The Red Chair: Obsess and Confess

Contemporary cabaret show brings love, laughter and wine to Q Theatre

The Red Chair, a unique blend of a sophisticated New York cabaret and the sultry seduction of an intimate European piano bar, is coming to Auckland’s ‘Q theatre’ for just two weeks from September 21 – October 6, 2012.

It’s a cabaret show with a twist – discover cabaret gems that haven’t been done to death, and experience some favourites in a way they’ve never been heard before.

The Red Chair is a live music show devised by up and coming producer/director Aaron Tindell with musical direction by Robin Kelly. It offers everything from Noel Coward to Boy George, with a dash of Sondheim, Weill and Porter, along with other singing greats.

The show is performed in a classic table and chair cabaret setting – perfect for sharing with friends over a platter of nibbles and a bottle of wine – available for purchase with tickets.
One of the intriguing aspects to The Red Chair is the specially lit red chairs, which serve as performance spaces at selected tables in the audience. “The audience becomes part of the performance without being the performance,” says Tindell. “The eclectic performances in The Red Chair all have a common thread – the exploration and confession of the many perspectives within relationships, and the obessive emotions and feelings these bring out in all of us.”

The Red Chair is a showcase of emerging New Zealand talent and celebration of some more established performers. The cast includes Will Barling, who featured in Auckland Theatre Company’s production of Cabaret in 2010; award-­‐winning actor Andrew Laing, a familiar face on stage and screen in New Zealand including Spartacus and Legend of the Seeker; New Zealand’s Got Talent semi-­‐finalist Melissa Nordhaus; and Roz Turnbull of Outrageous Fortune, The Almighty Johnsons and Shortland Street fame.

The best of New Zealand furniture design is also going to be on display in The Red Chair, with Essenze providing designer Todd Stevenson’s Evolute chair as the visual focal point of the show. Other brands lending their support include Elizabeth Arden, and renown Central Otago winery Akarua, along with funding support from the Friedlander Foundation and Whitecliffe College of Art and Design – where Tindell is completing his Masters of Arts in Arts Management. Tindell is using The Red Chair as part of his Masters to provide the research for an auto-­‐ethnographic study in producing music theatre in Auckland.