Theatre

Suitcase Show

Trick of the Light Theatre present an eclectic box set of short stories. Dark, spiky, and comic, they touch on climate change, love and death, travel, and secrets that we carry with us.

$29 - $47 (service fees apply)
55 minutes, no interval
10 - 12 July 2025

A traveller arrives at a border with a stack of battered cases. From within them, whole worlds will emerge – an overthrown autocrat finds themselves on the run from their own shadow, an astronaut turns their telescope back on earth and back in time... Each story is told out of a suitcase, from lo-fi shadow play to wireless projection, from dancing disembodied hands to narratives that crackle from a 70s stereo suitcase.

After a sell-out season at Auckland Arts Festival, Suitcase Show returns to Q Theatre for three nights only this July.

Trick of the Light Theatre (The Bookbinder, The Griegol) is renowned for crafting inventive shows and intricate narratives. Suitcase Show reunites award-winning collaborators Hannah Smith, Ralph McCubbin Howell, Tane Upjohn-Beatson, Rachel Marlow and Bradley Gledhill (Filament 11 Eleven).

"A masterful weaving of stories... Crafty as all hell." – Art Murmurs

Creative Team: 
Director - Hannah Smith
Writer - Ralph McCubbin Howell
Performers - Ralph McCubbin Howell & Hannah Smith, with Anya Tate-Manning and Richard Falkner
Travelling Wonder-Tech - Pete Davison
Production and Technical Design collaborators - Brad Gledhill & Rachel Marlow (Filament Eleven 11)
Sound Design and Composition - Tane Upjohn Beatson, with additional composition by Robyn Bryant
Lyrics - Ralph McCubbin Howell


“Leaving On A Jet Plane”
Written by: J Denver
BMG Ruby Songs
Administered by: Essex Music of Australia Pty Ltd


Videography - Dean Hewison
Prop Construction - Hannah Smith, Ralph McCubbin-Howell, Rebekah de Roo, Romina Menses, Emory Otto
Figurines - Jon Coddington
Marketing - Sophie Helm

Audience Warnings: 
This is an adult work, but is suitable for audiences aged 12 and up. Contains haze, flashing lights, references to death and depictions of violence.

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