Silo Embrace Spirit Of Innovation And Reinvention For 2021 Season

After a year of surprises which forced the company to shut its doors and suspend their programme, Silo Theatre is looking forward and embracing a time of newfound opportunity with their innovative programme for 2021.

“The pandemic has rocked our industry significantly and this means that looking to the future, we have to be much more adaptive in the way we work while the ground is very much still moving under our feet. This means our year looks a little different to normal,” says Artistic Director, Sophie Roberts.

In full acknowledgment of a world that remains uncertain, Silo is creating a season where theatre feels more responsive, urgent and gravity-shifting than it has ever been. Building a programme in light of the pandemic, the offerings for 2021 are all capable of being presented at different lockdown levels, and therefore dates and venues will be confirmed closer to each show going live. The inventive line-up of theatrical offerings have been confirmed, all of which embrace the spirit of adaptability and imagination.

Following the critically acclaimed response to their Tāmaki Makaurau season, Silo will take Every Brilliant Thing on the road, touring to smaller communities in the regions of Aotearoa to bring this intimate and tender play to corners of the country that rarely see such celebrated work.

For Matariki, a brand-new Silo commission will explore entirely new terrain, an audio theatre experience in both te reo Māori and English. Weaving Māori mythology with astronomy, magic and science, this immersive encounter is one that people of all ages will be able to take part in from their very own backyard.

In collaboration with Live Live Cinema (Little Shops of Horrors, Carnival of Souls, Dementia 13), Silo will team up with the company on their most ambitious presentation yet, Night of the Living Dead. George Romero’s 1968 classic is projected in silence while chaos unfolds in the cinema, with live performers recreating the dialogue, the sound effects, and playing an original score by award-winning composer Leon Radojkovic.

And finally at the end of the year Silo will bring audiences together for Break Bread, another original commission created by four of Aotearoa’s most inventive theatre-makers - Alice Canton, Freya Finch, Leon Wadham and Jarod Rawiri, directed by Jason Te Kare. Irreverent, profound and comically twisted, Break Bread collides age-old and new-world rituals with electric new intimacy.

Joining the whānau for 2021, Silo welcomes Ahi Karunaharan as Associate Artistic Director. A celebrated champion of South Asian talent and stories on stage in Aotearoa, the 2020 Arts Foundation Laureate’s theatre career over the past 15 years is a testament to his significant skill and leadership. Ahi will step up to oversee the programme as Artistic Director Sophie Roberts takes 3 months leave while she undergoes major surgery.

Embracing the imaginative capacity of art to navigate through unimaginable times, Silo is taking the rare chance to reimagine the future, one with boundless potential. Stay tuned for further announcements - key dates, venues, and season tickets in February 2021.

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