| Bard Productions | |
| Genre: | Site-specific and 'adventure theatre' |
| Location: | Wellington, New Zealand |
| Notable: | Frogs Under the Waterfront, Quarantine, A Tempest off Matiu-Somes Island |
Bard Productions, based in Wellington, New Zealand, is a theatre company best known for offering site-specific and 'adventure theatre.'[1] The company has been in operation since 2007.
Frogs Under the Waterfront, an adaptation of Aristophanes' The Frogs, was the company's first successful site-specific production. The performance took place underneath the Wellington waterfront, with the audience in paddle boats. The company won a number of awards for the production and attracted significant local and national media attention.[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Two years later the company produced Quarantine, a show about the human quarantine patients who lived and died on Matiu-Somes Island in the Wellington harbour. The audience was taken to the island at night in a chartered ferry, and the performance itself took place in the forests of the island and in an historical quarantine building.[7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
In 2013 A Tempest off Matiu-Somes Island, an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest held in a chartered ferry which took audience members to the island and in a large animal quarantine station abandoned in the 1980s.[12] [13]
In 2014 the company mounted a return season of "A Tempest off Matiu-Somes Island". It was made public in January 2014 that the company had joined with the New Zealand Department of Conservation and the Kaitiaki Board to secure a 10-year concession to stage theatrical events and performances on Matiu-Somes Island during the summer months.[14] [15]
In mid-2013 the company expanded to Melbourne, Australia and opened up the corporate teambuilding and murder mystery branch of the company, CluedUp Unique Events.[16] [17]
