Old MacDonald's Farm

Old MacDonald's Farm, a riotous new pantomime for the whole whānau at The PumpHouse Theatre, Takapuna, Auckland, 7th-12th July 2026.

Pearangi Creative is the theatre identity of Claire Hiria Ahuriri-Dunning, writer, director and producer. 

Awards and nominations: winner of Flip the Script 2005 for Spilt Milk; Special Mention in Plays for the Young 2010 for the same, and in 2018 for Hercules; winner of Best Props ACTT Award 2017; shortlisted in the Adam NZ Play Awards 2018 for Dracula: An Adult Pantomime; winner Excellence in Narrative, The Pavs 2021.

Claire is supported by The PumpHouse Theatre, and producer Lauren Wilson (stay tuned for their profile coming soon)

Any money raised here will help chip away at our total costs which are in the mid thousands.  Broad categories of what we need:

- creating and/or hiring costumes

- creating and/or hiring set pieces and props

- hireage and setup of lighting and sound equipment

- rehearsal venue costs

- transport costs for moving set and props in and out of the theatre

- marketing e.g. the business of designing, printing, and distrubuting physical promotional materials, and digital marketing

- accessibility features such as our sensory relaxed performances, and paying for an NZSL interepreter and audio-description

Old MacDonald had a farm — and we intend to keep it that way!

Old MacDonald's Farm is a riotous new pantomime for the whole whānau at The PumpHouse Theatre, Takapuna, Auckland, 7th-12th July 2026.

"Old MacDonald has minded the farm and nearby ngahere for decades, and all that time, the animals of the farm and forest have been at odds. Who really belongs on this whenua? When an interloper shows up and tries to take the farm for himself, mammals and manu have to join forces to save their home."

We are hoping to bring joy and inspiration to children with this rollicking good fun show. Environmental messages are couched in laughter, audience participation, song and dance, and even a costume parade!

Please join us in bringing this brand new script to the stage in its most fabulous form.

This is a work written for North Shore children by a born and bred North Shore writer, once a child and now a mother of children growing up on the Shore. It continues a proud tradition of locally written work at The PumpHouse Theatre. We are making an effort to make a work affordable and accessible with a low budget, and within a short amount of time in order to fill a programming gap, so we would appreciate every bit of help we can get.