This March, Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki | Auckland Arts Festival will deliver 18 days of unforgettable events and performances. Check out our top picks below and find the full programme here.
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SIX the Musical | 27 FEB - 20 MAR, 2025
SIX tells the extraordinary story of the six wives of King Henry VIII who step out of the shadow of their infamous husband and reclaim their own narratives. This modern pop-inspired musical brings these historical figures to life, portraying them as fierce and influential pop stars in their own right. Audiences are taken on a journey through the lives of Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Catherine Parr, each telling their own story and reclaiming their own narrative. The Tony Award-winning electrifying musical is set to captivate New Zealand audiences with its innovative and empowering take on history.
A Streetcar Named Desire | 20 - 23 MAR, 2025
Regularly described as ‘narrative ballet at its very best’, this production of Tennessee Williams' iconic story uses stunning dance, devastating drama, pitch-perfect period design and a sizzling score to tell this timeless story. Injecting dance and live music into the beating heart of this play, Scottish Ballet has come up with something special — a vital, achingly intense tribute to the eternally misunderstood Blanche, who struggles to live her personal truth amid family turmoil in 1940s New Orleans. Scottish Ballet’s stylish production breathes new life into the classic tale, with graceful waltzes at the DuBois family home, electrifying lindy jives in a Louisiana nightclub, and intense duets in the caged heat of Stella and Stanley’s apartment.
Image via www.aaf.co.nz
Animal by Cirque Alfonse | 19 - 23 MAR, 2025
Proudly from the funky backwaters of Quebec, Cirque Alfonse has cooked up a barnyard-themed circus stacked with the weirdest livestock, tractors and giant cowbells as stunt props, and a mechanical bull…just because. Animal is a surreal tribute to growing up on a farm. Alongside traditional circus stunts, the show is performed visually through comedy skits, slapstick humour and dance with unbelievable acrobatic skills, edge-of-your-seat tricks & madcap comedy routines. The company also plays their own instruments, performing music throughout in their native Quebecois. This is the world's most wholesome troupe of carnies onstage — a multi-generational family of performers and musicians, from super young to sprightly in age, who just know how to put on a show!
Images via Instagram @smashedshow
SMASHED – The Nightcap | 6 - 23 MAR, 2025
Get ready for a fabulous night out, as the hottest cabaret troupe out of Australia touches down in Auckland! In their most intoxicating Spiegeltent season yet, the queen of late-night variety, Victoria Falconer (award-winning performer, musician, MC and one of the most in-demand artists on the scene) is crossing the ditch for a late summer of fast-and-frisky, saucy-as-hell, anything-goes circus-style cabaret! She’s joined by her specially curated dream team of drag, burlesque, aerial and acrobatic stars, including some handpicked guests from NZ’s own backyard, and a rock ‘n’ roll live band to help you tear up the night!
Belle – A Performance of Air | 6 - 9 MAR, 2025
Belle – A Performance of Air is a multimedia experience that harnesses the skills of a cast of dance and aerial artists from across Aotearoa. The performers inhabit an aerial world created through spatial, light and video design by Rowan Pierce, composition by Eden Mulholland with live violin and vocals by Anita Clark, and bespoke circus apparatus designed by choreographer Jenny Ritchie. Malia Johnston, whose work includes the World of Wearable Arts show and the opening of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, is the director and producer. Belle was originally part of Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts 2022, premiering in 2024. For AAF, it will be the production’s first presentation outside of Te Whanganui-a-Tara.
Rova Sound Garden | 6 - 23 MAR, 2025
The Festival Garden and Spiegeltent are the social centres of the festival! Whether it’s after work drinks with friends, enjoying live music, or a quick break from dashing from an exhilarating matinee to a wondrous evening performance, artists and audiences are invited to indulge in the festival energy at the Rova Sound Stage in the Festival Garden.