The Ground Remembers Us

The Ground Remembers Us is a youth-led New Zealand theatre initiative that explores the consequences of war through movement, music, image, and spoken text. Inspired and driven from Aotearoa New Zealand, the work tells a New Zealand-based story connected to the First World War and the lasting impact of conflict on people, families, memory, and place.

The performance takes this story back to its origins: to the ground that still holds these memories in the Ypres Salient in Belgium and the battlefields of France. Through the voices and bodies of young New Zealand performers, the work reflects on what war takes, what it leaves behind, and how remembrance continues across generations.

This is a significant new work, written and inspired by New Zealanders, carrying a story of remembrance from our own communities back to the places where so much sacrifice occurred, before returning to New Zealand in 2027 to tour and share that experience with communities at home.

The Ground Remembers Us is a youth-led New Zealand theatre initiative developed through The Experimental Theatre Collective, Bacchus Theatre Trust, and Theatre New Zealand. It brings together emerging young performers and experienced New Zealand practitioners to create a significant new work exploring the consequences of war, remembrance, and the stories held in the ground of the Ypres Salient and France.

The work is directed by Blaise Barham, with narrative and design by Paul Percy, and original composition by Robyn Bryant. Together, the creative team brings a high level of theatrical, design, musical, and storytelling experience to the project, supporting young New Zealand performers to carry this story from Aotearoa back to the places where its historical origins remain.

New Zealand driven and inspired, the production will be presented in Belgium and France before returning home to tour New Zealand in 2027, sharing this powerful work of remembrance with communities across the country.

We are seeking funding primarily to cover the cost of staging The Ground Remembers Us in Belgium, with particular support needed for the production’s delivery in Ypres. This includes venue and technical staging costs, production requirements, local transport, and support for the artists while they are in Ypres, including accommodation and meals.

The production staff, from director to writer and designer, are giving their time to this project. Their professional contribution is being offered because of the importance of the work, the significance of the story, and the opportunity for young New Zealand performers to carry this act of remembrance back to the places where its history began.

This support is essential because the project is a youth-led New Zealand cultural initiative being taken back to the very ground that inspired it. Performing this work in Ypres gives the production deep historical and emotional significance. It allows young New Zealand performers to stand in the landscape where so many New Zealand stories of the First World War began, and to honour those stories through a contemporary work of remembrance.

Funding will therefore go directly toward the practical costs of making the international staging possible, rather than covering professional creative fees. It will help ensure the young performers and artistic team can present the work safely, respectfully, and to a high standard while in Belgium.

The Ground Remembers Us is a youth-led New Zealand theatre work that explores the human consequences of war through the life journey of Alfred Hall MM, a New Zealand First World War veteran, from his service on the Western Front through to his untimely death in 1926.

At the heart of the work is the question of what happens after the guns fall silent. The production does not simply remember the battlefields; it follows the long shadow of war carried home by those who survived. Through Alfred Hall’s story, the work examines courage, trauma, memory, loss, family, and the emotional cost carried by returned soldiers and their communities.

The project is being created by The Experimental Theatre Collective, Bacchus Theatre Trust, and Theatre New Zealand as a youth-led New Zealand initiative. It brings together young performers with experienced New Zealand practitioners to create a significant new work told through movement, spoken narrative, original composition, design, and projected imagery.

The work is directed by Blaise Barham, with narrative and design by Paul Percy, and original composition by Robyn Bryant. Together, the creative team is shaping a performance that allows young New Zealanders to engage deeply with our history, not as distant fact, but as lived consequence.

We are doing this because remembrance must remain active. The story of Alfred Hall is not only a story of one soldier; it reflects the wider experience of a generation altered by war. By taking this New Zealand story back to the Ypres Salient and France, the production returns to the ground that still holds these histories. By bringing it home to tour New Zealand in 2027, the project completes the circle, allowing communities here to reflect on what was lost, what was carried home, and why these stories still matter.

The Ground Remembers Us is therefore both an act of remembrance and a contemporary youth performance work: a New Zealand story returning to its origins, then coming home to speak to a new generation.

Why this work needs to be seen, heard, and experienced

The Ground Remembers Us needs to be experienced because it does more than retell history. It asks what war leaves behind after the battles are over, after the uniforms are packed away, and after those who survived are expected to return to ordinary life.

At the centre of this work is the journey of Alfred Michael Hall MM, a New Zealand First World War veteran who served at Gallipoli, Passchendaele, and Le Quesnoy. His story is one of courage, service, survival, silence, and loss. After the war, Alfred returned home carrying wounds that could not easily be seen. His life ended untimely in 1926, and for many years his resting place remained without a named headstone.

Through the support and dedication of his whānau, and those who helped restore dignity to his grave, Alfred’s story has been brought back into the light. The Ground Remembers Us now carries that story further, placing it into the hands, voices, and bodies of young New Zealand performers.

This work needs to be seen because remembrance must be more than ceremony. It must ask difficult questions. What did war ask of young people? What did it do to families? What happened to those who returned home but never truly came back from the battlefield? What responsibility do we have to those whose stories fell silent?

This production does not glorify war. It honours the humanity of those who served and suffered. It uses theatre, movement, music, spoken narrative, design, and image to explore the consequences of war across generations. It allows a young cast to stand inside history, not as something distant, but as something still present in families, communities, landscapes, and memory.

There is deep significance in taking this New Zealand story back to Belgium and France, to the ground that still holds the memory of the Ypres Salient and the Western Front. There is also deep significance in bringing the work home to tour New Zealand in 2027, so communities here can share in that journey of remembrance, recovery, and renewed understanding.

Why our community should back this project

Our community should back The Ground Remembers Us because this is a New Zealand story being carried with care, dignity, and purpose. It is youth-led, New Zealand written, New Zealand inspired, and created by people who believe these stories still matter.

The project gives young performers the opportunity to engage with history in a profound way. They are not simply performing a play; they are carrying the memory of a generation. They are giving voice to those who could not always speak about what they endured. They are helping audiences understand that survival is not always the end of suffering.

Backing this project means supporting young New Zealand artists to represent their country internationally. It means helping them take a story of service, sacrifice, trauma, and remembrance back to the places where its origins remain. It also means helping bring that experience home, so New Zealand communities can witness the work and reflect on their own connection to these histories.

The production staff, including the director, writer, designer, and senior creative team, are giving their time because they believe in the importance of the project. Funding support will go directly toward the practical costs of staging the work in Belgium, including production delivery, technical requirements, artist accommodation, meals, and essential support while in Ypres.

This is why community backing matters. It ensures that Alfred Hall’s story, and the wider story of New Zealanders affected by war, is not left quiet again. It allows remembrance to become active, creative, intergenerational, and deeply human.

One hundred years after Alfred’s passing, his story continues. Through The Ground Remembers Us, it will be carried by a new generation, heard on the international stage, and returned home to New Zealand with renewed meaning.