CAPTAIN COOK THINKS AGAIN
Meet at Te Aro Park – end at Wellington Museum of City and Sea, Wellington
13/02/2019 - 24/02/2019
Production Details
Alternative Histories. Difficult Conversations.
Barbarian Productions re-investigate the history of Wellington’s Waterfront with a brand new walking experience for the anniversary of Captain Cook’s landings.
Captain Cook takes the audience on a walking tour of significant historical sites around Wellington’s Waterfront. As he does, he finds himself thinking again about his contribution to New Zealand history. A fun and accessible opportunity for tourists and locals to reflect on the effect of colonisation and its legacy.
Meet at Te Aro Park – end at Wellington Museum of City and Sea
Wed- Sun 13-24 February 2019
Book Your Ticket Here
TIMES: Two shows daily. More show times will be added. Please click to book and you will see the calendar.
Wed 13th Feb: 11am SOLD OUT, 1pm
Thurs 14th Feb: 3pm SOLD OUT
Fri 15th Feb: 1pm
Sat Feb 16th: 11am, 2pm SOLD OUT
Sun Feb 17th: 11am, 2pm
Wed 20th Feb: 11am
Thurs 21st: 3pm
Fri 22: 3pm
Sat Feb 23rd: 2pm
Sun Feb 24th: 2pm
TOUR STARTS: Te Aro Park, Dixon Street.
TOUR FINISHES: Wellington Museum, Queens Wharf.
Wheel chair accessible.
DURATION: 80 min. (60 min walking, 20 min tea and biscuits at the end)
PRICE: $25 concession/$35 regular/$450 whole tour (15 people). If you’d like to book a Private Tour at an alternate time please contact racheldavies77@gmail.com
Please wear comfortable shoes and bring water, a sunhat or sunblock if needed.
We look forward to seeing you soon!
Terms & Conditions
Barbarian will add your name to list of audience members for each show, and this will serve as your ticket confirmation. Please bring your ID with you, and your concession card information if appropriate.
Tickets are non-refundable, but may be transferred.
If a performance is cancelled, you will be offered a rescheduled time and may choose to attend at this alternate time or get a refund.
Barbarian reserves the right to deny participation to any persons intoxicated or adversely affecting the enjoyment of other audience members.
Barbarian reserves the right to add, withdraw, or reschedule performance times.
Stage manager and prod manager Ashley Mardon
Costume and construction by Seraphina Tausilia-Brown
Producer Rachel Davies
Publicity Thomas LaHood
Guidance and support – Walon Edwards, Jen Margaret, Maria Williams, Emily Beausoleil, plus more
Theatre , Solo , Promenade ,
1hr 20mins (no interval)
Gets all of us looking at things anew
Review by John Smythe 13th Feb 2019
Captain James Cook meets us a Te Aro Park – on the eve, as it happens, of the 240th anniversary of his death in Hawaii: killed and eaten, he tells us (on February 14, 1779). So he’s had a bit of time to mull things over …
He was born of a Scottish farmworker and a Yorkshire woman, in Yorkshire, England – but Tom Clarke chooses to affect a sort of ‘posh brat’ accent, representing the ruling classes whose mission he’s out to fulfil:
– Observe the Transit of Venus
– Locate the fabled Terra Incognito Australis and claim it for Britain.
It’s a wickedly winning performance that prods our deeper sensibilities even as we laugh and smile at his antics.
One of the things Captain Cook re-thinks, as we walk, is the claim that he and his ilk ‘discovered’ places that were already inhabited. Nevertheless he keeps indulging his addiction to colonising places – and teaches us how easy it is. Observant pedestrians may notice the tell-tale signs.
We visit the Te Aro Pā – which I’ve driven past many times and never noticed – and learn how the Taranaki tribe (which migrated there in 1820) was squeezed out by the Settlers many decades later.
We suddenly understand the significance of Taranaki and Wakefield Street intersecting now as they did – not to mention Halleys Lane and Cable Street.
The big boulders outside Te Papa give us cause to pause – and I can’t say I have ever notice the huge wooden anchor high on the wall of the Te Papa foyer. We help Captain Cook rethink his deeply embedded faith in ‘the great chain of being’ …
There is the Karaka Grove, the Wharewaka, the romanticised statue of Kupe, Hine te Aparangi his wife and the tohunga Pekahourangi as they sight and name Aotearoa …
The history of Te Whanganui a Tara – aka Port Nicholson, Pōneke, Wellington Harbour – is unpacked, noting the true names of landmarks that have long-since acquired various English names … We hear of the chief who wept at the arrival of hundreds and hundreds of settlers when he’d been given to believe about 10 would come.
Cook reads from his diary his account of his arrival in Tūranga-nui-a-Kiwa (Gisborne) and the appalling incident that occurred there; his thinking again about that is quite moving.
In the attic of Wellington’s Museum of City and Sea we pore over a relief map of Te Whanganui a Tara and the surrounding whenua to recap our hour-long journey – then we repair to a room for a cup of tea or coffee and a chat.
Captain Cook Thinks Again gets all of us looking at things anew and thinking again. It’s a great opportunity for Wellingtonians – and visitors to Wellington (there were a number in our group). Let’s hope he gets to relocate his cogitations other towns in Aotearoa New Zealand – especially those he actually connected with, for good or ill.
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
Comments
Editor February 13th, 2019
Here is the link to John Smythe’s chat about Captain Cook Thinks Again on RNZ with Jesse Mulligan.