'Twas the week before Capping opening night, and the walls of Central were plastered with missing posters of the cast. As worried as the next guy, Critic Te Ārohi put on a brave face and big-boy pants and went undercover to investigate.
Critic understands that the cast of SQUEAL: A Capping Show Horror are not, in fact, missing. Phew. Instead, they were sitting around cross-legged in the Mary Hopewell Theatre like excited schoolchildren eager to tell us what they'd been working on. And, fuck – they've been working super hard. SQUEAL is a product of months of dedication, focusing on the lives of four scarfies – Lindsey, Deborah, Tom and Matty – who will leave their mark on Flat 666 while being “terrorised” by Ghosted Face.
Half of the cast are in their second year of Capping, and another third of them have been around even longer. Critic asked why they kept coming back given how time intensive Capping. One cast member yelled out that the entire thing is a “cult”, before being silenced by another who told Critic “don’t put that in”, and that it’s “culture”, not a cult. “That's what we've got,” they assured. Right.
Heath, who plays Matty Thompson, says the cast’s other motivation is simply the “massive sense of pride” that comes with Capping. It's a labour of love, a whole show made by students for students, and cast member Harriet agrees they are “proud to have a bit of ownership of it.” There's also that warm, fuzzy feeling in contributing to a 132-year tradition. “What we're doing is so special,” she explained.
Critic observed that traditional community and “culture” (not cultishness) in full force, with the cast exchanging banter relentlessly during our very serious interview. According to Izzi, who acts as main character Deborah, the crew “love to troll each other”, but behind that, they're “tight-knit”. “You spend so much time [together],” Izzi explained. “You start to really look after each other.”
The work that goes into Capping is a well-established pattern: after O-Week, a month-long marathon of writing, pitching, and dance practice begins. The directors then select the side sketches you'll see on stage from the three hundred or so ideas pitched by the cast. That’s probably more ideas than the average student has in their entire degree.
What follows after is another grueling month, with stage rehearsals stacking up to thirty six hours per week – on top of video sketch work and the (occasional) lecture. The final practice rehearsals combine stage with tech and involve thirteen hour days. Capping must be something special to get these dedicated tauira voluntarily on campus for that long.
For the first time in over a decade, the main sketch isn't linked to a series or a single piece of media, but to the horror genre itself. Paying homage to everything from the slashers to the paranormal, the ethos for the directors and main sketch writer is that there's “something that appeals to everyone” in SQUEAL. Emile, who plays Lindsey, says the show is a chance to step outside of a world where it's pretty “stressful to be a person” right now. Let’s see if Capping Show throws us back to killer-clown paranoia from 2016.
So you can escape from the misery and those pre-winter blues, kick back and just have a laugh for once. And for all you diehard Craig Daniels fans out there, we asked if he would return for Capping '26. The official answer from directors Jessica Shoemark and Annabelle Fenn was “maybe”. No student left behind!
Get ready, because there will be spooky stuff! This show better be so scary we shit ourselves.
SQUEAL: A Capping Show Horror runs from May 14th to May 23rd, and tickets are available from the OUSA website.
https://www.ousa.org.nz/events/event-details/the-capping-show-2026-
