Arts on tour New Zealand: Mad Doggerel Cabaret

Celebrate National Poetry Day with Mad Doggerel Cabaret

Enjoy a poetic cabaret evening this National Poetry Day with Poet Laureate David Eggleton, Daren Kamali and Richard Wallis, as they present a comic portrait of Aotearoa New Zealand and its place in the South Pacific today. Their Mad Doggerel Cabaret is full of wild musicality and lightning humour.

David Eggleton, the current Poet Laureate of Aotearoa 2019-2022, has been described as a a jazz-bop-beatnik poet ‘whose poems never cease to amaze and astound in their creativity ... in performance he is no longer a just a poet but a ranter, a raver, a conjuror ... his poetry spirals into today’s world from a Polynesian heritage’.

The Mad Doggerel Cabaret will be joined by guest poets Rhegan Tu'akoi and Zoe Higgins.

Arts on Tour New Zealand

This show is part of the Arts on Tour New Zealand 2022 programme. They organise tours of outstanding New Zealand performers to rural and smaller centres in New Zealand. The trust receives funding from Creative New Zealand, as well as support from Central Lakes Trust, Community Trust South, Interislander, Otago Community Trust, Rata Foundation, Aotearoa Gaming Trust, West Coast Community Trust, The Lion Foundation and Community Trust Mid and South Canterbury.

The AOTNZ programme is environmentally sustainable — artists travel to their audiences rather than the reverse.

The Arts on Tour 2022 programme

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About the speakers

David Eggleton (he/him), an acclaimed writer, has received just about every literary award for poetry it is possible to receive in New Zealand, from the Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Poetry in 2016 to Best First Book of Poems in 1987. David has taken part in many international events, including the Poetry Olympics and the Ranters' Cup Final, winning Street Entertainer of the Year for Poetry at the London Convent Garden Festival.

Zoe Higgins (she/her) is a poet and facilitator living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She has English, Welsh, and Swiss ancestry, and grew up in the crevices of Horomaka Banks Peninsula. Her work has most recently been published in Out Here: An Anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa (2021), and is forthcoming in No Other Place to Stand: An Anthology of Climate Change Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand.

Daren Kamali (he/him) was a co-founder of South Auckland Poets Collective, an organisation aimed at encouraging young Pacific writers to tell their stories. He is an accomplished performance poet, as well as musician. He has travelled the world presenting poems based on Polynesian and Pasifika legends and his own life story. Daren has a Master of Creative Writing with First Class Honours from the University of Auckland (2017) and has released two albums of his poetry set to music using a mix of traditional and rock music instruments.

Steve Thomas (he/him) established Arts on Tour New Zealand in Christchurch in 1995. Since then ‘Bard of Christchurch’ has generated over $4 million in revenue as direct income to New Zealand artists by touring acts from Kaitaia to Stewart Island, with the assistance of Creative NZ and many voluntary arts supporters, communities and charitable trusts. Steve has managed and promoted more than 200 original artists and groups including From Scratch, Front Lawn, Te Kanikani O Te Rangatahi, Mike Nock, When the Cat’s Been Spayed, Don McGlashan, The Eastern, Marlon Williams, Moana Maniapoto, Michele A’Court, Penny Ashton, Whirimako Black, NZ String Quartet, NZ Trio, and many other successful Kiwi acts.

Rhegan Tu'akoi (she/her) is a Tongan and Pākehā writer living and working in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Her family is from the village of Holonga on Tongatapu. She has recently had words in No Other Place to Stand and Poetry New Zealand.

Richard Wallis (he/him) is a Dunedin-based classical guitarist. As a soundscape musician he has worked extensively with David Eggleton in producing music recordings.