MR RED LIGHT - is down on his luck...

Nightsong’s much-loved show, MR RED LIGHT, needs your help to get to Australia. After much hard yakka, we have been picked up to tour into several Australian cities over June/July. But a small snag, like so many other independent theatre creators we did not get our CNZ funding for 2025.

So, never ones to throw in the towel - we're placing our bets on RED & looking to you for some help to get this hard-earned & exciting  opportunity over the line – with a view to building audiences offshore so we can continue to make & present new work at home.

‘It’s the kind of theatre that makes film look boring, and turns first-time punters into lifelong patrons’ - Up Your Arts

For the rebooted 2025, MR RED LIGHT - we have a predominantly new cast. In fact, three of the actors are in their early 20's and are recent graduates from Toi Whakaari and The Actors' Program. This aligns with the character briefs, but also reflects Nightsong's track record of giving young practitioners professional opportunities and hunting out the next generation of artists. We then fly the other way and have paired them up with 2 gold-card carrying theatre stalwarts. No wonder there is a gun!

The New:

• Brayden Cresswell - Mr Red Light
• Nova Moala Knox - Chrys
• Angus Stevens - Joker 

The Old:

• Jennifer Ludlam - Eva
• Carl Bland - Trevor & The Ant

Directed by Ben Crowder and Carl Bland from Nightsong. Written by Carl.

The show has great design, credit goes to::

• Andrew Foster, Elizabeth Whiting, John Gibson, Nik Janiurek and Charley Draper

The Australian tour is held together by Tungsten Projects, Caroline Bindon, Kirsty Brownfield and Lesley-Anne Carey.

MR RED LIGHT was originally commissioned by the New Zealand Festival and developed with the support of Auckland Live.

Our campaign is designed to raise the last pieces of additional finance that is required to take-up the international opportunities we have been offered. Without this final push, the wider tour will end up losing money. And being an independent theatre company, that is currently operating without Creative New Zealand support this forecast loss is less than ideal!!

The wider tour itself; with re-rehearsal, Auckland warm-up season, international freight,  artist and crew wages, pies and blood costs over $300,000. With a mix of presentation fees from Australia, support from philanthropic trusts, NZ box office, wily producing, patrons, a fundraising evening and generous support from some sector organisations (thank you Auckland Live and Auckland Council!) - the finish line is now in sight - achieving our Boosted target is our big final push to fill the shortfall and would get us into the black and able to live to tell the tale.

Contributing to our Boosted allows Nightsong to continue to make work into the future, to continue to pay actors and those involved in our productions appropriately, as well as helping us build a future where we are less reliant on unstable and decreasing funding pathways. Plus it will be awkward having our card turned down when buying the cast an opening night drink in an Australian bar! 

A huge thank you to those who have already supported this endeavour. If you choose to donate in even a very small way it is hugely appreciated (and Boosted will send you out a receipt you can claim at tax time). However, we do understand it is a difficult time out there; and that many of you reading this will be artists too. So appreciate that you may not be able to contribute. Perhaps you would consider supporting in other ways? - like spreading the word about the fundraising, praying for a lottery win, or by nudging friends to catch the show in Aus!

Mr Red Light is a man who attracts bad luck. So naturally, when he tries to rob a bank he fails miserably – and ends up in a pie shop dealing with three very uncooperative hostages and the world’s worst police negotiator. As time ticks by, Mr Red Light and his captives play a game of getting to know you. With nowhere to run and nothing to lose, they form an unlikely bond. And mysteriously, Mr Red Light seems to know more about his hostages’ lives than is possible.

Mr Red Light is a fool, or maybe a prophet. Either way, he’ll remind you how wonderful life can be.

'Mr Red Light is a work of absolute clarity, marrying existential weight with absurdist humour in a pie shop full of epiphanies.' - Theatreview

'A unique mix of tension, humour, philosophy, and suspense – intelligent, creative, and innovative theatre at its best.' - Broadway World

'The latest creation from writer Carl Bland, director Ben Crowder and theatre company Nightsong is one of the most surreal, beautiful, hysterical and outrageously original shows to grace an Auckland stage this year, a bombastic tale that leaps between ideas and concepts in a maddening, tightly constructed 90-minute joyride.' - NZ Herald

Got friends in Australia? Spread the word across Queensland and New South Wales!

27 June, HOTA, Gold Coast

2 – 5 July, Merrigong Theatre, Wollongong

9 – 12 July, Riverside Theatre, Paramatta, Sydney

Nightsong is an independent company that creates distinctive theatre of vision and scale; championing experiences that question and affirm our place in the world.

Nightsong is artistically led by Ben Crowder and Carl Bland. They have been collaborating since 2005.

Nightsong believes that the development of touring networks into Australia has the potential to transform our sector. We have been engaging with presenters, funders and artists from both sides of the Tasman to see how barriers can be ameliorated. There is a strong appetite for this to succeed and to develop reciprocal models between the countries.

With a larger population, and a wide range of presenters with programming budgets, now is the right time to develop this market. We see this as something not just for Nightsong, but something with huge potential for the NZ's depressed arts sector.  Longer term we want to build longer tours with more partners to increase revenue - but also as a way of developing collaborations and co-investment in the creation of new works.

Australia is our closest market for export. The investment in making new work is always high - so it makes sense to give successful productions a longer life.

For some additional context read Ben's opinion piece published recently on The Big Idea.

https://thebigidea.nz/stories/red-light-can-mean-go-we-need-to-create-our-own-hope