Jo Randerson Won’t Be Put In A Box

Silo Theatre in collaboration with Barbarian Productions presents
SPEED IS EMOTIONAL
 
Take a trip into the audacious inner life of Jo Randerson ONZM (they/them) for Silo Theatre’s first 2025 production. SPEED IS EMOTIONAL - part theatre, part comedy, part music, all explosion - hits Q Theatre Loft, 16 April – 3 May.

Jo Randerson has been shaking up the arts scene since the ‘90s - comedian, playwright, director, activist, filmmaker, and absolute force of nature. Accolades? A shelf load of them - Billy T nominee, Robert Burns Fellow, Bruce Mason Award, The Topp Prize, NZIFF Patrons Award. Founder of Barbarian Productions - pushing boundaries, smashing hierarchies and running an artist hub out of an old bowling club. Jo is punk as hell.

SPEED IS EMOTIONAL is an autobiographical, full-throttle dive into being Jo Randerson - ADHD + art + life + parenting + gender + menopause + music + rage + joy + exhaustion. Their brain is a supercharged pinball machine, bouncing between ideas, jokes, memories, existential crises, and the next thing - always the next thing.

Jo got their official ADHD diagnosis in their 40s, after their son Casper was diagnosed. It all made sense:

- The hyperfocus (great for making art, terrible for remembering to eat).
- The hypervigilance (great for directing, exhausting for life).
- The masking (which, hilariously, became their career).
- The dogged velocity.
- The need for movement.
- The feeling of being TOO MUCH - too loud, too fast, too intense, too emotional, too dominant, too stroppy, too witchy, too big.

Their whole life, people have asked if they were high. No, this is just how Jo is wired. Or maybe the world just isn’t built for people running on this frequency? In SPEED IS EMOTIONAL, Jo shares how they view, navigate, survive and thrive in a world that isn’t built for them - and maybe, wasn’t built for any of us.

Accompanying Jo on stage this April is musician Elliot Vaughan, with Bekky Boyce (A Slow Burlesque), Steven Junil Park (Scenes from a Yellow Peril) and Kae Ashworth rounding out the design team behind the scenes. And, harnessing this ferocious artistic energy is Aotearoa director Isobel MacKinnon (Soft N Hard, My Best Dead Friend), now based in Amsterdam and returning to direct this very special production.

This is a rare opportunity for Tāmaki audiences to experience the work of award-winning Pōneke-based company Barbarian Productions, in their first Auckland outing since 2021’s Cook Thinks Again – which took home the Unf*ck the World Award at Auckland Fringe.

Silo Theatre is thrilled to be collaborating with one of New Zealand’s most lauded artists to present this truly refreshing answer to an age-old question - how do you live a good life?

SPEED IS EMOTIONAL wants people to know that there’s no right speed, no wrong speed, just different beats. No one is too much. No one is not enough. You just are. Jo sees you.
 
Bookings & Info
Season: 16 April – 3 May
Venue: Q Theatre Loft, Auckland
Book at www.qtheatre.co.nz
Presented by: Silo Theatre in collaboration with Barbarian Productions, with support from NZ Comedy Trust

Creative Team
Creation & Performance: Jo Randerson
Musical Performance: Elliot Vaughan
Direction: Isobel MacKinnon
Design: Bekky Boyce, Steven Junil Park , Elliot Vaughan, Kae Ashworth
 

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