Fission

I'm Martyn Roberts, a Dunedin-based lighting designer and theatre artist. I am part of an award winning team led by critically acclaimed directors David O'Donnell and Hilary Halba creating Fission.  Award-winning theatre professionals Jodie Bate, Kat Kennedy and Rua McCallum perform multiple roles in this new devised theatre work. We have been working with eminent physicist Professor David Hutchinson in this unique collbaoration between science and the arts.

What is Fission?

Fission is a new theatre piece by acclaimed New Zealand company afterburner, and is being premiered at the 2019 Dunedin Fringe Festival.

Created through a unique collaboration between physicists (University of Otago) and professional theatre-makers, Fission brings together entanglement theory, the story of Lisa - a contemporary performance artist and her attempts to fuse science and art, physicist Lise Meitner who discovered fission but was not awarded the Nobel Prize, and the random worlds of radio frequencies, atomic structures, Te Ao Marama, space, light, and time outside of time.

The world premiere of Fission is March 26th 2019 at Allen Hall Theatre.

Why do we need your help?

We want to make sure that our award-winning professional creative team can be paid what they are worth. We have been lucky enough to receive a modest grant from the DCC Professional Theatre Fund, but we do need help to alleviate our shortfall.

Thank you so much for your support!

What is afterburner?

afterburner was founded by designer Martyn Roberts in 2001 with the intimate theatre installation Man on the Moon at BATS Theatre before moving on to create The Telescope for the 2002 STAB season (also at BATS), and Fog and Mirrors, a series of light works around Wellington in 2005 with artist Marcus McShane and winner of the Visual Art award at the Wellington Fringe Awards that year. Other afterburner works include The Singularity directed by Miranda Manasiadis, Hubble created by Martyn Roberts,  wairua=a=line=near with collaborator Rua McCallum, and - most prominently - the multi-award-winning Dark Matter, winner of Best in Fringe 2017 NZ Fringe. 

The wonderful support for the Dark Matter  campaign in 2016 led to afterburner being awarded the Pick of the Fringe 2016 at the NZ Fringe awards, and we were invited to present Dark Matter at the Arts Festival Dunedin 2017. If you were one of those supporters, we thank you again. If you came along to see Dark Matter, then you may be interested in this new work from afterburner. More theatre with your installation this time, Fission will be magic all of its own!