Free Theatre - The 37 Year Experiment

When German director Peter Falkenberg moved to Christchurch in the 1970s, he faced disdain from conservative locals after setting up avant-garde theatre company Free Theatre. The group was still going strong almost four decades later. Director Shirley Horrocks spent six years capturing their colourful and controversial history, and filming them in action. Interviewees in the 76 minute documentary include director Stuart McKenzie, who reflects on how out there the group was in the early 1980s, and founding member Nick Frost, who recalls when people tried to shut them down. 

The Free Theatre was, and obviously continues to be, really great at putting on a fantastic spectacle on very little money — the smell of an oily rag.

– Director, playwright and ex Free Theatre member Stuart McKenzie

Key Cast & Crew

Emma Johnston

Composer

Shirley Horrocks

Director, Writer, Research

Jonathan Besser

Composer

Marian McCurdy

Research

Jennifer Ward-Lealand

Narrator

Roger Horrocks

Writer, Research