Off The Page (2022)

Off The Page was an original anthology theatre production, devised by James Ladanyi, and commissioned by the Featherston Booktown Council for the 2021 Featherston Booktown Festival. The play weaved together pieces from the last 100 years of New Zealand fictional literature, that had never been meaningfully adapted from their book medium, to stage or screen (hence, taking the writing ‘off the page’). The production featured an incredible diversity of writing from Aotearoa’s authors, from household names, like Katherine Mansfield, Patricia Grace, & Witi Ihimaera, to less widely-celebrated talents of the past and present, including Lloyd Jones & Tina Makereti, Stylistically, the work blended a range of genre, tones, & forms, including poetry, short stories, writing for young readers, and extracts from lengthy novels. The work performed by James Ladanyi and Matthew Staijen-Leach.