BRINGING JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF DRAMA TO AUCKLANDERS
This Spring at Basement, we’re all about promoting our flexible options to our audiences. We’ve got two venues chocka full of new work from the best talent in town. Whether you’re an early bird or a night owl, a bar fly or a flying-by, we’ve got a live theatre option that suits.
Basement shows are usually just a little longer than an hour, and always under $25. Our 6.30pm Studio shows mean punters can get their culture fix and still be in their pjs with a hot choccy by eight o’clock if that’s their bag. Our 8pm Theatre shows are perfect timing to grab a bite to eat first on date night! Truly hardcore fans can do the double whammy of two shows in a night, with a bevvy at Basement Bar nicely sandwiched between the two. Whatever your culture consumption requirements are, we can accommodate.
This Spring, we are stoked to be celebrating award-winning women, with Comedy Festival winners Rose Matafeo and Angella Dravid. Johanna Cosgrove brings a more developed Aunty back to life – her Basement Performance Salon show took away the best comedy award at the Auckland Fringe earlier this year. Maggot won the touring award at the New Zealand Fringe in Wellington, and after their season in our Spring programme, they have their sights on Adelaide Fringe Festival!
Unusual for Basement, we also have quite an international line up this Spring, with The Mountaintop – a NZ production of an American script that explores Martin Luther King’s last night alive. Miss Frisky from the UK is developing a songtastic new cabaret karaoke idea, and we have award-winning African playwright Stanley Makuwe bringing Finding Temeraire to Basement. Ella Gilbert developed the sharp and hilarious Soft Tissue while in Tehran, Iran in 2016.
This year began in a flurry of festivals, and we feel like we’ve just recovered enough to include a couple of mini festivals in this Spring programme. We’re stoked to be joining Auckland Live’s Cabaret Festival once again, with Miss Frisky’s Karaoke Experience, O A’u, and Super Hugh-man, and we’re kicking off the Spring with a return season of the Comedy Festival, it’s always good to start off with a laugh!
We are exploring gender identity and culture with Reka and Neon Bootleg. The latter is presented by FAFSWAG – Basement’s company-in-residence for 2017. We’re proud to support these artists who are creating such urgent work across many platforms in Auckland right now.
We’re always hell-bent on supporting emerging talent at Basement, with development programmes for artists running behind the scenes all the time. This Spring, we have three shows that are truly emerging, from artists fresh out of (or almost) drama school. Feagaiga (a Basement and Beyond show –performed at an external venue), and Meet the Fakas are both from current PIPA final year students, while Earthquakes in London is brought to us by The Actors’ Program, working alongside Last Tapes Theatre Company.
The Basement is always proud to showcase world premieres, often directly related to, or a result of, our development programmes – we love to help the magic happen! This Spring, 2am Phone Call is a blend of movement and poetic text, Four Leaps // One Point sees brand new dancers challenged by the same theme, and The Wintereisse Project is bringing together cabaret and opera in a contemporary context that is sure to be unlike anything you’ve seen before.
At Basement this Spring Season, everyone is guaranteed to get just the right of drama in their life!
