In Blind Faith - Aug 23 - 27
Sold-Out original musical written by Wellington High School student is BACK for six nights at BATS Theatre.
Last year, high school student Cadence Chung staged her original musical In Blind Faith at Wellington High School. This year, the team are bringing the show to BATS Theatre in August, with a brand new cast and a new-and-improved script.
Written while she was 17, the musical is set in the Otago goldfields and tells the story of a young woman out to make her fortune. Along the way, she meets several charming characters who corrupt her into a life of luxury. The show contains queer and Asian representation, and is run entirely by young creatives, with all three directors currently in their first year of university.
On the musical, Chung states, “I’ve been interested in New Zealand history for a long time, and ever since discovering the plethora of Chinese New Zealander history, I knew that I had to create something that told the often ignored stories in this country’s culture. There’s often this idea that it’s ‘not accurate’ to include diversity in historical tales, but a lot of this has stemmed from the fact that marginalised people have often been prevented from telling their stories.”
The musical contains 13 original songs which will be performed by a band of university musicians. Chung’s co-directors, Lewis Thomson and Hazel Perigo-Blackburn, are both young actors and directors, with Thomson putting on an original show at the Fringe Festival earlier this year. Chung is also a poet, with her debut chapbook anomalia published in April 2022. Chung hopes that the musical will showcase the emerging generation of creatives, and make people realise that young people are capable of telling our country’s stories, while shining a light on historically underrepresented narratives.
Kirsten Wong, who saw the first round of the musical, says, “For me, as a Chinese New Zealander, witnessing our next generation of creatives coming up with their own narratives and backstories, and injecting diversity into historic tropes is incredibly exciting. If Aotearoa is to become the creatively diverse, inclusive and socially cohesive society we want it to be, we all need to be encouraging this type of talent.”
In Blind Faith will run from the 23rd-27th of August, and tickets are available from the BATS website here You can follow the show’s process at @inblindfaithmusical on Instagram, or ‘In Blind Faith’ on Facebook.
