31 October 2026. Black Grace Fale, Auckland
reviewed by Jennifer Shennan
The Eggyssey is the first season in the new Black Grace Fale (home), their newly converted premises near Karangahape Rd. Newton in Auckland, the first they have owned, after decades of renting elsewhere around town. Studios double as performance areas, and management, study, library and archive facilities are all housed there. There’s a lean and very hardworking directorate (Neil and Abby Ieremia) who keep a tight rein on everything, regular international appearances included. The entrance area to the Fale is a welcoming space resembling a marae, so audiences and performers can mingle easily after the show. Well done Black Grace. Talofa lava.
Two large murals are up on the walls of the entrance—one is of a traditional Samoan orator wearing the distinctive bright red ula fala, pandanus seedpod necklace. He represents the past and the present. Opposite is a bright-eyed boy wearing a space helmet and an ula fale. He represents the present and the future. Nice one.
The Eggyssey is a witty parody of The Odyssey (though not nearly as long). The one hour-long action-packed show is underway and the capacity audience is spared no quarter as wild and wonderful party dancing builds (except it only looks like party dancing as many of the sequences are immaculately synchronised). The Company B cast are graduates of the year’s first full-time intensive training course, joined by members of the Black Grace company. All of them perform at full-speed high-octane energy levels that make you feel younger just by being in the audience. Their stamina, precision and focus are faultless. It’s a helter-skelter and we are on it, holding tight and laughing, or maybe crying, as we head towards Ithaca.
The program note reads:
In The Eggyssey we look at which came first, the chicken or the egg? A seemingly simple question opens the door to a journey into the unknown. Inspired by The Odyssey, The Eggyssey invites us to embrace curiosity, challenge assumptions and question the very nature of our existence. Who are we before we know who we are? What comes first: our purpose or our being? Perhaps the answers matter less than the questions themselves. After all the journey of existence begins with the courage to wonder
In the second to last scene, the torrid pace turns quiet and everything stops as one performer then another quietly walks forward holding a placard or a one-word message to let us know the values they actually stand by or aspire to, behind all their youthful ebullience. The silence is deafening. The words are: Peace, Love, Compassion, Perspective, Empathy, Equity, Understanding, Representation, Yeah Nah, Passion. Says it all really.
Jennifer Shennan, 7 November 2026
Featured image: A moment from The Eggyssey, Black Grace Company B, 2026. Photo: © Jinki Cambronero
