My Best Dead Friend

Created by Anya Tate-Manning & Isobel MacKinnon; performed by Anya Tate-Manning and directed by Isobel MacKinnon, this play is produced by Zanetti Productions for the Southland Arts Festival.

December 1998. Dunedin. High summer in a town where there isn’t a lot to do. This is a comedy about death, revolution, unfulfilled love; and a possum.

Winner of the Best of Fringe at the NZ Fringe Festival, 2018, My Best Dead Friend is a true story—a joyful, playful solo show from a heavy heart.

With music ranging from The Verlaines to the Backstreet Boys, My Best Dead Friend is a nostalgic, bitter-sweet comedy that celebrates friendship and the challenges of growing up, even if you are not really ready to.

“What makes it all so engaging is the degree to which we can see ourselves, our friends, our lives and a larger social history in the consummate storytelling Tate-Manning’s Anya delivers. As Tate-Manning gets to learn from who Anya was and how life was back then, so do we.” Theatreview

Double bill shows: See My Best Dead Friend and Jane Doe on the same night for $48.