Theatre director Ben Crowder had never really watched Peter Pan. He’d seen a London production as a child, and admits he was mostly confused, and the 1991 film Hook which stars Robyn Williams and Dustin Hoffman.
Each week, Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different part of Aotearoa and this week we’re in the town of Matamata.
For six hours, artist and photographer Elisabeth Denis photographed a model in a durational performance piece. Instead of camera clicks or shutter sounds, these were replaced with the sound of bullets firing from a gun. Sharp, abrasive and uncomfortable.
The year is 2005. Tom Cruise jumps on Oprah Winfrey’s couch, Mariah Carey has made a resurgence, skinny jeans and Thin Lizzy are all the rage and dial-up internet is in full swing.
The latest machine to arrive at arcade Ye Olde Pinball Shoppe in Pōneke Wellington is Pulp Fiction. It’s packed with the classic soundtrack and audio clips, together with table sculptures of your favourite characters and a half eaten hamburger - the iconic Royale with cheese.
It’s one of the most popular shows of the 21st century and now, another iteration is taking place downunder. The Office is set in Australia with the first female boss - Hannah Howard, at a Sydney-based packaging company, played by actor and comedian Felicity Ward.
28-year-old Jacob Geller is an enormously popular Youtube video game essayist and art enthusiast.
Rakiura, with a population of just 450, is the furthest south we have ventured for RNZ Culture 101’s Regional Wrap.
This spring, nine of Akira Kurosawa’s most beloved films are returning to Aotearoa's cinemas, including a brand-new digital restoration of Seven Samurai.
A Slow Burlesque is a work that has been on Freya Finch's mind for almost a decade. Freya's interest in burlesque first started at John Bolton Theatre School. A four-month intensive course in Melbourne, Finch describes it as a boot camp-like experience, performing newly devised work every week. The training has a particular focus on mask, Bouffon, clown and vaudeville styles and it was here, Finch realised their love of the absurd. The new Silo Theatre show, now at The Basement in Tamaki Makaura...
The Cardrona or the Thistle Inn? The Puhoi or Hotel De Brett? The White Hart or the Whangamomona? Which is this country’s most classic pub?
Dame Susan Devoy’s career has been nothing if not lane-changing. And as such, an inspiration for us all.
There’s human intelligence - when we use it. We’re getting to grips with artificial intelligence. And many people are getting fascinated with plant intelligence - the magic work of mycelium for example. But there are other intelligences - what Awhiworld, a group of ‘artists, scientists, hackers and makers’ in Whangārei call ‘Strange Intelligences’.
The rural town of Greytown in the Wairarapa in the lower North Island is particularly proud of its heritage and history.
We all make mistakes, but can we accept our errors and take action before things start to unravel beyond our control? In New Zealand director Christine Jeffs’ powerful new feature film A Mistake, adapted from the novel by Carl Shuker, American actor Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games, Pitch Perfect) plays a gifted surgeon dealing with the aftermath of an emergency surgery that went wrong. The reasons for the death that follow are complex, highlighting human fallibility and the responsibilities of...
The fashion designer is celebrating 25 years of the label Crane Brothers and to mark the occasion, the company is teaming up with The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi to launch a Laureate Award for design
“It is a cliche to say literature saves lives,” Behrouz Boochani has written, “but I experienced it with my whole being.” Behrouz Boochani is a Kurdish journalist, human rights defender, writer and film producer who came to international attention after his memoir, No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison won the 2019 Victorian Prize for Literature and the prize for non-fiction in Australia. He wrote it on Whatsapp while held in an Australian-run detention centre in Papua New Guine...
Arts news: a cheeky ceramics award winner, Chidgey nets Darwin and Dickens publisher and a new Christchurch artist space
The latest production by Māori theatre company Te Rākau Hua o Te Wao Tapu, Unreel tells the story of a community affected by gambling as the Hīnaki Hotel looks set to launch the very first AI pokie machine. This year Te Rākau Hua o Te Wao Tapu celebrate 35 years as Aotearoa New Zealand's longest running independent Māori Theatre Company. Co-founder and celebrated veteran actor Jim Moriarty has worked as its director for all of that time, and joins us on Culture 101.
The 34th season of the World of Wearable Art has kicked off in the capital - an annual spectacle of fashion, art, circus, dance and music. This year’s theme is Dream Awake, and the competition has 91 finalists from 15 countries. Joining Culture 101 to discuss the spectacle of WOW is Stuff arts journalist Andre Chumko and theatre maker and writer for Wellingtonista, Emma Maguire.
The beautiful Rangitikei region - running alongside the river of the same name from the Manawatu to Ruapehu - is better known as a place depicted by artists than for its arts scene. It’s famous as the rural landscape depicted by painter Peter McIntyre in the mid 20th century. One notable recent initiative however, is bringing contemporary artists to the region. Laura and Richard Morrison own a sizable sheep and beef farm. Laura is an avid art collector and three years ago they set up The Gullies...
This week, artist Jefferson Chen, also known as Goodspace, is paying homage to Lim Chhour's legacy and the hardworking vendors by launching his debut album, Let's Talk About Death, with a multi-media installation Vendor.
Artist Ana Iti has been awarded Aotearoa New Zealand’s most prestigious art award, the Walters Prize at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Her sculpture and sound installation ‘A resilient heart like the mānawa’ is on display at the gallery. Like the UK’s Turner Prize, The Walters Prize 2024 has four finalists in exhibition, chosen by a jury. Yet, while that same jury awards the final Prize to one winner - and that jury has a solid representation of UK experts with the Turner Prize - the Walters...
Hawkes Bay theatre maker Kristyl Neho (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahungunu) grew up with more death around her than most people.
The Capital’s Deputy Mayor Laurie Foon has long championed Pōneke Wellington - it’s local businesses, its fashion and, sometimes more controversially, its bike lanes.
Arts News: Parekowhai's controversial giant kangaroo, Te Unua Museum of Southland's cost blowout and extinct animal discovered in rock art.
Has joy ever been such a crucial visible part of art as it is in the work of crochet extraordinaires Lissy and Rudi Robinson-Cole? The married couple are on a mission to bring light, warmth and Te Ao Māori to all of Aotearoa New Zealand with their electrically colourful woollen work.
Maurice and I is an unexpectedly moving, delightful, at times harrowing look at the enduring partnership between architects Sir Miles Warren and Maurice Mahoney and the creation and saving of the iconic Christchurch Town Hall.
Each week Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different region in Aotearoa. This week we’re in the port town of Lyttelton near Ōtautahi Christchurch.
So fearless is composer Eve De Castro Robinson that not only did she recently give a seminar entitled ‘Being Fearless’ but, now in her 60s, she recently tried doing stand-up comedy for the first time. Not typical for a composer, yet Robinson has always been bold in working with others and across artforms. She ascribes to composer John Cage’s view: “Get out of whatever cage you’re in.”
