Silo Theatre 2019: Four blasts of electric intimacy

Silo Theatre offers a large-hearted way of seeing the world in 2019. Artistic Director Sophie Roberts announces a season of profound personal encounters, designed especially to bring you closer to the person sitting next to you. Never known for quiet introspection, expect growling dogs, howling wolves, big grown-up feelings, raging teenage hormones, wild karaoke and massive dance numbers on a Bollywood film set. Four blasts of electric intimacy.

Silo kicks off the year with an electrifying cast of six formidable Pasifka actors in Tusiata Avia’s fearlessly poetic WILD DOGS UNDER MY SKIRT. Joining forces with Auckland Arts Festival and Victor Rodger’s F.C.C, award-winning director Anapela Polata’ivao (The Factory) brings this NZ-Pacific classic to brutal, funny, sexy and loving life. Nominated for four 2018 Wellington Theatre Awards including Production of the Year, Wild Dogs holds ground on the unending colonial earthquake that is the intersection of Fa’a Samoa and Niu Sila. These women stand fiercely in their culture, reshaping dominant understandings of “New Zealand” culture, riffing on steaming pig, McDonald’s value meals, ruthless aunties, Jesus and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.

“…moved me to tears of laughter and tears of sadness and even tears of fury…”
RADIO NEW ZEALAND

It’s gonna be game on when Artistic Director Sophie Roberts directs Sarah DeLappe’s barnstorming, Pulitzer Prize nominated debut THE WOLVES at Q Theatre’s Loft in June. This mega-wattage international mega-hit sees nine teenage girls go into battle on (and off) and on the soccer pitch. High achievers and burnouts, insiders and outsiders, best friends and vicious bullies – their lives are articulated through the rigorous training and warm-ups that take place live on stage.

Sarah DeLappe has created an energised, intimate expression of the identity formation and loss of innocence that underpins many young women’s lives. Talking of the inspiration behind this exhilarating new play, she says: “I wanted to see a portrait of teenage girls as human beings -- as complicated, nuanced, very idiosyncratic people who weren’t just girlfriends or sex objects or manic pixie dream girls but who were athletes and daughters and students and scholars and people who were trying actively to figure out who they were in this changing world around them.”

For the first time in Silo’s history, the company will cast a powerhouse ensemble of teenage performers.

“The scary, exhilarating brightness of raw adolescence emanates from every scene.”
NEW YORK TIMES

The breakout hit of 2014, THE BLIND DATE PROJECT returns for a new year and a new you. This improvised theatrical experiment takes on love, fear and some really questionable karaoke. Natalie Medlock will reprise her star turn as Anna, back on the market and looking for love in all the wrong places. Each night, she’ll meet a new blind date, each one played by a different performer and directed live by mobile phone. Created by Sydney’s Ride On Theatre, it’s been performed around the world with guest actors such as Margot Robbie, Laverne Cox and Jason Alexander. Silo’s 2014 edition saw Medlock hookup with Taika Waititi, Chris Parker, Antonia Prebble, Jarod Rawiri and Madeleine Sami. Silo promises a brand-new lineup of fresh and fearless talent.

“…Fizzing with nervous energy, unseen dangers and the faint hope of finding fulfillment of our deepest yearnings.”
NZ HERALD

Visionary theatre-maker Ahi Karunaharan (Tea) transports us to the City of Dreams, Bombay in the 1970s with the immersive extravaganza, MY HEART GOES THADAK THADAK. When legendary Bollywood director Rakesh Ramsay dies in the middle of shooting his epic desi western, Dust of the Delhi Plains, it really is a disaster of Bollywood proportions. It’s then up to his two children Roshan and Kamala to bring their father’s dying dream to the big screen. Cue a film crew in crisis, magnificent landscapes, gunfights on horseback, and grand song-and-dance numbers.

A world premiere production commissioned by Silo, 2018 Bruce Mason Award winner Karunaharan’s full range of talent is let loose on the Q Theatre, Rangatira stage for this fantastical summer treat.

…The writing is only bettered by Karunaharan’s direction: seamless, heartfelt and unerringly true.
NZ HERALD

SILO THEATRE 2019
Season Tickets on sale from 3pm, 3 December
For more information and bookings, visit silotheatre.co.nz

WILD DOGS UNDER MY SKIRT: Tusiata Avia
A Co-Production with Auckland Arts Festival and F.C.C.
MARCH 5-11, Q Theatre Rangatira

THE WOLVES: Sarah DeLappe
JUNE 20 – JULY 13, Q Theatre Loft

THE BLIND DATE PROJECT: Bojana Novakovic & Mark Winter with Thomas Henning & Tanya Goldberg
AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 21, Q Theatre Loft

MY HEART GOES THADAK THADAK: Ahi Karunaharan
NOVEMBER 21 – DECEMBER 14, Q Theatre Rangatira
A Silo Theatre Commission
Presented in collaboration with Q Theatre

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