If you’re stuck down in Dunners for the upcoming break, don’t fall to the temptation of a three-week long bed rot. If you fancy doing something other than drinking the cold away, or finding hot new ways to procrastinate exam study, Critic Te Ārohi’s got you. Happy end of semester!
21st May: Romeo and Juliet – set in 1900s rural Dunedin
Globe Theatre is turning truly unc (65 years old). To celebrate, they’re performing their first ever play again: Romeo and Juliet. Set in 1961 rural Dunedin, because obviously nothing says Shakespeare like small town Otago, Globe claims to be bringing this youthful tragic love to a scene “familiar and unsettlingly close to home”.
Other than the "familiar" setting of the mid 1900s, the story remains relatively the same: two teenagers meet, immediately decide that they are soulmates, and then proceed to dramatically die. Sounds similar enough to the average situationship in 2026. So, if you’ve been wanting some drama in your life, and UOO Confessions of love aren’t doing it for you anymore, you can go see Romeo and Juliet between the 21st and 30th of May for just $25.
22nd May: The Circus has come to town (again)
The Weber Bros Circus will be at The Oval between the 22nd of May and the 14th of June. This circus, the largest show in Australasia, promises to excite and delight with acts ranging from a human cannonball, to gravity-defying motorcyclists, to aerial acrobats. Fucking awesome.
You can have this experience for just $50. If that’ll still break the student bank, try rushing down to the ticket office one hour before showtime to get some of the last GA tickets to the side of the ring for $35 (#hacks). Get out of the flat to watch a half-theatre, half-fever dream test of strength, endurance, and durability, complete with stunts that make you question basic human anatomy (and why your own core strength peaked in Year 10 P.E.). You’ll leave wondering if maybe you should drop out, and run away to join the circus (we hear there aren’t ANY readings involved). Deeply humbling stuff.
27th May: Oui oui, le cinéma
The French Film festival is returning to Rialto cinemas from the 27th of May to the 21st of June. For the people that downloaded Duolingo a year ago and still haven’t learnt a thing, why not spend two hours reading subtitles and pretending to understand?
This festival is for pseudo-intellectuals to gather, pretend to enjoy mouldy cheese, and nod their heads thoughtfully at the “cinematography”. Letterboxd try-hards are welcome too, of course. French film somehow manages to make the most mundane feel profound: two people in love staring at each other for an uncomfortably long time (love it), someone smoking gloomily out a window (parfait).
The festival includes a mix of dramas, comedies, and romance, and even if you walk out having understood nothing, you will have gained the ability to casually drop that you watch “foreign cinema”, which is priceless.
30th May: Murder, interactive theatre, cowboys and cowgirls
The longest running comedy show in Aotearoa, the Great Western Murder Mystery, is coming back to Dunedin on the 30th of May. This interactive show features cowboys and cowgirls teaming up to solve an old timey western murder of the “infamous cattle rustler Dooky Smuidge”.
You may have seen the poster around town, promising to provide “one of the world’s most interactive live theatre shows”. If you fancy yourself a bit of a detective, or strongly considered a minor in criminology, you can live out these dreams for just $54.50 per person. Finally a chance to dust off those cowboy hats you bought for Castle O-Week hosts to wear. You know you kept them for a reason.
12th June: Midwinter Carnival
Every year, Dunedin's First Church hosts the mid-winter carnival to convince everyone that Ōtepoti’s perpetual freezing temperatures are something special. This years’ theme is Rustle in the Night: “from glowing dragons to watchful ruru and ancient tuatara, the night will be alive with curious company!” Basically, it’ll be a welcome break from the curious company your flatmate brings home from town.
On June 12th and 13th, for just $10, you can wander through a transformed central Dunedin, with installations of giant lanterns made by local artists (and smaller, less professional lanterns are made in workshops which you can also attend). There will be performances from a number of music, dance, school, and cultural groups, as well as a selection of food trucks. Thankfully, this is coming at just the right time for tauira – the tail end of exam season.
Be a tourist for a night (or if you’re a fresher, be around others who gawk at everything and take up too much space). Take a break between exams, get that shot for your Instagram dump – whatever reasoning you want, this is an event not to be missed. It’s a much-needed reminder that Ōtepoti is more than just a collection of cold flats and stressed students.
