Help us get our show to Europe!

Birdlife Productions are a theatre company based in Nelson, New Zealand. Our latest show uses masks and puppetry (made from found objects such as balloons and plastic buckets) and a breath-taking original music by New Zealand composer David Sanders. This a children's a story told with NO spoken word! Inspired by the New Zealand landscape, its light and colours and bird life, and mingled with traditional Folk stories, ‘Kōtuku and the Moon Child’ is a thoroughly enchanting show for everyone aged 5 to 95! After a premier in Nelson this September we are hoping to take this show to the world in 2019 . . . . starting with the Prague Fringe Festival in May, and then on to other Festivals in Poland, France, Spain and UK, and bringing it back home in September. ‘Kōtuku and the Moon Child’ crosses racial and cultural boundaries, where ideas and emotion can be communicated without spoken language, but rather through visual imagery and the power of music.

The story follows the adventure of a little Moon-child who goes down to Earth to rescue her sister. Maori believe that seeing just one Kōtuku (White Heron) in your life will bring you good fortune – but what if your sister, the Moon, got captured by a bad one and it was your fault so you went after her and got captured as well? How could this possibly be seen as ‘good fortune’ – unless of course your adventure turned out better than expected and some really cool stuff happened on the way!

A story about loss, longing and finding your way back home! “This is an absolutely brilliant production. The wonderful storytelling abilities of Roger and Bridget [Birdlife Productions] will take you on a journey of exquisite artistry and simplicity that will leave you wanting more. True story telling at its finest.” Joel Bolton QSO, Conductor.

As an emerging theatre company with a complex background in visual art, theatre and music, Birdlife Productions are gaining a reputation for original New Zealand theatre-making that combines our hallmark hand-made low-tech aesthetic with intimate and sophisticated storytelling techniques.