About us
Trick of the Light is an award-winning theatre company from Te Whanganui-A-Tara (Wellington) in Aotearoa New Zealand, founded by Hannah Smith and Ralph McCubbin Howell.
We like to make theatre that is playful, inventive, thought-provoking, and that speaks to the here and now.
Our 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.
Check out what we’ve done, where we’ve been, our kaupapa and our approach to green theatre below.
WHO ARE WE
Hannah Smith
Hannah is a Wellington based director, designer and producer who grew up in Ōtepoti. She has an honours degree in English and Theatre from Victoria University of Wellington.
She received a nomination for Most Promising Director at the 2011 Wellington Theatre Awards, and received the same award in 2013 for The Road That Wasn’t There. 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.
Ralph McCubbin Howell
Ralph is a Wellington based theatre maker who grew up in Waikari in Te Waipounamu.
He was a member of the NZ Young Shakespeare Company and 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 received the award for 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.
Timeline
2011
Our first show, The Engine Room premiered at BATS Theatre in Te Whanganui-A-Tara. It was nominated for five awards at the Wellington Theatre Awards, winning Outstanding New Playwright.
2012
Whilst living in the UK we developed and premiered a new work, The Road That Wasn’t There, for the Edinburgh Fringe - our first overseas season.
2013
Upon returning to NZ we embarked on our first national tour with The Road That Wasn’t There, which received awards for Outstanding New NZ Play, Most Promising Director, and Production of the Year at the Wellington Theatre Awards. This year we also received our first major commission to produce Broken River, for STAB at BATS Theatre.
2014
This was followed by a much smaller show The Bookbinder, first staged in a secondhand bookshop as part of the NZ Fringe Festival where it received awards for Best Theatre, and Best in the Fringe. The show was picked up by festivals around Aotearoa, and later in the year we embarked on our first Australian tour, to Melbourne and Sydney, where it received the International Excellence award.
2015
We received a commission from the Capital E National Children’s Festival to produce a new show Beards! Beards! Beards! which premiered in Ōtepoti (Dunedin) before touring around the country alongside The Road That Wasn’t There. The Bookbinder toured to Fringe World in Perth where it received the BDO Children’s Theatre Award, toured extensively around NZ, and enjoyed an extended, sell-out season at the Edinburgh Fringe.
2016
We produced a large-scale new work, The Devil’s Half-Acre, as a commission for the NZ Festival, and returned to the piece for a run at the Dunedin Arts Festival later in the year.
We toured extensively in the UK with Beards! Beards! Beards! and The Bookbinder, which was the first work by NZ artists to be programmed for the prestigious Edinburgh International Children’s Festival, and enjoyed another sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe. The play also had its North American premiere at the New Haven Festival of Art and Ideas.
We returned to Australia with The Bookbinder and The Road That Wasn’t There, which received Best Children’s Theatre awards at both Fringe World, and the Adelaide Fringe.
2017
We premiered a new work-in-progress, Tröll, as part of the NZ Fringe Festival in Te Whanganui-A-Tara. The Bookbinder returned to the USA and Australia, with seasons at The Lincoln Center in NYC, Belvoir Theatre in Sydney, and Awesome Festival in Perth, and made its South African debut at the ASSITEJ Cradle of Creativity in Cape Town. The Road That Wasn’t There was reworked with Auckland Live before touring to the Edinburgh Fringe.
2018
We were invited back to the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival with The Road That Wasn’t There, The Bookbinder saw us make our Canadian premiere at the Calgary International Children’s Festival and returned to Australia for the Darwin Arts Festival, and Tröll was further developed over seasons around NZ.
2019
The Bookbinder enjoyed sold-out seasons at the Auckland Arts Festival, Te Tairāwhiti Festival, and the Hawkes Bay Festival, The Road That Wasn’t There toured extensively across Aotearoa with Tour-Makers, and Tröll saw us return to Fringe World, Perth, and the Edinburgh Fringe. Later in the year, The Bookbinder toured across North America with Boat Rocker Entertainment.
2020
We were commissioned to produce a major new work, Lysander’s Aunty, in collaboration with The Court Theatre in Ōtautahi (Christchurch), however the pandemic forced the cancellation of this season just four days out from opening, as well as planned tours of The Bookbinder in China and the UK. Over the lockdown, we were commissioned by Circa Theatre to make the short work It’s Behind You! which was rehearsed and performed over Zoom. The Road That Wasn’t There saw us return to live performance, and we toured Tröll around the North Island.
2021
We premiered a new work, The Griegol at the Auckland Arts Festival, and subsequently toured to Festival of Colour in Wānaka. With a travel bubble opened to Australia, we returned to international touring with a season of Tröll at DreamBig in Adelaide. We launched a new website and celebrated ten years of operation.
Where We've Toured
Full details are available on our show pages.
Green Theatre
We are in the midst of a climate crisis and we recognise that making and touring theatre comes with an environmental footprint.
As a company we are committed to adapting our work and ways of working towards environmental sustainability, and to using our platform to advocate better practices.
These are some things we do:
Foreground environmental practice when negotiating contracts (i.e. a Green Rider).
Build carbon offsetting into budgets to highlight this cost to presenters.
Explore opportunities for presenting work that does not involve physical travel.
Coordinate international touring to minimise long-haul flights.
Minimise short haul flights and use ground transport where possible. Plan so as to avoid multiple car trips.
Reuse and recycle materials in shows and throughout the rehearsal process, minimise single-use items (e.g. reusable cable ties instead of electrical tape, and chalk for floor markings).
Use energy efficient electrical equipment (e.g. LED bulbs).
In working towards more sustainable theatre making, some particular resources we have found useful are the websites Julie’s Bicycle and the Theatre Green Book.
We recognise the rightful place of Māori as tangata whenua in Aotearoa New Zealand, and Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the nation’s founding document.
As artists based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, we acknowledge Taranaki Whānui as mana whenua.
As Pākehā theatre makers we acknowledge that we come to our industry from a position of privilege. We seek to consult, collaborate and make meaningful connections through the work we create and the stories we tell.
We try our best, we make mistakes, we learn, we strive to do better.
When we work overseas we bring our own kaupapa with us, but also engage with our hosts’ customs and practice, seeking open-hearted connection through art.
Many thanks to Boat Rocker Entertainment who represent our shows in North America,
and to Creative New Zealand whose continued support makes our work possible.
