The inaugural program of Artistic Director Ebony Bott includes the world premiere of Suzie Miller’s latest play Strong is the New Pretty about the creation of the AFL Women’s Competition, and a new movement piece about mortality from The Farm called No One Gets Out of Here Alive (see page 63). La Boite presents Michelle Lim Davidson’s personal drama Koreaboo about her visit to Seoul to meet with her somewhat disinterested birth mother. The best-selling pub-themed show The Choir of Man has a season in the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, while Luke Murphy’s part crime-drama, part psychological thriller Scorched Earth arrives after a New York season. This year’s new Festival Village – a large-scale riverside precinct at South Bank – also promises to be a lively spot with plenty of free and ticketed events.

Limelight Editor’s Choice

Writer and Director of the acclaimed The Haka Party Incident, Katie Wolfe (Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Tama), in association with Auckland Theatre Company, adapts the epic tale of Tiri Mahana, a 185-year-old matriarch, from her birth at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi to present-day Aotearoa. This bi-lingual retelling is drawn from the original play Woman Far Walking by Witi Ihimaera (Te Whānau a Kai, Ngāti Porou), writer of the BAFTA and NZ Film Award winning film The Whale Rider.

With award-winning actors Miriama McDowell (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi) and Nī Dekkers-Reihana (Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Porou), audiences are invited to a play for the whole whānau where Tiri wants us all to remember that the good things, the right things in life, are worth fighting for.