Strange Ancestors is a music theatre show written and performed by Floral Clocks (Richard von Sturmer, Gabriel White, Robert Sly and Kingsley Spargo). Through songs and stories, the show explores the idiosyncratic side of historical personalities like Jean Cocteau, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Clarice Lispector, Mademoiselle de la Force, Étienne de Silhouette and Lindsay Kemp. Cambrian organisms, dancing bears, and eels also feature.
Strange Ancestors is an imaginary reunion, a genealogy of the narrator’s psyche, an outpouring of joy! Travel to familiar-unfamiliar places, minds and times, and leave energised with music, touched by stories and surprised by the hope that comes from meeting wonderful strangers.
Writer, narrator: Richard von Sturmer Singer, composer: Gabriel White Piano, co-arranger: Robert Sly Percussion, additional instruments: Kingsley Spargo
ScatterGun weaves together poetry, movement and sound, with the voices of whānau from Tūhoe, in a celebration of the profound connection between the human body and te whenua ūkaipō (homeland).
Acclaimed as a work of genius. The contradictions of modern India, with its iPhones and ancient gods, come alive in this much-loved play from one of New Zealand’s finest performers.
