BE LIKE BILLY? Rutene Spooner: Nelson Arts Festival
After wowing us in Thoroughly Modern Māui, award-winning Rutene Spooner returns to celebrate showband legacy, idolise the greatest Māori showman and tussle with the future of Māori in entertainment. This is everything but an impersonation show. Can you be like Billy without being the butt of the joke?
Aotearoa’s newest Māori cabaret is hui-hopping to sweet you off your feet and Theatre Royal seats. If you loved Thoroughly Modern Māui (or missed it at our 2022 Festival), you MUST see this show!
Award-winning entertainer and playwright Rutene Spooner (Ngāti Porou, Ngāruahine) explores his personal connection with his childhood hero, Billy T. Infused with live music, humour, and show-band flair, the electrifying Be Like Billy? isn’t just a tribute to Māori showmanship; it also prompts contemplation about the future of Māori entertainment—how to revel in joy without becoming the subject of mockery.
Joined by the flashest southern showband The Tekīra Mutton Birds, Rutene Spooner celebrates the showband legacy, idolises the greatest Māori showman, and tussles with the future of Māori in entertainment, to ask: Can you Be like Billy without being the butt of the joke?
“The Showband Era birthed some of Māoridom’s most legendary entertainers. This production honours that lineage, reaching back to the infectious cheeky cackle we all know and cherish. But what does modern Māori showmanship entail?” – Rutene Spooner
“Be Like Billy? will surely go down as a true taonga of Aotearoa’s theatre history.” – Backstage Christchurch | Belinda Cullen Reid
“Spooner lays out this complexity for us in a show that starts with joy and celebration, with nostalgia, then pivots to something more complex when the audience is confronted with the division between laughing at and laughing with.” – Flat City Field Notes | Erin Harrington
Originally commissioned by The Court Theatre and produced by Metro Māori Productions.
Supported by: Downing
THEATRE ROYAL
Thurs 24 + Fri 25 Oct | 6.30pm | 70 min
Pay What You Can (PWYC)
Plus service fee
Buy Tickets
14+
Content Warnings: Strong language, Adult themes
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