000s. We live in a world where every story has already supposedly been told, so what does it mean to subvert that?” - Nisha Madhan, Programmer
Our provocation for 2022 is Adaptation, or Tell it How You See it. Our four Adaptation shows, two play readings (Saturday Scratches) and one weekly improv night reinvent the classics and offer new spins on something in the zeitgeist. Our Adaptation programme artists are taking back appropriation - reclaiming the narratives that dominant storytelling models have thrust upon them - and they are thrusting back!
THE FRINGE ADAPTATION PROVOCATIONS
RAW! ASMR 30 Aug - 3 Sep, adapting those oddly mesmerising ASMR YouTube videos
Em - Saturday Scratches 3 Sep, Sam Brooks’ take on Jane Austen’s classic Emma
Bull Rush 1822 1, 8 & 15 Sep, Bridgerton + Improv = Lady Whistledown wetting herself with laughter
Rich people cry too and other things I learnt from Telenovelas 6 - 10 Sep, a coming-age-story all in the world of the most drop-dead dramatic Latin American telenovela
HAR - Saturday Scratches 10 Sep, Shelby Kua’s exploration of a young Malaysian Chinese woman living in Auckland through the looking glass of Alice and Wonderland
Kill Puppet Bill 13 - 17 Sep, It’s Kill Bill - but with puppets!
Kill Puppet Bill and RAW! ASMR
We have even more Fringey goodness happening throughout the three weeks with another five shows in the lineup - there truly is something for everyone.
MORE FRINGE
The Trojan War 23 Aug - 3 Sep, those wild Slightly Isolated Dogs (Don Juan, Jekyll & Hyde) are back to tell you the tale of The Trojan War.
How inconvenient. 30 Aug - 3 Sep, experience inconvenience for an hour and be given the perspective of how some live their whole lives. Brought to you by a fiery South Auckland collective of dancers.
Vivid Dreaming 6 -10 Sep, emerging contemporary dance company Jawline Dance Collective bring you Puffy Sob and Others, a double bill of bold imagery and languid limbs.
Gay Death Stocktake 6 - 10 Sep, No rehearsal, no director, just 30 tasks waiting on stage. Brought to you by Nathan Joe and Dan Goodwin, featuring a revolving cast of Queer icons of the arts scene in Tāmaki Makaurau.
Skin Hunger 13 - 17 Sep, the true story of actress Tatiana Hotere’s journey through Grief, God and ‘Gasms
Shoes Off (at the door) 13 - 17 Sep, unbelievably the first time there has been a comedy lineup show with all wahine Māori comics, brought together by Janaye Henry, Kura Turuwhenua and Courtney Dawson.
Skin Hunger, Vivid Dreaming, Gay Death Stocktake, The Trojan War
In the rest of our Spring season, we see the seeds of our co-productions finally sprouting, arts communities of Tāmaki Makaurau putting down their roots, fresh new writing and some of our faves returning.
Po’ Boys & Oysters 27 Sep - 8 Oct, co-producers and Company in Residence Black Creatives Aotearoa present their premiere production, a fast paced queer comedy drama written by Estelle Chout and directed by Dione Joseph.
Koanga Festival 27 Sep - 8 Oct, Te Pou Theatre’s festival of new Māori storytelling, over two weeks, six new plays will be shared in person and online seet in our cosy Studio space.
I’m Happy You’re Here 11 - 15 Oct, Brendon Green’s new comedy show for people who didn’t realise they feel things, finding out that it's okay to talk about it.
I Get So Emotional Baby 11 - 22 Oct, a Basement co-production with choreographer Jessie McCall (Daybreak Estate, Inflated Rebel) mixing playful pop-culture with unruly female emotion. Horror is a woman who knows.
Erotica by the Fire 18 - 22 Oct, get ready to feel sexy and haunted created by Shoshana McCallum with Donna Brookbanks and Andrew Munro
The Wedding 25 - 29 Oct, save the date, send in your rsvp, and dryclean your Sunday best; for this upcoming gothic-horror-comedy piece of physical theatre
Another Universe 25 - 29 Oct, fresh from Edinburgh Fringe festival, Another Universe explores ideas of choice and chance through spoken word by Nadia Freeman, aka Miss Leading
Soft Carnage 8 - 12 Nov, Celebrity Treasure Islander Brynley Stent deals with emotional stuff through the tried-and-true medium of "making jokes"
Literally Obsessed 8 - 12 Nov, Aotearoa’s “more is more” babe Janaye Henry graces us with her fast paced style of comedy for a second time in our Spring season
Two Metres Apart 15 - 19 Nov, the rom-com we all need in these strange-and-uncertain-times, created by Muintir.
Literally Obsessed, Erotica by the Fire, Another Universe, I'm Happy You're Here, The Wedding, Soft Carnage, Ngā Tohu o Te Taiao in Kōanga Festival
We hope to see you at our place dear audience, to exercise your expertise at supporting your local, independent arts scene!
