Stories

Cityscape talks dystopian future, dramatic backdrops and modern ballet with The Firebird choreographer Loughlan Prior. “This production of The Firebird takes Stravinsky’s original music and tells a different story with it,” says Loughlan Prior. “A story that is steeped in an environmental message, and more connected with the issues of today.” He calls it “ballet with grit”, and that’s definitely a double entendre. The choreography and the story certainly have grit, and the kicker is that this production is set in the decidedly gritty desert landscape of a dystopian wasteland. Well, we say dystopian, but it may be more of a not-so-distant future. “I’ve been working with set designer Tracy Grant Lord to create this world, and it really is a world that exists in the future, kind of a civilisation on the edge,” Loughlan says. “The choreography is raw and athletic, and there’s urgency to all the actions on stage....

There’s been a sea change in the central city – not just the buildings popping up and the gravel carparks disappearing. The feel of the place is changing, and we think it’s got something to do with the switch of gear in the residential scene. We’re seeing SOLD signs all over the show, and an attitude to the people who live in the four avenues, that they’re proud central citizens. Cityscape’s taking a close look at central Christchurch living, the tropes, the developments, the people and what (we hope) is to come. Central citizens Cityscape sticks its tongue in its cheek with a satirical take on some of the personalities who live between the four avenues, from the Hospo Hero who hangs out in Welles Street and communicates exclusively vie WhatsApp and Insta stories, to the Empty Nesters who sold up their drafty villa to live that Botanic Garden life. Read...

Christchurch startup GIMME is taking on the big shots of the online food ordering world. Co-founder Abhay Pratap delivers the low-down. Big changes are in the works for this local online ordering and delivery business. With a new name, redesigned app, and a thirst for expansion, GIMME is ready to take on the world, and the big kids of online delivery. The business gained fame during lockdown under its original name – Give Me Bread – delivering takeaways, groceries and drinks to the hungry homebound as well as flowers, gifts and even prescriptions. Now it’s had a full rebrand and GIMME is ready to be a permanent fixture on the delivery scene. Abhay and his partner Chandni Jain started Give Me Bread in 2017, an app that let people order delivery from all their favourite Christchurch restaurants and gift stores, at a time when that was a very new idea. Their...

Jacob Root is an urban artist who’s all about spreading the good vibes, and whose murals have brightened a fair few dull walls around Christchurch. His style is all about finding positives in the negatives; showing that there’s light through the dark. Jacob has had a busy few years, including being part of the Melbourne urban art festival Can’t Do Tomorrow in 2020 and spending time collaborating with other street artists and painting murals in Las Angeles in 2019. You’re not limited to viewing his work out on the street, though – Jacob can bring the street art right into your living room, with individual artworks, commissions, or even an indoor mural, aiming to create effects you’d see on a wall down a city alley. Jacob has some tips on bringing the street art look into your space. Choosing art for your home Go with what you feel. Just because it...

Max and Sheila Brown recently took the opportunity to give life to a vacant space by opening Xgaleri in Cashel Street. This was a golden opportunity to share and showcase their art. Max grew up watching his mum Sheila develop her career, and this strongly influenced his own life. Sheila also busied herself with art as a child – growing up with no TV, she took inspiration from nature and started drawing it. Max considers himself an abstract spatial artist conveying feeling and emotion through minimalism, material and design, while Sheila is a specialist at crossover art, merging styles in her bird paintings. The artistic duo has some advice for choosing the perfect pieces for you. Choosing art to match a home theme or personality Max: It’s love for the piece. Learning to live with it. Either something that feels right for your interior or love for the piece and work,...

Don Service is the artist and curator behind Rightside Gallery. He’s a master of materials, creating beautiful pieces from metal, rust, wood and more. The gallery displays Don’s own work as well as art in various mediums by artists from around New Zealand. Don offers us some tips on creating art from wood, and starting out in the art business. Starting an art piece I start with timber and get a bit of an idea and go from there. Method 1 Sometimes I get an idea, and say that’s what I’m going to make. Then I get timber, or ply, or steel, and make it. Method 2 Sometimes I just stare blankly at a piece of timber for a bit, and see what pops into my head that suits it. Inspiration Some days you’re creative, and some days you’re not. Sometimes I’m out doing my art-hanging work and I get inspiration...

Jenna Ingram co-owns Fiksate, where she’s also an in-house artist. The gallery is the city’s unofficial indoor hub for urban art, drawing works and exhibitions by street artists from around Christchurch, New Zealand and the world. The studio also does beautiful custom framing, and Jen recommends framing new artworks as soon as possible after buying them to protect your artwork and make it hang-ready for your walls. Jen’s quick guide: Frame types to suit your art and surroundings Choosing a frame can be based on the tones in your artwork. If there are strong blacks, then a black frame will suit. Lighter tones with little or no black can suit white or natural pine frames. You should also consider what other frame colours and types you already have in your home. Also considering your wall colour and type at your home can make a difference to what frame you choose. At...

This framing, printing and design business has been providing excellent craftsmanship to New Brighton for over 30 years. One of the main services the team offer is preserving memories. It’s important not to forget how special photographs, objects and keepsakes might be to future generations. Preserving these memories in frames is a way to keep the stories alive, and they can look great on a wall or in a cabinet. Frame ‘n’ Copy owner Kathy Duncan offers some tips on saving and displaying your memories and keepsakes. Thinking outside the box As well as photographs and art, you can frame meaningful and beautiful objects. Think dried wedding bouquets, war medals, album covers, feathers, letters, cards, rugby jerseys and postcards. We have even framed a piece of carpet with a picture of Queenstown woven into it, a child’s artwork, and we have a cricket bat coming in soon. Incorporating stories into an...

Hamish Noster is an art lover and ace art hanger. He’s got years of experience hanging everything from paintings to rugs, and he knows how to keep things level. Here are Hamish’s top tips on where and how to hang art like a pro. Rearranging existing art Hanging new art is an opportunity for change. Ask the professional to organise and rearrange what you already have while they’re there. Before you hang Lean art against the wall you’re thinking of hanging it on. Leave it there for a while so you can get a feel for how it will look in that place. Brighten dark rooms Give darker rooms a lift with light-coloured artwork. Avoiding sunlight fading Some types of art, like watercolours, are more susceptible to fading when hung in a sunny spot. You can frame art behind special glass that reduces fading. Hanging heavy things away from a stud...

Will Alexander is playing Duke Orsino in the upcoming Top Dog Theatre production of Twelfth Night. He chats to Cityscape about the Bard, big birthdays and being home. You grew up here, trained in London, toured the world, featured on TV and on stage – what’s your number one career highlight? Performing at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Birthday party was pretty amazing, the salmon was raised specifically for the occasion but I think the Champagne they gave us was a bit watered down. Also cutting someone’s tongue out onstage in Amsterdam and throwing it into the audience comes to mind as a highlight.  Pro-tip for would-be actors? It’s likely if you’re auditioning for things then you’re going to need to deal with rejection. Don’t take it personally. See auditions as a chance to perform, do a good audition and then forget about it. If you can have the resilience to be...

Ahead of Play Space Productions' The Last Martini, Cityscape meets some of the eccentric family members hosting this party-turned-murder-investigation. Who are you, how do you fit into the Martini family? Edith: I am the matriarch of the Martini family. James: As the first son I am the heir to the Martini Estate, and Canterbury's most eligible bachelor. Isabella: I am the only daughter, the eldest by 18 months. Why would a partygoer suspect you as the murderer? Edith: Gosh! I was his devoted wife for 25 years! How could anyone suspect me? James: Oh they wouldn't suspect me, would they? I guess I WAS the last to see him... Isabella: Well, it’s certainly true that I’m the most intelligent one in the family. Though nobody seems to take notice. What’s your best party trick? Edith: Hosting the party. My parties are always the talk of the town. That is my party...

Meet the man who sold his name… twice. He’s the founder of Good Times Comedy Club and he’s got things to say about Christchurch, comedy, Comet the dog, and kiwi. OK Mr man-of-many-names, let’s start with the basics – why are you called Snap? It’s just my name, dude. I had weird parents. Cool. And Rusewebsites? That’s not even my last name! Well legally that’s my name, because I was signing a lot of contracts and changing my name again legally would have been a nightmare. But that contract is done and I re-sold my last name to Game Kings who make Kiwis Versus Morality. So I go by Snap Versus Morality now. That contract is up though so if you know anyone... What’s the short version of your comedy story? I actually started out in radio as the drive announcer on Pulzar FM. I decided to try my hand at...

Cityscape talks to Leigh Pickering for a brief history of her business, Happy To Sit On Your Face. Funky, bold, well priced. That’s Leigh’s philosophy for sunglasses. A few years ago, she spotted a gap in the market for some facial fashion that made a statement, and her brand has been growing ever since. Her Christchurch sunglasses label Happy To Sit On Your Face has gone from strength to strength, and is now stocked across New Zealand and Australia, including at high-end fashion stores like Trelise Cooper. Leigh’s been in the fashion industry for about 30 years, selling everything from Ray-Ban to Christian Dior and beyond. About five years ago she stopped working, when her father was sick with motor neurone disease. Around this time, she slowly began building Happy To Sit On Your Face. “I saw my father dying and I wanted to bring some happiness into the world,” Leigh...

Stand-up comedy doesn’t have to be all heckling and being mean. Ray Shipley tells Cityscape about putting on an accessible and welcoming show with plenty of laughs. Tell us about the Cosy Comedy show you’re putting on at Little Andromeda – how did that come about? Cosy Comedy is a gentle comedy show for nice people. We’ve got two rules: comedians can’t pick on the audience and the audience can’t pick on the comedians. Emma and Brendon came up with the idea a few years ago to offer an alternative to the ‘absolutely anything goes’ flavour of stand-up shows – that can be a lot of fun, but there’s a bunch of folks that could feel a bit put off by that. Is cosy wear encouraged? It’s the start of winter, so cosy wear is certainly encouraged from a health and safety perspective if nothing else. Cosy Comedy hasn’t got a...

The Marriage of Figaro's scenographer, Tracy Grant Lord, tells Cityscape a bit about the aesthetic of this production, and how the themes of revolution can be conveyed through design. What makes a good scenographer? I think you need a good understanding of scale so you can imagine people and objects in space and a broad-ranging vision for storytelling. Also, an awareness of harmony. The craft of scenography is about creating a complete world with all its intrinsic dimensions on stage, and harmony is about allowing provision for that world to then sing. How does set and costume design help tell a story? Good design will honour the intention of the originators of a story – even when re-interpreting a story. If the spirit or essence that initially created the story is served honourably in design then you are helping to tell it. Research around why and when the story was told...

Cityscape caught up with director Lindy Hume to talk about love, the revolution, and the NZ Opera season of The Marriage of Figaro. Have you directed The Marriage of Figaro before? I have not. And so it's nice to be doing it for the first time, at this advanced age! Can you tell us a little bit about the opera without giving too much away? The whole thing is set in one single day of madness. It’s an intertwining plot of love, scheming and deception. Figaro is to marry a Countess’s maid, Susanna, who the Count is planning to bed, as he believes it’s his right. The young couple set about exposing the older man’s lechery, and he in turn sets about revenge. Is it a love story or something more? It's much more than a love story. I mean, it is a love story in that there is a lot...

Eleanor Bishop is the assistant director of the New Zealand Opera production of The Marriage of Figaro. It's a radical tale with strong feminist underpinnings, which suits Eleanor's political sensibilities rather well. Cityscape sat down with her to discuss her favourite character, guilty pleasures, and the opera's messages. You’re known for directing political productions – can you tell us about the motivations for your work? Ever since I was young I have found inner strength and power in female-driven stories – as an artist and an audience member. I make theatre because throughout history the stage has always been a revolutionary place. It’s a way to take apart the world as it stands and to imagine a new world. Does The Marriage of Figaro tick the right political boxes for you? I think artistic work doesn’t have to tick boxes but I’m always excited when I see groups of women work...

Conducting the New Zealand Opera production of The Marriage of Figaro is Zoe Zeniodi, 'ingenious Greek maestro' and lifelong lover of La Traviata. She spoke to Cityscape about piano playing, Carnegie Hall, and eating bananas. How did you get into opera? When I was little, at home, unattended, as things used to be back then, I remember coming back from kindergarten and putting on a video tape that I had found on a shelf which showed a lady being in agony for a long time and dying on her couch. I loved ‘dying’ with her every day on my couch after school. It was a daily ritual for me. I had never realised what I was watching, until much later, in my 30s, I found that old tape again and decided to watch it. It was La Traviata by Verdi. I had been watching the complete La Traviata daily throughout my...