Many faces of the Theatre Royal
It’s the Theatre Royal, but possibly not as you know it.
This year, Nelson festival goers will able to dance to the Talking Heads and rave while professional dancers perform.
In one unique show, the deaf and disabled community will have allocated areas to “engage intimately” with AIGA, a work festival artistic director Lydia Zanetti described as “part dance and part theatre”.
The Theatre Royal Nelson was recently repainted as part of an up-grade of the Rutherford St theatre.
The three events, part of the Nelson Arts Festival, are using the Theatre Royal’s space in different configurations on each occasion.
Zanetti said the idea was to “push the edges” of using the historical theatre, which had its own “beautiful” ambience and a great vibe.
To that end, three shows will have different configurations.
The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave, a “three-day rave condensed into an award-winning art performance” will have a dance floor when the front section of seats are removed.
“It’s a live dance show, but usually with dance we’re sitting down and we are quite static,” Zanetti said.
“It’s really an invitation for audience to meet that show and dance with the show.”
The screening of the newly restored Stop Making Sense, described by some as the greatest concert film of all time, will also have a dance floor space, while the performance of AIGA, an “exploration of identity, desire, family, and of being disabled and Pasifika”, will have allocated areas for the disabled and deaf communities.
That’s so they can “engage intimately” with the work, Zanetti explained. It will also have audio description built into it that everyone can hear, and be sign language interpreted.
Zanetti described the creator of the show, Lusi Faiva, as an important artist for the country, and her work as “beautiful”.
Using music, movement and dramedy, AIGA captures Faiva’s life from youth into adulthood, from 1960s Samoa to the present day.
The 146-year-old Theatre Royal is believed to be the oldest surviving operating wooden theatre in Australasia, and possibly in the southern hemisphere.
The theatre was capable of seating 800 when first built, making it a remarkable facility in a town with a population of just 6000 at the time.
Early performances in the nineteenth century featured acrobats and tumblers, and an English opera company which staged five different operas in five nights.
It became Nelson’s first picture theatre in the early years of the 20th century, and was also used for boxing and wrestling tournaments.
The Theatre Royal is the venue for Stop Making Sense on November 2, AIGA on October 29, and The Butterfly Who Flew Into the Rave on November 2. Tickets are available at nelsonartsfestival.nz.
By Warren Gamble, Nelson Mail
This Post Has 0 Comments