The Builders’ Fringe

Presented by Maverick Creative

Property Partner: Willis Bond & LT McGuinness

Address: Victoria Lane Apartments, 161 Victoria Street, Te Aro

Date: March 2021

Images: Markuza Maric and Lind Lee

Media: RNZ - Standing Room Only interview

Building sites are a feast of constructional creativity… pure theatre! Maverick Creative in association with Willis Bond and LT McGuinness presented The Builders’ Fringe – a free public theatre show that turned a commercial building site into a sports arena. The nature of this performance purposely blurred the lines between theatre, non-arts trades & sport, calling the ‘plays of the day’ in this magnificent building arena - Victoria Lane Apartments

As participants in the Fringe Festival 2020, The Builders Fringe went on to win “The Most Innovative Show” Fringe Award. The stadium-style mini grandstand and media box was erected in a commercial building site, providing a theatrical and informative sports-style commentary of the action happening on the site itself. Performed daily, commentators interviewed a variety of building perspectives, some live on the site, as well as daily visits and comments from 70m up in the ‘person-cage’ of the crane!

The show was positioned right on the street which allowed for a direct connection to passerby, as well as the direct audience. This resulted in a truly engaging project that could be viewed as a passing fancy or the audience could take a seat and engage for a duration, as duly noted here. The distant interplay between the commentators and the building site workers was distinctive which provided a more in depth relationship to the spectacle.