Directed by Sheena Townsend

The Globe Theatre’s 2024 Season will start not with a bang, but a buzz and a thump (at the bottom of the stairs). When Tom Stoppard’s Artist Descending a Staircase opens, it’s 1972 and we’re introduced to three elderly avant-garde artists, life-long friends and roommates. Donner lies dead at the bottom of the stairs. Was it Martello or Beauchamp who pushed him? The event has been recorded, so surely the evidence is clear.

Originally written and produced as a radio play, Stoppard adapted this “[i]ntricate and intriguing” (Daily Mail) piece for the stage in 1988. In The Globe’s production of “Staircase”, audiences can expect to experience an artfully and meticulously written series of flashbacks – to the 1920s and eventually 1914 – followed by a gradual return to the present day and our current predicament. You’ll be treated to Tom Stoppard’s brilliantly comedic flare brought to life. Donner still lies dead at the bottom of the stairs, but having peered into the lives of our artists, witnessing love won and lost in tragedy, do we see matters differently? Are we changed? Can we rely on our senses? On memory?

We are extremely happy to announce that our cast for this production is a dream come true, featuring many well-known actors on the Dunedin scene. Please share our excitement about this cast as we name drop!

Artist Descending a Staircase will start off the Globe’s 2024 Season with a strictly limited run of 7 shows. Performances are on 8, 9, 10 and 15, 16, 17 February at 7:30 PM, with a matinee on 11 February at 2:00 PM.