Award-winning New Zealand Company Trick Of The Light Theatre Is Packing Their Bags And Heading To Toitoi

Award-winning New Zealand company Trick of the Light Theatre is packing their bags to bring their latest creation, Suitcase Show, to Toitoi Hawke’s Bay Arts and Events Centre on March 19 and 20. An eclectic box set of short stories—each told from a suitcase—the production is dark, spiky, and comic, promising a uniquely immersive experience for audiences.

Trick of the Light Theatre were last in Hawke’s Bay in 2019 with two sell out performances of their acclaimed play The Bookbinder as part of the Hawke's Bay Arts Festival. As with The Bookbinder, Suitcase Show features inventive storytelling techniques, blending lo-fi shadow play, wireless projection, and even dancing disembodied hands to craft narratives that crackle from a vintage stereo suitcase. Tiny in scale but expansive in scope, the show explores themes of climate change, love and death, travel, and the secrets we carry with us.

Currently on their national tour, Toitoi have been lucky to be one of 5 regions chosen to present this work. “It’s one of the best productions in New Zealand right now” says Toitoi Presenter Services Manager Glen Pickering. “It’s smart, inventive, and completely captivating. Trick of the Light is known for pushing creative boundaries, and our audiences are going be in awe of this extraordinary show.”

Developed through site-specific showings in locations as diverse as a pub and a photography darkroom, the show embraces the strangeness of travel and the surprises that unfold within a suitcase.

Renowned for their intricate narratives and theatrical innovation, Trick of the Light reunites multi-award-winning artists Hannah Smith, Ralph McCubbin Howell, and Emmy Award-winning composer Tane Upjohn-Beatson (The Bookbinder, The Road That Wasn’t There) to bring this new work to life.

Don’t miss your chance to see Suitcase Show at Toitoi on March 19 and 20.

© Scoop Media