Gaza protests Sat – Wellington 12 noon, Auckland 2pm

BREAKING NEWS – ONCE WE BUILT A TOWER IS TOURING

Lock your whiskey cabinet and grab your guns, because your friends and ours The Bacchanals are bringing an all-new, all-improved, all-singing-all-milking production of Once We Built A Tower to the South Island! We are SO EXCITED to be giving this play another outing, and SO EXCITED to be coming to some places that feature prominently in the story of how the 1935 Labour Government used the medical insurance scheme at the Waitaki Dam as their basis for creating a Welfare State that was once the envy of the world. Brought to you with the wonderful support of Emerging Artists Trust Wellington, Interislander and Coffee Supreme (and hopefully several more sponsors who can’t be confirmed at the time of this website update!), Once We Built A Tower will play a different town every night for a fortnight beginning Monday 25 August.

On MONDAY 25 AUGUST we will be in ASHBURTON at the Sinclair Centre, 74 Park Street!

On TUESDAY 26 AUGUST we will be in TIMARU at the Caroline Bay Community Lounge!

On WEDNESDAY 27 AUGUST The Bacchanals will finally realise a lifelong ambition: we will be in TWIZEL (!!) at the Twizel Events Centre, 61 McKenzie Drive!

On THURSDAY 28 AUGUST we will be in TEKAPO at the Tekapo Community Hall, Aorangi Crescent!

On FRIDAY 29 AUGUST we will be in OMARAMA at the Omarama Community Centre!

On SATURDAY 30 AUGUST we will be in KUROW at the Kurow Memorial Hall – this will be a night to remember, people!

On MONDAY 1 SEPTEMBER we will be in OAMARU at the Oamaru Scottish Hall

On TUESDAY 2 SEPTEMBER we will be in DUNEDIN at the Otago Pioneer Women’s Memorial Association Hall, Moray Place!

On WEDNESDAY 3 SEPTEMBER we will be in GORE at the James Cumming Wing Lecture Theatre, corner of Ardwick Street and Civic Ave!

On THURSDAY 4 SEPTEMBER we will be in BALCLUTHA at the Balclutha Theatrical Society Hall, 4 George Street!

On FRIDAY 5 SEPTEMBER we will be in ROXBURGH at Miller’s Flat Hall, 1674 Teviot Road!

On SATURDAY 6 SEPTEMBER we will be in the Clyde/Alexandra area, at the Clyde Memorial Hall, corner of Fraser and Newcastle Streets!

All performances begin at 7pm! We are very, very committed to this idea that theatre should be accessible to ALL and that you shouldn’t miss out on live performance just because you don’t live in a major city. To that end, WE ARE NOT CHARGING ADMISSION. (You can & probably should give us koha or a donation because god knows how we’re going to make up the balance of the $25,000 this tour is costing us. And tell your rich friends that if they want to give money to a worthy cause, they should throw some pictures of the Queen our way!) We want you to come on down, see a free play, have a cup of tea (or maybe a wine/beer/cider/absinthe) with us after and let us sing you songs and tell you tales of NZ local history! This is the mightiest army of Bacchanals ever to take a show on the road (even though we’re leaving some formidable warriors at home): Alex Greig plays Gervan McMillan, Kirsty Bruce plays Ethel McMillan, Brianne Kerr plays Frances Nordmeyer, Michael Trigg plays Arnold Nordmeyer, Michael Joseph Ness plays Michael Joseph Savage, Jean Sergent plays the Medical Association, Joe Dekkers-Reihana plays Peter Fraser, Aidan Weekes plays Walter Nash, Hilary Penwarden plays the piano, Ellie Stewart plays the fiddle and David Lawrenceplays the banjo, guitar, mandolin and clarinet.

TRAILER ON YOUTUBE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjdC4CaQOJU