Red Phone makes its Aotea Centre debut, offering audiences a rare opportunity to experience this internationally celebrated work.
Created by Artistic Directors Sherry J. Yoon and Jay Dodge from Canadian interdisciplinary theatre company Boca del Lupo, this acclaimed work transforms the simple act of conversation into a compelling, intimate performance.
Anyone can walk up and take part in this free, participatory experience. It invites two people at a time to step into custom-built phone booths, each equipped with a vintage red telephone and teleprompter, and engage in a scripted phone conversation.
Once inside, people are connected by phone with either a friend they’ve come with or another audience member, and prompted to choose from a selection of scripts.
For the Auckland season, celebrated New Zealand playwright Victor Rodger ONZM (Black Faggot, The Savage Coloniser Show) was invited to create a unique script for our audiences.
Guided only by the text and the voice on the other line, you become both performer and audience, discovering the theatrical potential of a single conversation.
Red Phone has toured across Canada, Norway, and Latin America for the last seven years, and New Zealand marks another significant moment in the company’s global journey. The installation will play as part of the 2026 Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts in Wellington before coming to Auckland.
Discover what unfolds when two strangers or friends meet in a moment of shared storytelling. Red Phone arrives at the Aotea Centre on Wednesday, the 4th of March, for a limited four-day showing.
