Grand Opening

The Barbarians have been given the keys to one of Wellington's most historical performance venues - the Opera House - and as you'd expect, we're turning the place upside down, throwing open the doors and letting you in.  So come and join us!

We've been dreaming about an opportunity like this for a long time: A chance to combine our passion for accessible, celebratory community events with our love of grand-scale theatricality. Grand Opening is our contribution to the inaugural CubaDupa Festival, and we hope you will attend one of the free performances that will showcase this spectacular old dame of Wellington architecture.

We've been dedicated to making waves with cult audiences at home and abroad. We are growing into a progressive theatre powerhouse that collaborates with local community groups to make complex, challenging works.

Last year we premiered four new works: a street kiosk for a company of Grim Reapers seeking help to change their image (Help Us Change), an intergenerational dialogue in song performed by choirs from age 6 to 80 (Sing It To My Face), a pop-up political hairdressing salon (Political Cuts) and an epic physical comedy about socio-economic privilege (White Elephant).

We are upping the stakes to bring you our most ambitious project to date. Dozens of artists and community collaborators are joining us to fill the Opera House with exciting voices from all over Wellington.  We are nervous, we are excited and we can't wait to have you there!

We have funding from Creative New Zealand and Wellington City Council for this project. You can help too by assisting us with the cost of costumes and props as well as our Community Liaison Producer, and the venue staffing costs. These support roles are essential to this project to allow so many performers from different community groups to be involved.

Thanks for your support, see you at the Grand Opening.