A madcap adventure filled with circus, silliness and mystery!

Ever wanted to run away with the circus? Join us for the next best thing in this hilariously disastrous tale about two failed burglar friends who set their sights on stealing the mighty crown jewels. Will they succeed? Or will Detective Dirk catch them?

Wallace and Ned will have you falling off your seat and into a cartwheel as the story unravels through circus tricks and acrobatic skill!

Workshop: Have a bundle of fun replicating what you’ve just seen in a workshop covering balance acrobatics, juggling, tumbling and slapstick!

About the company:
The Dust Palace is New Zealand’s preeminent circus theatre company. Their aim is to create tour-able circus theatre, taking stories from Aotearoa around the world, and to foster circus and physical performance and practitioners in Auckland and wider New Zealand.

Performances start at 10am, followed by a workshop at 11am.

Auckland Live Pick & Mix events are free, however bookings are essential. Please book your tickets from https://www.aucklandlive.co.nz/show/auckland-live-pick-and-mix-wallace-and-ned#tickets-times

A madcap adventure filled with circus, silliness and mystery!

Ever wanted to run away with the circus? Join us for the next best thing in this hilariously disastrous tale about two failed burglar friends who set their sights on stealing the mighty crown jewels. Will they succeed? Or will Detective Dirk catch them?

Wallace and Ned will have you falling off your seat and into a cartwheel as the story unravels through circus tricks and acrobatic skill!

Workshop: Have a bundle of fun replicating what you’ve just seen in a workshop covering balance acrobatics, juggling, tumbling and slapstick!

About the company:
The Dust Palace is New Zealand’s preeminent circus theatre company. Their aim is to create tour-able circus theatre, taking stories from Aotearoa around the world, and to foster circus and physical performance and practitioners in Auckland and wider New Zealand.

Performances start at 10am, followed by a workshop at 11am.

Auckland Live Pick & Mix events are free, however bookings are essential. Please book your tickets from https://www.aucklandlive.co.nz/show/auckland-live-pick-and-mix-wallace-and-ned#tickets-times

Seriously funny and frighteningly silly.

If you think you know the stories of the Three Little Pigs, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Goldilocks and Jack and the Beanstalk – think again.

Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes & Dirty Beasts bursts off the page in a spectacular live show, taking the world’s best-loved fairy tales and rearranging them with some surprising and hilarious twists. Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes & Dirty Beasts is the perfect family entertainment – for children 5 to 105. It delights and disgusts in equal measures.

Don’t miss this multi-Helpmann Award nominated productions penned by the world’s number one storyteller and from the team that brought you George’s Marvellous Medicine.

Recommended for children aged 5 years plus.

Tim Bray Theatre Company presents The Santa Claus Show ’19  by Tim Bray and songs by Christine White.

About the show:

Kelly and Alana are best friends and decide to write to Santa Claus. But Kelly sends the longest list of things that a child wants for Christmas that Santa has ever seen. Santa flies Kelly to the North Pole so she can learn for herself the true meaning of Christmas.

Enjoy The Santa Claus Show ’19 with your family, school or early childhood centre – or make a booking to share the spirit of Christmas with your staff, clients and their families. Generous group discounts or book your own exclusive performance.

Now in it’s 17th year – a magical, traditional Christmas treat.

Costume Parade: Encourage your children to dress up as their favourite Christmas character for the onstage Costume Parade just prior to the start of the Holiday shows.

Recommended for children aged 3 to 10 years old.

Presented by Pop-up Globe’s Northumberland’s Company.

“These violent delights have violent ends…”  Pop-up Globe’s resident company present a brand new production of Shakespeare’s epic love story, Romeo & Juliet.

Set against the baking heat of an Italian summer, the ancient vendetta between two families takes a tragic turn as gangs of hooded youths look for trouble on the streets. But even as their rivalry turns deadly, love blooms in an unexpected place. The wrong boy falls in love with the wrong girl. Their ill-fated love will become the stuff of legend.

Justly regarded as Shakespeare’s tragic masterpiece, Romeo and Juliet enchants audiences with a spell-binding mix of comedy, love, poetry and – ultimately – tragedy. This new production, directed by Pop-up Globe’s Artistic Director and founder Dr Miles Gregory, fuses spectacular Jacobean costumes with edgy contemporary street violence to create our flagship production for the 2019/20 Pop-up Globe season.

Based on the performance tradition of 1614, the Northumberland’s Company are Pop-up Globe’s resident company of actors and musicians, drawn from around the world. Working with international theatre experts and creatives, they will transport you four hundred years into the past for the extraordinary experience of seeing Shakespeare’s plays performed in the space for which they were written.

Faint starlight peeps through the dark forest canopy. It is midnight: the witching hour. Alone and lost, two hungry children stumble towards a glowing vision of warmth and comfort, heaven for any child with an empty belly and an aching heart. But all is not as it seems…

For Christmas 2019, the Royal New Zealand Ballet is proud to present a new two-act ballet by Loughlan Prior, with a specially commissioned score by Claire Cowan. This major premiere brings together many of New Zealand’s creative talents to tell a timeless tale for audiences young and old.

Claire Cowan is at the forefront of compositional talent in New Zealand. She has received significant commissions and awards from orchestras such as the Auckland Philharmonia and the NZSO National Youth Orchestra, recently winning a prestigious Silver Scroll for her Television series soundtrack “Hillary”. Her classical concert work is unique in that it seamlessly merges art music and popular idioms, offering a strong connection to audiences. Since 2010, Claire has directed the popular Blackbird Ensemble, a theatrical orchestra dedicated to performing rarely heard music of all genres. Hansel and Gretel will be the first full length ballet score ever commissioned from a female composer in RNZB’s history, performed live by Orchestra Wellington, the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra; a specially-made recording will accompany performances in other centres.

Performance Times

Friday 13 December 2019 at 7:30pm with a free pre-performance talk

Saturday 14 December 2019 at 1:30pm with Q&A session

Saturadd 14 December 2019 at 7:30pm with Warm up, curtain up.

Following on from sold-out sessions last year, the highly-entertaining Christmas Spectacular presented by LIFE is back again in 2019.

You’re invited to come to the brand new show and explore the greatest story ever told, with incredible live songs, stunning visual effects, enchanting moments and fun for the whole family to enjoy!

The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra takes you and your littlies on a ride to the Caribbean for this festive concert. Hear all of your Christmas favourites, such as ‘Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer’ and ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ with the tropical twist of steel pans!

The orchestra will be joined by talented steel pan artists The Panimals. The steel pan is the national instrument of Caribbean islands Trinidad and Tobago as well as the iconic instrument used in the beloved The Little Mermaid movie soundtrack.

The festivities kick off with a special Show & Tell in the foyer, where musicians will be performing and showing off their instruments 45-minutes before the concert. Kids are encouraged to watch, listen, and even have a go at some of the instruments on display!

And don’t forget the walk-through of the orchestra as the musicians play the final pieces of the day.