Emotions run high at New Zealand Festival

THERE is a poignant symmetry between Lissa Twomey and New Zealand, which the festival director has called home for six years.

Hohepa

THERE is a poignant symmetry between Lissa Twomey and New Zealand, the country the Australian festival director has called home for the past six years. Both are moving on.

In a week in which NZ commemorated the first anniversary of the devastating Christchurch earthquakes that killed 185 people and which, according to Prime Minister John Key "changed the country forever'', Twomey is preparing to open her third and final New Zealand International Arts Festival. And the timeliness of the biennial event has not been lost on the Australian.

"It's been a very, very tough year for New Zealand," Twomey says ahead of the three-week festival, which begins in Wellington on Saturday.

"New Zealanders are a very resilient people, but the ongoing Christchurch situation is just so desperate. It's very sad."

She cites the November 2010 Pike River mine disaster that killed 29 men as further evidence of the country's recent tragic run. The land of the long white cloud, she says, needs "something to smile about''.

And Twomey plans on giving it to them.

The artistic director’s third festival has purposely broad appeal and features an enticing array of local and international acts, including a handful of premieres.

Twomey, a former associate artistic director at Sydney Festival, has assembled more than 300 local and international acts in what she is confident will be a triumphant last hurrah.

One of the festival features, Twomey says, will be the New Zealand Opera production, Hohepa, which premieres on March 15.

It tells the tragic tale of Maori chief Hohepa Te Umuroa, who was transported to the penal colony of Maria Island off Tasmania's east coast. "It's a very affecting production," Twomey says.

Another local production expected to do well is dance work Birds with Skymirrors, by "one of New Zealand's greatest living artists" Lemi Ponifasio.

International acts from as far afield as Latvia and Brazil will feature at the festival, at which Twomey is expecting audience numbers of up to 300,000 people over its three-week run.

British company Propeller, France's James Thierree, Belgian-Moroccan dance guru Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Brazil's acclaimed Grupo Corpo and Grammy Award winning American musician Bon Iver are among the featured artists.

Twomey says finding a balance between local acts and international acts has been a challenge. ``Premieres of international acts are wonderful, but I'm really, really proud of the local program,'' Twomey says.

The director, whose husband is a New Zealander, says she has come to know the country intimately.

"You really have to know a place, and to gain the trust of the people in whose country you are working in," she says. "That process took time. But I'd been to three New Zealand festivals before this and had lots of contact with the festival, so I didn't just come in off the street."

Twomey, who will return with her family to Sydney this year, will not speculate on her future, saying only that she has "a few projects in the works".

She will be replaced in 2014 in New Zealand by Kiwi-born Shelagh Magadza, formerly artistic director at Perth Festival.

Twomey’s departure comes at a critical time for Australian festivals.

Jonathon Holloway is wrapping up his first Perth Festival while next year three new directors will take the reins around the nation: Lieven Bertels in Sydney; David Sefton in Adelaide; and Josephine Ridge in Melbourne.

"It's sad to leave, but I was always coming back to Australia," says Twomey. "I've been on the festival road for 15 years, and it's been a great privilege.

"I have enjoyed it, hated it, all of that.

"Now it's time to come home and see what the future brings."

The New Zealand Festival runs from Saturday until March 18.