Past Productions
Toi Whakaari produces a wide variety of theatre shows and films every year. This is where you'll find reviews, images and information about those shows.
Muntu
16, 17 & 18 October
The revered Kenyan artist, playwright and theatre director Wakanyote Njuguna has arrived in Wellington to direct a workshop production of the famous African play Muntu with a cast comprising a mix of African Kiwis and Toi Whakaari second year acting school students. MORE...
Toi Cabaret - The Musicals
Tue 13 – Sat 17 Oct
A sell-out every year, second year actors showcase an all-singing all-dancing spectacle of songs at Museum Hotel in chic cabaret costumes by first year costumiers. MORE...
Costume Showcase
Thu 17 Sept
See the spectacular costumes and accessories from our graduating costumiers in a theatrical showcase and exhibition. MORE...
Go Solo
Mon 20 Jul - Sat 1 Aug
Watch 19 original short works in the solo form, presented in 5 different groups showcasing the abilities, passions and curiosities of our third year actors. Directed by Sophie Roberts. MORE...
In Conversation with Josette Bushell-Mingo
Wed 29 Jul
Artistic Director and founder of PUSH, an organisation that develops Black British Theatre, Laurence Olivier award nominee and recent Director at RSC, Josette Bushell-Mingo will be talking about her work and life.
Manawa Pou
Thu 4 – Wed 10 Jun
Second year students collaborate on a site-specific work to explore what guardianship and history mean for them as young New Zealand practitioners. More...
2008
Unity (1918)
Thu 23 Oct - sat 1 Nov
This award-winning
epic explores what happens when a town faces a new enemy on the homefront more deadly and horrifyinh than any army. More...
Toi Cabaret
Tue 14 – Sat 18 October
A light and ‘swelligant’ evening of music from Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Irving Berlin. More...
Classic Cuts
Thu 9 - Sat 11 October
This studio showing of scenes from Shakespeare and his contemporaries is the first public performance for Toi Whakaari’s first year actors. More...
Blasted
Wed 1 - Sat 4 October
Cruelty and compassion strangely collide in Sarah Kane's profound and horrific first work. The first of Toi Whakaari's 2008 Graduation Season. More...
The Tempest
Fri 29 August - Sat 6 September
Elements of tragedy are combined with romantic comedy, in what is considered to be one of Shakespeare’s greatest and final works. The cast is directed by acclaimed Australian director John Bolton. More...
Macbeth
Sat 30 August – Sat 6 September
Blending the theatrical and supernatural, Shakespeare explores the darker side of human desire. Head of Acting Jonathon Hendry directs his first piece at Toi Whakaari with an all-female version of the ultimate Scottish play. More...
Go Solo 2008
21 July - 3 August
Twenty new New Zealand compositions by third year actors. As usual this year’s Solos are hugely varied, from one thousand props to a bare naked stage, physical stylised theatre to hip-hop, stand-up comedy to an epic cataclysm. More...
After Democracy
20 - 25 June 2008
A selection of punch-packing political one-act plays by some of Britain's most revered contemporary playwrights. We are shown a world that could be, might be or should be. More...
Pakiwaitara
8 - 12 April 2008
When Maori gather inside the ancestral house and speak, they draw living stories from the walls, giving meaning to their life today through this relationship with the past. This devised piece takes the audience on an intimate journey through the rooms of the Museum of Wellington. More...
Arcadia
19 - 27 Oct 2007
Tom Stoppard’s award winning play of star-crossed love and the second law of thermodynamics directed by Tim Spite. In Arcadia mathematics suffuses everyday things - a leaf, a population of birds, clouds - with grandeur and magic. More...
Angels in America: Part 1 Millenium Approaches
29 Sep - 6 Oct 2007
New York in the conservative mid 1980s; a rollercoaster collision course for a former drag queen diagnosed with AIDS, his arm chair philosopher lover, a Valium addicted housewife, her gay Mormon husband an
d a heavenly host of Angels. More...
Toi Cabaret
9-14 Oct 2007
A light and delicious evening of fun where second year actors showcase an all singing all dancing spectacle of songs directed by Steven Ray and costumed by second year costumiers. Great entertainment that is punchy with panache! More...
Classic Cuts 2007
18-20 Oct 2007
This studio showing of scenes from Shakespeare is the first performance for Toi Whakaari’s first year actors. The snippets are sourced from the best of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama and are directed by professional directors. More...
Twelfth Night
22 Aug - 1 Sep
Twelfth Night or What You Will, Shakespeare’s classic comedy of mistaken identity, shipwreck, unrequited love and cross-gartered stockings with a dark underbelly of revenge will be performed in August by a cast of second year actors supported by design, tehnical, management and costume students. More...
Go Solo
6 - 19 Aug 2007
This year Go Solo has twenty two new New Zealand compositions by third year actors from Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School. As usual this year’s Solos are hugely varied, but overall they tend toward the macabre, surreal and outrageously funny. More...
A History of the American Film
15 - 23 June 2007
A History of the American Film follows the stories of 5 archetypal Hollywood characters (Loretta the good girl, Jimmy the tough guy, Bette the tough gal, Hank the good guy, and Eve the wisecracking friend) as their lives crash through American history and Hollywood films, always searching for the Holly(wood) Grail of mythical perfection. More...
Betty's Summer Vacation
14 - 22 June 2007
Stick a sex addict, an abusive mother, a blonde bimbo, an all-American sweetheart and a lonely guy who just might be a serial killer into a house together and it’s not always Big Brother. This is Betty’s Summer Vacation – a red hot parody of our addiction to reality television. More...
White Lie
27 Mar - 1 Apr 2007
White Lie is physical dance theatre devised and performed by second year acting students at Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School with assistance from performance design, entertainment technology, and performing arts management students. White Lie is choreographed and directed by freelance dancer, choreographer, and tutor Megan Adams. More...
Peer Gynt
Ibsen’s Peer Gynt is a vast, sprawling absurdist epic about an amoral everyman directed by John Bolton (one of Australasia’s most respected theatre practitioners) as Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School’s 2006 graduation production. More...
Classic Cuts 2006
This studio showing of scenes from Shakespeare and his contemporaries is the first performance for Toi Whakaari’s first year actors. More...
Toi Cabaret
The hugely successful Toi Cabaret returns this year full of androgynous raunchy fun, bringing the decadent traditions of the Weimar Republic to life in a Wellington nightclub. More...
Go Solo
28 - 26 August 2006
Go Solo is sixteen new New Zealand compositions by third year actors and fourth year designers at Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School. The monologues have been revisioned this year to keep them fresh and contemporary. The directors are Jade Eriksen and Christian Penny. More...
Henry 6
8 - 12 August 2006
50 years of treason, murder, conspiracy and war dark and bloody are the focus of Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy of plays. Director David O’Donnell has edited the life and death struggles of the aristocrats in the brutal Wars of the Roses into a three hour domestic epic. More...
Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America
6 - 10 June 2006
Steven Sewell’s controversial new indictment of US policy and culture is directed by Vanessa Byrnes. When all is passion, politics or paranoia – who should we believe?
More...
The Laramie Project
6 - 10 June 2006
Miranda Harcourt directs Moises Kaufman’s play chronicling the life of the town of Laramie in the year after the hate-crime murder of Matthew Shephard, a young gay man. More...
Chance
3 - 5 April 2006
Toi Whakaari third year design and second year acting students worked together to create five experimental site-specific improvised performances. Each was an exploration of unpredictability. More...
Jack Manning
28 October - 5 November 2005
A sacked employee deliberately back-ends his boss's Mercedes, an ambitious autocrat bullies her subordinates - but is it really that simple? From back room to boardroom, rich in humour, insight and irony, these two short plays take you to the coalface of contemporary conflict resolution. More...
