Trick of the Light: creating magic, mystery and magnificence
Trick of the Light has spent more than a decade building theatre that feels handcrafted and alive. Co-directors Hannah and Ralph met at Victoria University of Wellington, where both completed honours in Theatre and English before further training (Hannah on the tools of design and puppetry; Ralph at Bristol Old Vic and later a Masters in Scriptwriting at the Institute of Modern Letters). Their shows have toured Aotearoa, Australia, the UK, USA, Canada and beyond, moving nimbly between intimate storytelling and ambitious stagecraft.
The company’s track record lights up the map for contemporary touring theatre. Their magical, imaginative shows have constantly been refined, reinvented, and have grown along the way, and their work has earned wide acclaim with a string of notable awards, including Outstanding New Playwright (2011 – Ralph), Outstanding New NZ Play (2013 – Ralph), the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award (2014 – Ralph), Most Promising Director (2013 – Hannah), Director of the Year (2022 – Hannah), and multiple Wellington Theatre Awards for The Griegol in 2022.
From the outside, the through-line is clear: engaging, nuanced narratives delivered with inventive design. From the inside, they put it simply: “We like to make theatre that is playful, inventive, thought-provoking, and that speaks to the here and now.” The range is wide: dark cross-over works for adults and older children to biting political satire. But always with a belief that theatre should resonate with the wider world.
Asked why “playful, inventive, thought-provoking,” the answer lands with the candour of makers who solve problems by design. “I suppose our work is inventive because, like everybody else, we don't have enough resources to just do things the obvious way. So we're always trying to think of a clever and efficient way of making things happen,”says Hannah. “Parameters are actually really helpful for forcing you to come at something from an unusual angle.”
They lean hard into liveness. “I suppose I think all theatre should be playful, because that's what theatre is… what you can do is present it as something that's responsive in the room.” And even when the imagery tends toward the uncanny, Ralph explains, “the shows themselves generally have a funny thread, you know? They're not sombre. And the darkness makes the light shine.”
“We really like narrative," says Ralph. "We spend years stewing over our plays and the meanings and interpretations of little bits.” After being asked how their shows are received overseas, Hannah describes the nuances. “It’s been interesting to see how different audiences relate to things in their own ways. Americans love to clap. Australians love to laugh. The English can be... English. Our works are broadly universal, but they do have a NZ flavour. We only change the really specific things that mean something completely different in other places.”
Ralph and Hannah also put their creative genius to creating The Green Theatre Touring Guide – a guide to sustainability and ethics when touring and creating theatre. “So much of it is about the planning stage. How you can minimise how you're travelling, because travel is such a big part of the footprint,” says Hannah. Their rule of thumb is to route progressively, “not zigzagging up and down the map.” Out of practice grew a resource which was co-created with peers. “We consulted a lot while we were making it because we were quite aware, you know, we're just two people working stuff out as we go,” Ralph explains.
They even wrote a ‘green rider’, which Ralph shares is “the same thing [as a technical rider], but with sustainable action points and how to make a show have the smallest footprint possible.” The goal is culture change by conversation. Although one American theatre crossed out all but one of their ‘green’ requests, when they arrived for their season, they found that the theatre staff had been working to try and implement some of Ralph’s and Hannah’s suggestions.
But it’s their dark and mysterious “covid baby” (affectionately named by Hannah) which is currently making waves ahead of its return to Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Premiered in 2021 and toured to the USA in 2023, The Griegol returns to Wellington, this time to The Hannah. Its origin is deeply personal. “We came up with the idea for the monster being a way of talking about grief and a child's understanding of an adult's grief. And I think also because my dad died… we became aware that the rituals of coming together and connecting when somebody dies is really vital… we just have to find the ways that work in the shape of the culture that we have,” says Hannah.
The formal choice was radical simplicity: a show without words, but complex in presentation. “We decided it was going to be a show without words, and then we did some really open design workshops… what if there's smoke? What if there's bubbles? What if there's like... drawing in sand on an OHP kind of thing.” The idea to show the strings, so to speak, led to a bespoke lightbox and live video feed that brings the mechanics downstage and as part of the show, culminating in a dance of live artistry across all facets of theatre-making, and some.
“It's really hard to get right, and we want the audience to be suitably impressed. If they just see the perfect effect, they probably won't appreciate the detail and the craft.”
With long-time collaborator Tane Upjohn Beatson composing a score which accompanies the entire show, and violinist Tristan Carter performing live, including creating live foley sound effects, the process of arriving at the completed show has been collaborative and thoroughly rewarding. Returning now, with the original performers and a refreshed backstage team, there’s relief in knowing that muscle memory will come to the party. “Hopefully it's in the body… because there's so much which is like a dance. This person's hand has to reach across this person's hand to grab this shadow puppet at this moment,” says Ralph.
True to form, Trick of the Light’s next work shifts mode and audience. “We're making a new show… kind of an immersive piece made for under-fives. It's not a story, it's remakings of famous works of art being presented as invitations to play – for preschoolers.” In a climate where visual literacy is everywhere, Ralph is keenly aware of what’s given precedence, and what’s at stake. “We're in such a world of visual storytelling… it's about how to interpret and understand and appreciate. And how we can present ideas that resonate. We reckon there is room for it all.”
About Trick of the Light:
Trick of The Light makes theatre that is playful, inventive, thought-provoking, and that speaks to the here and now.
Their shows range from dark cross-over works for adults and older children to biting political satire, but are unified by their engaging, nuanced stories, inventive design, and belief that theatre should resonate with the wider world.
Co-director Hannah is a Wellington based director, designer and producer who grew up in Ōtepoti (Dunedin). She has an honours degree in English and Theatre from Victoria University of Wellington. She was awarded Most Promising Director at the 2013 Wellington Theatre Awards for The Road That Wasn’t There, and Director of the Year for The Griegol in 2022. In 2023 she received a FAME Trust Mid-Career Award. She has a background in puppetry and paper-art, and her work with Trick of the Light has been performed around Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, the UK, USA, Canada and South Africa.
Co-director Ralph is a Wellington based theatre maker who grew up in Waikari in Te Waipounamu. He completed a BA (Hons) in Theatre & English at Victoria University of Wellington before training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the UK. He was awarded Outstanding New Playwright at the 2011 Wellington Theatre Awards, and Outstanding New NZ Play for The Road That Wasn’t There in 2013. He won the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award in 2014 and received a Masters in Scriptwriting at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University.