FROM THE AUCKLAND FESTIVAL DIRECTOR -
SPECIAL OFFER TO BOOKLOVERS

Festival for Readers: Book one event, get two or more at reduced prices.
Auckland Festival 2009 has a strong literary theme running through it.

Five of our major productions are based on books, literary works or the lives and thinking of major figures in literature.

The Arrival is a wondrous, wordless multi-award-winning graphic novel by Australian author/illustrator Shaun Tan. For Auckland Festival 2009 Red Leap Theatre (Kate Parker and Julie Nolan) has brought Shaun’s award-winning book to life in a fantastical theatrical adaptation to delight and intrigue audiences of all ages. When Kate and Julie first discovered this book they found its dream-like quality compelling and aligned to the style of theatre they create together. Inspired, they sought Shaun’s permission to develop an adaptation. The results will be on stage from 12 – 15 March (six performances only).
This is a production not to be missed. In rehearsal now, this is a world premiere production that speaks to and of migrants and refugees throughout the world.

The Andersen Project is inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s timeless fables and anecdotes from his Parisian travels, and was created by acclaimed French-Canadian director, scenic artist, playwright and actor Robert Lepage for the 200th anniversary of Andersen’s birth.




Venus & Adonis is a masterpiece from Australia; Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis might have been a subversive re-working of Ovid’s original love story; Bell Shakespeare and Malthouse Melbourne have created an equally subversive version of Shakespeare, fully embracing the lust, love, artifice, and heartbreak of his words to delight Festival audiences.

Incorporating text from The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude by Étienne de la Boétie, The White Body is an expressive new dance work by internationally acclaimed choreographer Ea Sola that has been jointly commissioned by Auckland Festival, Hong Kong Festival, Holland Festival, Theatre de la Ville (Paris) and Grand Theatre of Groningen (Netherlands).

The Kreutzer, from New Zealand company Stage Left, has an impressive heritage: it is based on "The Kreutzer Sonata" by Beethoven which gave rise to a controversial novella by Tolstoy, which in turn inspired a string quartet of the same name by Leoš Janáček (played in Auckland Festival 2009 by the New Zealand String Quartet, which also stars in the performance of The Kreutzer). The Kreutzer is cutting-edge theatre of the highest quality. Themes of marriage, love, lust and jealousy (incorporating some adult content) culminate in what can only be described as a theatrical tour de force.

Dates, venues and times:
The Arrival Thursday 12 – Sunday 15 March, Civic Theatre
The Andersen Project Thursday 19 – Sunday 22 March, ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre
Venus & Adonis Wednesday 18 – Sunday 22 March, Bruce Mason Centre
The Kreutzer Friday 6 – Monday 9 March, Concert Chamber, Auckland Town Hall
Music at Twilight, New Zealand String Quartet. Programme includes Janáčcek’s “Kreutzer” String Quartet No. 1 Tuesday 10 March, Baptist Tabernacle, Queen Street
The White Body Saturday 7 – Tuesday 10 March, SKYCITY Theatre

SPECIAL OFFER:
Auckland Festival is pleased to offer all booklovers special packages so you can enjoy at least three of these performances:
Book one A reserve ticket to The Andersen Project at the special price of $60, if you also book for at least two other Festival for Readers productions at the same time.

To make it easy, we can offer you special prices of $40 per ticket for The Arrival and/or Venus & Adonis, $35 each for The Kreutzer and/or The White Body. (We will offer best available seats – A reserve – as long as they are available; we will advise you if A Reserve is sold out.)

In addition, if you purchase more than 10 tickets for any three-production package, we can offer one free package for every 10 purchased – a further 10% saving.
Contact Christine at groups@aucklandfestival.co.nz or phone 09-374 0316 to make your booking.

And remember – Auckland Festival has over 210 performances that range from dance to opera, cabaret to comedy, theatre to visual arts. Further details about all Auckland Festival productions are at www.aucklandfestival.co.nz/genres/dance
We look forward to seeing you at performances.
David Malacari
Festival Director