Pop-Up Globe NZ Tour

Overview

Pop-Up Globe is hitting the road. Following several successful seasons both here and abroad, the Auckland-based theatre company will begin a nationwide tour on June 25. This will include stops in Dunedin, Nelson, Christchurch, Wellington, Napier, Hamilton and New Plymouth. At each destination, the company will — on alternating nights — stage its productions of Hamlet and Measure for Measure.

The two productions come straight from the company's recently concluded Auckland season, during which Pop-Up Globe celebrated its 1000th performance. Both plays will, per Pop-Up Globe custom, feature the company's lavish and bespoke Jacobean costumes. And, though Hamlet is a revenge tragedy, performances of the play will, like those of seedy comedic romp Measure for Measure, conclude with a traditional rousing jig. Measure for Measure has also been reworked to include a number of songs and dances.

Rather than transport their full-scale replica Globe theatre throughout the country, however, the company has elected to draw inspiration for its specially designed touring set from 17th century theatres of a different variety: cockpits, where people would attend the then-popular spectacle of a cockfight. Beyond this architectural replication in which they specialise, Pop-Up Globe has also won acclaim for reproducing the finer details of Jacobean theatre. Prepare for fight sequences that are equal parts balletic and ferocious, and having the house-lights up throughout the show in an effort to further erode the 'fourth wall'.

NB: If you want to avoid becoming either the addressee of an impassioned monologue or the recipient of a spume of fake blood, don't stand in the front row.

Visit popupglobe.co.nz for more information.

Image: Jay Wennington.