13 Classics at the Dunedin Fringe Festival

By Anne Gorman | Posted: Wednesday March 19, 2025

Last Friday evening members of our 13 Classical Studies class went to see a performance of An lIiad, which was being performed as part of the Dunedin Fringe Festival.

A fantastic experience to see just two people perform for 90 minutes and keep our rapt attention the entire time. The combination of spoken word and modern music was inspired, and the performance brought the scale and drama of not just the Trojan War but all wars into a Kiwi perspective.

"Sing muses, sing the rage of Pellus' son Achilles! Humanity has proven unable to move beyond war, the song unable to end. Are you willing to listen?"

Arya Davison

As an aside, on Wednesday evening, I also went to see Babyface, another offering in this year’s Fringe Festival. This play was written and performed by former OBHS student Nick Tipa.

Nick acted every role, in each scene playing at least 3 characters, from a ten-year old boy to a female teacher, to a grumpy old man to a ten-year old girl. By changing his voice, his body movement and his facial expressions Nick made the rapid switches between characters totally convincing. With both humour and sadness, the play offered something we can all connect to. It was a simply brilliant performance.

Congratulations to Nick and to his fellow old boy Zac Nicholls who provided the music and sound.