SPIRIT HOUSE – A Ghost Story

IAN MUNE STEPS INTO THE SPOTLIGHT TO WORK WITH AWARD-WINNING NZ THEATRE MAKERS!

Nightsong Productions and Theatre Stampede with Auckland Live present:
SPIRIT HOUSE – A Ghost Story
Written by Carl Bland. Directed by Ben Crowder and Carl Bland

Iconic NZ actor and screen legend Ian Mune returns to the stage to star in one of the most anticipated theatrical events of the summer. From award-winning theatre makers Carl Bland and Ben Crowder comes the premiere of SPIRIT HOUSE playing at the Herald Theatre from 16 February – 5 March.

Two artists occupy the same studio in Nong Khai: one in 1932, the other in 2017. Yet both are visited by the same woman. Who is she? What does she want? And how can she exist in two times at once? Both men will be forced to come to terms with what they have been trying oh-so-hard to forget.

Although a regular on stage and screen it’s been 17 years since Mune has taken on the leading role in such an intimate yet epic NZ story. Alongside the mighty Mune, in this haunting and startling theatrical event are acting heavyweights Mia Blake (The Book of Everything, Angels in America), Tim Carlsen (One Day Moko, Dirty Laundry) and a giant 6-foot cat called Claude.

SPIRIT HOUSE takes audiences on a journey to Thailand where ghosts are a normal part of life. Most homes have a Spirit House in the garden where past inhabitants of the land are given a daily gift of food and drink. It is in this world that this thrilling new take on a ghost story takes place. Backed by the company’s trademark visual storytelling, expect bodies to emerge from water, cobras to haunt their victims, housecats to attack. SPIRIT HOUSE will be vivid, wild, entertaining, dramatic, beautiful, funny, provocative and will see this visionary company yet again attempt to stage the impossible.

Writer and director Carl Bland along with collaborator and director Ben Crowder have been working together on some remarkable work over the last decade. Their March 2016 NZ Festival and the sell-out Auckland Arts Festival Season of Te Pō (based on the work and life of Bruce Mason) received outstanding reviews and had audiences spellbound.

“…I want to rack up as many reasons as possible why you should see this show, because it’s a masterpiece.” – METRO MAGAZINE

Prior to this presentation, alongside the late Peta Rutter, the pair delivered an extraordinary experience with the much-lauded 360: a theatre of recollections. Completely sold out in Auckland and Wellington, this outstanding production enclosed the audience inside a proverbial bullring as action including pyrotechnics and giant puppets unfolded around them. It was for this work and their first production of Head in 2005 that earned the collaborators a Chapman Tripp Award, Auckland Theatre Excellence Award and the Hackman Cup People’s Choice Award for Most Original Production.

“…When you hear gasps of astonishment around you in a theatre, then realise one of them was your own, you know that what you are seeing is something remarkable.” – CAPITAL TIMES

SPIRIT HOUSE plays:
Herald Theatre Thursday 16 February – Sunday 5 March
Thursdays – Saturdays at 8pm. Tuesday and Wednesday at 7pm. Sundays at 4pm.
Book at www.ticketmaster.co.nz

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