First Buzzard at the Body - TAHI Festival 2022

An experimental vocal and musical performance about death, capitalism, and birds.

Circle in for an experimental evening of music and poetry about death, capitalism and ornithology.

A setlist of poetic texts are subjected to transformative compositional processes, gutting them of meaning or stumbling through the banal into the sublime. The raw material of the poems is musicalised through cassette loops and digital looper, song, screen, cunning use of microphones, and Elliot’s dynamic, embodied delivery.

Stylistically, the show draws on 70’s sound poetry like Canada’s Four Horsemen, 60’s minimalist composition such as Steve Reich’s phase pieces, the immediacy of punk and stand-up comedy, and the sprawling romance of the natural soundscape.

"Things morph, amplify, distort in delightfully unexpected ways… in a chain reaction of events meticulously mapped out like a more virtuosic Water Walk by John Cage or [...] a Rube Goldberg contraption the ingenuity is hilarious." - Kosta Bogoievski, Theatreview, 2021

Composer & Performer: Elliot Vaughan | Dramaturgy: Antonia Barnett-McIntosh (compositional & conceptual), Eleanor Bishop (directorial), Sacha Copland (physical), and Nick Zwart (design).

The Stage is wheelchair accessible. For full details about accessibility at BATS, go to bats.co.nz/about-bats/accessibility

TAHI Taster
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TAHI Festival
A celebration of solo artists, TAHI is a ten-day Festival from 8-17 September dedicated to showcasing the finest and most engaging solo performances from all around Aotearoa. With events across Pōneke in 2022, check out our website for all the details and to book.

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