Bard Productions

Last updated
Bard Productions
Formation 2007 (2007)
Type Theatre group
Purpose Site-specific and 'adventure theatre'
Location
  • Wellington, New Zealand
Notable members
 Frogs Under the Waterfront, Quarantine, A Tempest off Matiu-Somes Island

Bard Productions, based in Wellington, New Zealand, is a theatre company best known for offering site-specific and 'adventure theatre.' [1] The company has been in operation since 2007.

Wellington Capital city in New Zealand

Wellington is the capital city and second most populous urban area of New Zealand, with 418,500 residents. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the major population centre of the southern North Island, and is the administrative centre of the Wellington Region, which also includes the Kapiti Coast and Wairarapa. Its latitude is 41°17′S, making it the world's southernmost capital of a sovereign state. Wellington features a temperate maritime climate, and is the world's windiest city by average wind speed.

Contents

Performances

Frogs Under the Waterfront, an adaptation of Aristophanes' The Frogs, was the company's first successful site-specific production. The performance took place underneath the Wellington waterfront, with the audience in paddle boats. The company won a number of awards for the production and attracted significant local and national media attention. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Aristophanes ancient Athenian comic playwright

Aristophanes, son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete. These provide the most valuable examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are used to define it, along with fragments from dozens of lost plays by Aristophanes and his contemporaries.

Two years later the company produced Quarantine, a show about the human quarantine patients who lived and died on Matiu-Somes Island in the Wellington harbour. The audience was taken to the island at night in a chartered ferry, and the performance itself took place in the forests of the island and in an historical quarantine building. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

In 2013 A Tempest off Matiu-Somes Island, an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest held in a chartered ferry which took audience members to the island and in a large animal quarantine station abandoned in the 1980s. [12] [13]

<i>The Tempest</i> play by William Shakespeare

The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that Shakespeare wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, the rest of the story is set on a remote island, where the sorcerer Prospero, a complex and contradictory character, lives with his daughter Miranda, and his two servants — Caliban, a savage monster figure, and Ariel, an airy spirit. The play contains music and songs that evoke the spirit of enchantment on the island. It explores many themes including magic, betrayal, revenge, and family. In act four, a wedding masque serves as a play-within-the play, and contributes spectacle, allegory, and elevated language. Though The Tempest is listed in the First Folio as the first of Shakespeare’s comedies, it deals with both tragic and comic themes, and modern criticism has created a category of romance for this and others of Shakespeare’s late plays. The Tempest has been subjected to varied interpretations—from those that see it as a fable of art and creation, with Prospero representing Shakespeare, and Prospero’s renunciation of magic signaling Shakespeare's farewell to the stage, to interpretations that consider it an allegory of European man colonizing foreign lands.

In 2014 the company mounted a return season of "A Tempest off Matiu-Somes Island". It was made public in January 2014 that the company had joined with the New Zealand Department of Conservation and the Kaitiaki Board to secure a 10-year concession to stage theatrical events and performances on Matiu-Somes Island during the summer months. [14] [15]

Department of Conservation (New Zealand) New Zealand government agency

The Department of Conservation (DOC) is the public service department of New Zealand charged with the conservation of New Zealand's natural and historical heritage.

Other Projects

In mid-2013 the company expanded to Melbourne, Australia and opened up the corporate teambuilding and murder mystery branch of the company, CluedUp Unique Events. [16] [17]

Related Research Articles

Wellington Region Region of New Zealand in North Island

The Wellington Region is a local government region of New Zealand that occupies the southern end of the North Island. The region covers an area of 8,049 square kilometres (3,108 sq mi), and is home to a population of 521,500.

<i>The Dominion Post</i> (Wellington) newspaper

The Dominion Post is a metropolitan morning newspaper published in Wellington, New Zealand, owned by the Australian Fairfax group, publishers of The Age, Melbourne, and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Otago Harbour The natural harbour of Dunedin, New Zealand

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Wellington Harbour Harbour in New Zealand

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Matiu / Somes Island island in New Zealand

Matiu/Somes Island, at 24.9 ha, is the largest of three islands in the northern half of Wellington Harbour, New Zealand. It lies 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south of the suburb of Petone and the mouth of the Hutt River, and about 5 kilometres (3 mi) northwest of the much smaller Makaro/Ward Island.

Te Whanganui-a-Tara is the Māori name for Wellington Harbour. The term is also sometimes used to refer to the city of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, which lies on the shores of the harbour. "Te Whanganui-a-Tara" translates as "the great harbour of Tara", which refers to the rangatira Tara, who Māori tradition says visited the area in the 12th century and decided to stay.

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References

  1. ↑ Powell, Selina (18 January 2013). "Storm Brews over Harbour Island". The Wellingtonian. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  2. ↑ "Conchords Ignite Fringe Hall of Fame; awards named". Wellington Scoop. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  3. ↑ "Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards 2009". Chapman Tripp. Archived from the original on 2 May 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  4. ↑ "Frogs Under the Waterfront TV3". TV3 New Zealand via YouTube. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  5. ↑ Somerset, Guy. "What Lies Beneath". The Listener. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  6. ↑ "The World Under the Waterfront". The Wellingtonian. 21 January 2009. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  7. ↑ "Quarantine TV3". TV3 News New Zealand. 2010. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  8. ↑ Thomson, Rebecca (3 February 2011). "Quarantined on Matiu/Somes Island". The Wellingtonian. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  9. ↑ Duff, Michelle (3 February 2011). "Quarantined on Somes Island". Dominion Post. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  10. ↑ Chug, Kiran (5 January 2011). "Fringe Show to Quarantine its Audience". Dominion Post. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  11. ↑ BHONSULE, PRIYANKA (8 February 2011). "Ranger Roped in on Matiu-Somes Island Drama". The Hutt News. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  12. ↑ Kingston-Smith, Jonathan. "A Tempest off Matiu-Somes Island". blogspot. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  13. ↑ Powell, Selina (18 January 2013). "A Storm Brews off Harbour Island". The Wellingtonian. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  14. ↑ Jackman, Amy (9 January 2014). "Somes Island confirmed for 10-year theatre deal". The Wellingtonian. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  15. ↑ McKee, Hannah (20 January 2014). "Audience to become shipwrecked on island". The Dominion Post. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  16. ↑ "CluedUp Unique Events". CluedUp Australia. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  17. ↑ "Bard Productions Blog". Bard Productions. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
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