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NAT has an ever-changing line up; that’s the beauty of having an open-access theatre venue! See what your favourite performers are up to and discover new artists, by checking here regularly. NAT doesn’t pre-programme seasons, so this is where you can see what we have going on. We have a bar open from 1 hourish before the show, and you are welcome to take your drinks into the theatre (there’s no BYO!)

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Improsaurus Presents: Shakespeare in ‘Prov! To improv, or not to improv, that is the question. The answer is yes.
Come along 29th May 8pm at the New Athenaeum Theatre!
Tickets $15/$20 at the door – box office opens 7:30pm.

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As May is for the women and mums in our lives, Dunedin Comedy brings you Mum-umental Comedy, a fundraiser for Ōtepoti-Dunedin Whānau Refuge.

Featuring excellent local comedians Harriet Moir, Meg Hartigan, Jimmy James, Phil Plant, Book Ruffell, Caitlin Owen, and your MC for the evening, Nicola Brown.

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The Octagon Poetry Collective welcomes you to our next monthly reading – Wednesday June 10th! Featured guests for this month are Jilly O’Brien and Te Awhirēinga Heperi, plus our Jackson as MC.

We will run our usual open mic, so please bring one poem if you wish to read, and see Mac on the night to sign up.

Attendance is FREE, but if you have the means please support our co-hosts by purchasing refreshments during the evening.

We are a hate-free zone and decry any bigotry, hate speech, transphobia, homophobia, or racism – bring only your creativity and community spirit.
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Te Awhirēinga Heperi is a Māori/Pasifika (Ngāpuhi, Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Hāmoa) writer. Her work spans poetry and spoken word, shaped by lived experience, cultural grounding, and a commitment to telling the truth. Te Awhirēinga’s voice speaks to the realities of being young and Māori, and to the ongoing legacy of resistance, from the whenua to the written word.

Te Awhirēinga writes to invoke change, delegitimise the complicit, and uplift indigenous communities.

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Jilly O’Brien is from Ōtepoti Dunedin. Her poems have been published in literary journals and anthologies, and on a bench down Vogel Street plus the backs of parking tickets. She writes in English and sometimes in Scots, and last year won the Wigtown Poetry Prize, the Monica Taylor Poetry prize, and was second in the Robert Burns International Poetry Competition.

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Your Collective committee:
Jackson
Mac MacDonald
Jasmine Taylor
Nicola Thorstensen
Ben Wilmot
Sophia Wilson 

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You Won’t See Me on the Poster re-imagines the works of William Shakespeare through the lives of Shakespeare’s “minor” characters. Throughout this one hour solo show, created by Kate Low and Sarah Entwistle, we see what the star crossed lovers look like from the Nurse’s point of view in Romeo and Juliet; we muse over the wonders of life and death with the two Gravediggers from Hamlet; explore what happens when Feste the Clown lets go of his witty smile in Twelfth Night; meet the drunken Porter of Macbeth who might know a little bit more than he lets on and get to know characters from some of Shakespeare’s lesser known works, such as Constance in King John.

You Won’t See Me on the Poster invites us to explore the feeling of Sonder by bringing us into the lives of characters that are often perceived as existing simply to progress the central plot; devices rather than people with their own reality too. Through the notion of Sonder You Won’t See Me on the Poster encourages us to look at each character for who they are: a whole person with a whole story to tell.

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Returning 2026 – mark your calendars!

Octagon Poetry: 11/2, 11/3, 8/4, 13/5, 10/6, 8/7, 12/8, 9/9, 14/10, 11/11, 9/12
Femme: 14/2, 16/5, 22/8, 31/10, 12/12
Improsaurus: 24/4, 15/5, 29/5, 12/6, 28/8, 18/9, 2/10, 16/10, 30/10

Keep an eye out for dates to be confirmed, and mark your diaries 🙂