Emerging Theatre Practitioners Present 5 Dynamic New Shows At BATS

Established in 2018, the Six Degrees Festival is a staple of the Victoria University MFA (Creative Practice) at Te Whare Ngangahau–Theatre and Performance Studies.

Fun, quirky, serious, or thought-provoking, the shows produced under the festival have served as launching pads for the careers of many successful arts practitioners.

11 Emerging Theatre Practitioners, 5 Dynamic, New Shows

Following on from an epic 2024 (where audiences were treated to 2 festivals in one year), including gems such as; Isaac Hooper's Blip, Romina Meneses’ We The Outsiders, Sharon Wang's immersive production Encounter and Pan Clarke & Alanah Munn's epic gothic horror- Verdict, the 6 Degrees Festival 2025 once again promises to delight audiences with another smorgasbord of emerging talent, straight out of Victoria University's MFA in Creative Practice.

In November- December 2025, there are four main bill shows and a one-off rehearsed play reading.

WHERE: BATS Theatre, 1 Kent Terrace, Mt. Victoria, Wellington

WHEN:

Festival Launch: Wednesday 19th November

Please RSVP by filling in the form linked here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSclsVKwIYvzvuMyzNkdQ3kbzdrYcAFxq_P67MY3pKKFV2a8Aw/viewform

Season: 25th November- 6th December

WHO: Te Whare Ngangahau–Theatre and Performance Studies -Master's of Fine Arts Students

TICKETS: All shows on sale right now, book online at

https://bats.co.nz/about-bats/news/six-degrees-festival-2025/

Week 1

A Hardware Love Affair ( 25th-29th November)

7.30 The Dome

Creative Leads- Lizzie Bysouth & Sophie Helm

Two rival hardware stores, one forbidden love and a musical that asks, why can’t orange and green live in harmony?

Fresh from Te Herenga Waka’s Master of Fine Arts (Creative Practice) programme, Full Volume Theatre makes its debut with the development season of A Hardware Love Affair. An original, hilariously Kiwi musical hitting BATS Theatre this November.

Set in a fictional Mastertopian world, this campy, chaotic musical comedy takes a distinctly Kiwi spin on Romeo and Juliet, turning loyalty, love, and forklifts into a full-scale musical showdown. In this world, everyone must pledge allegiance to one hardware store for life: Bunnings Warehouse or Mitre 10. When Mitre 10’s 15% price deal crashes, Maddie Phillips, a fiercely loyal Mitre 10 employee, gets sent undercover at Bunnings to uncover the truth and stir up a little sabotage. However, once behind enemy lines, Maddie finds herself straying from her mission. As she falls for a Bunnings staff member and the culture of the store itself, she’s starting to question the rigid world that she grew up in. Maybe orange and green really aren’t so different after all?

A Hardware Love Affair is a tongue-in-cheek celebration of small-town New Zealand, brand loyalty, and the power of musical theatre. With original music by Bysouth and Daniel Honey, choreography by Louise Jamieson, and direction by Helm, the team has undoubtedly hammered out an unforgettable and unapologetically Aotearoa’ian musical experience, packed with humour and heart, a show you won't want to miss. This Full Volume Theatre, and we’re pumping the noise by 15%

Homebodies ( 26th-29th November)

6 pm The STAGE

Creative Leads- Henry Brosnahan, Bronya Davies, Stella VaiVai

Homebodies is a devised physical theatre piece that explores themes of loneliness, identity, belonging, and the space between—centring on five individuals who are faced with significant change that has altered their path in life. The show draws inspiration from lived experiences, brought to life in a fully collaborative process by emerging artists, designers, and theatre makers who hail from a range of backgrounds. What does ‘home’ mean within a broad diaspora of Aotearoa? How do we react when our space of comfort and belonging is confronted?

Week 2

YOULTIDE (3rd-6th December)

6.30- The Dome

Creative Leads- William McMorran, Joshua Lees, Tyrone O’Neill

Youltide is a grief-drenched Christmas tragicomedy about Douglas, a narrator who’s desperately trying to rewrite the end of a story about someone he loved and lost. He’s told it a thousand times. But this time, maybe it’ll go differently. Maybe they’ll live.

Set entirely in a living room on Christmas Eve, the play weaves humour, absurdity, and heartbreak into a slow unravelling as misery creeps closer, and the story begins to resist its teller. This is a show about holding on too tightly. About the rituals we build to survive. About grief that overstays its welcome. And, of course, it’s about the magic of Christmas.

STRAYS (3rd-6th December)

8pm The Stage

Creative Leads- Ella Ford & Nathan Arnott

'Strays' is a feminist eco-thriller dystopian play set in a future world where human life is scarce and nature has reclaimed the Earth. We follow Lorna Gold, a historian who illegally left the city walls in search of answers to the past in the overgrown territory, 'The Reclaimed'. Viv, a ‘Watcher’ dedicated to keeping order in the city, is tasked with finding Lorna and bringing her back to the city for judgment. However, as she discovers more clues to Lorna's whereabouts, she realizes that everything she knows about the city is not what it seems.

TAMA -A rehearsed play reading and Wānanga ( 5th December)

7 pm The Studio

Creative Lead- Ngahaki Gardiner

Tama follows its titular protagonist, Tamatekapua “Tama” Francis Foster, a charming, yet immature and terminally lazy ne'er-do-well, as he navigates life following a messy breakup with his girlfriend Rui while at the 21st of his friend Hemi.

This rehearsed reading will be followed by a wānanga and kai.

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