CANTINA

STRUT AND FRET PRODUCTION HOUSE (AUSTRALIA)

Wednesday 6 March - Sunday 24 March, 2013

The Festival Club, Aotea Square

THE FIRST AT THE FESTIVAL CLUB

From 6 - 24 March next year Auckland Arts Festival's Festival Club, New Zealand's very own own Spiegeltent, will once again set up camp in Aotea Square for the duration of the Festival. The Club will be home to an array of bangin', swingin' and beat boxin' gigs, including the award-winning Cantina, a 1930s underground circus-cabaret. Comprising performers from Circus Oz, acrobat, Tom Tom Crew and Circa, the darkly seductive Cantina offers breathtaking acrobatics, optical illusion, titillating tightrope, intimate encounters and high, high heels.

Cantina blurs reality and fantasy with in-your-face vaudeville, cocktails and suspense, all topped off with a madcap live soundtrack performed on antiquated instruments. Co-created with six highly-skilled circus and physical theatre performers, each with freakish talents, and set amid a hazy blur of reality and fantasy, torment and desire, in Cantina the fine line between pleasure and pain is never quite clear.

Co-directed by Scott Maidment and Chelsea McGuffin (Smoke & Mirrors), the critically acclaimed piece has enjoyed sell-out seasons around the world, including Holland, Munich, Colombia, Wellington, Adelaide and, most recently, London for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Created specifically to be performed in Spiegeltent-style venues, in 2012 - 2013 Cantina will tour widely across Europe and into South America, along with its season at Auckland Arts Festival 2013, making it one of Australia's most in-demand cultural exports.

Australian production house Strut & Fret is a vibrant young company that produces and manages productions, events, performers, venues and festival precincts with a unique style. Some of their other performers and performances include Tom Tom Crew, Le Gateau Chocolat, The Dream Menagerie, Kaput, Tom Thum and The Lovebirds.

The Colenso BBDO season of Cantina runs 6 - 23 March in Auckland Arts Festival's Festival Club, in Aotea Square (see performance details below). Other Festival Club shows include The Magnets, Stochelo Rosenberg Trio, Novalima and LA-33 with additional performances yet to be announced.

www.aaf.co.nz

Spectacular acts of physical strength, endurance and anatomical unlikelihood - The Australian

Carnival with a dash of David Lynch - Time Out London

It's got a heart of shattered glass - The Guardian

SEASON DETAILS

Show Cantina

Where The Festival Club, Aotea Square

When Wenesday 6 March, 7pm; Thursday 7 March - Saturday 9 March, 9.30pm;  Sunday 10 March, 7pm; Tuesday 12 March, 7pm; Wednesday 13 March - Friday 15 March, 9.30pm; Saturday 16 March - Sunday 17 March, 7pm; Tuesday 19 March, 7pm; Wednesday 20 March - Saturday 23 March, 9.30pm; Sunday 24 March, 7pm

Duration 1hr no interval

Price Adult $65 / Friend/Conc $59

Booth (8 seats) $520

Bookings Book at THE EDGE: www.buytickets.co.nz / 09 357 3355 / 0800 289 842

Group bookings: groups@the-edge.co.nz / 09 357 3354

Information www.aaf.co.nz

Contains male nudity, simulated violence and smoke

Social Media Facebook: facebook.com/Aklfestival

Twitter: @Aklfestival

Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti0Eqn8HjFM

Media enquiries Siobhan Waterhouse, Publicist. P: +64 (0)9 374 0317 | M: +64 (0) 22 126  4149 | E: siobhan.waterhouse@aucklandfestival.co.nz

CREATIVE CREDITS

Performers: Chelsea McGuffin (Circa), Mozes (acrobat), David Carberry (Circa), Daniel Catlow (Tom Tom Crew), Alexandra Mizzen (Legs on the Wall) , Trent Arkleysmith (Von Trolley Quartet, Austria)

Directors and creators: Scott Maidment & Chelsea McGuffin

Musical Director: Nara Demasson

Co creators: David Carberry, Daniel Catlow, Henna Kaikula and Mozes

Producer: Penelope Leishman

Company Manager: Josh Sherrin

Original Sound designers: Nara Demasson & David Carberry

Rigger: Simon Mitchell

LX Designer & Operator: Abby Clearwater

Sponsored by Colenso BBDO