Mothered - Development Season

Tahi New Zealand Festival of Solo Performance celebrates the power of one voice to move, challenge, and connect us. But behind every solo work is a whole community helping bring that voice to life. We’re inviting you to become part of that community by supporting MOTHERED — a bold new theatre work in development exploring the complex and essential relationship we have with our Mothers.

 At a time when the voices of mothers, older women, mana whenua wahine, and migrant women remain deeply underrepresented on our stages, MOTHERED creates space for these stories to be seen and heard. 

We’re seeking support to help develop this powerful new work for Tahi Festival, and every contribution brings us closer to sharing these essential voices with audiences across Aotearoa. Please help us give MOTHERED the boost it needs.

About TAHI- New Zealand Festival of Solo Performance 

TAHI showcases Aotearoa's most innovative solo performances. 

Our annual festival gathers soloists from around New Zealand, and beyond – from established to emerging practitioners – to present work, collaborate, and make connections across the industry. 

TAHI sets out to dispel the notion of 'solo' performance. It is a misnomer. Solo performance requires relationships and collaboration. Kotahitanga – Together as One.

About the team behind MOTHERED

The project is co-directed by Kerryn Palmer, and Sally Richards, Artistic Director of TAHI. 

We have assembled an incredible company of artists and practitioners at the top of their game. The company includes Mel Dodge (Performer/Writer) Sameena Zehra (Performer), Bronwyn Turei (Performer), Melissa Sutherland (Writer/Performer), Vanessa Rhodes (Writer) and Rebekah de Roo (Designer)

The creatives involved have been nurturing this work since 2025. In 2026, we will have two script workshops and a reading at TAHI New Zealand Festival of Solo Performance in September 2026. The full production will then be presented at TAHI in September 2027.

Your support will help us bring this new work to life, funding artist fees, rehearsal space, development workshops, and production costs as we prepare for a development presentation at TAHI Festival in Pōneke in 2026. The full production will then be premiere at TAHI Festival in 2027.

Mothered is a compelling new theatre work in development from TAHI New Zealand Festival of Solo Performance. An unforgettable collection of stories exploring motherhood, mothering, and our relationships with mothers in all their beauty, complexity, humour, and pain. 

Inspired by the polylogue form, multiple voices woven together through monologue,  Mothered will bring together new writing, verbatim interviews, poetry, and fragments of existing writing, to present stories that are deeply personal, fiercely honest, and universally resonant.

At TAHI, we believe solo performance has the power to connect us through truth-telling. Since 2019, our acclaimed polylogue productions have become some of the festival’s most celebrated works, creating space for voices and experiences that are too often missing from our stages. With Mothered, we are continuing that kaupapa by centring the stories of mothers, older women, mana whenua wahine, migrant communities, people across the gender spectrum, those who long to mother, those who choose not to, and those navigating the complicated legacy of being mothered themselves.

Motherhood is fundamental to humanity. yet these stories remain underrepresented in theatre and public conversation. We believe audiences are hungry for work that reflects the realities of care, identity, sacrifice, expectation, grief, resilience and love. Mothered will create a space where people feel seen, heard and connected.

Your support helps amplify voices that deserve to be heard. Join us in bringing Mothered to the stage.

Mothered speaks to something every person understands: the experience of being mothered, longing for mothering, rejecting it, surviving it, celebrating it, or becoming it.

This work matters because it makes space for voices that are often unheard, carrying stories that are funny, raw, uncomfortable, tender, and deeply human. In a time when so many people feel isolated and unseen, Mothered offers connection: a chance to recognise ourselves and each other through storytelling.

By backing this project, our community is helping create bold new Aotearoa theatre, supporting artists to tell truthful New Zealand stories, and ensuring a wider range of voices are represented in our cultural landscape. Your support will help to build a more inclusive, compassionate, and courageous conversation about who we are, where we come from, and the people who shape us.