IT’S A TRIAL

 ​​It’s a Trial! is a durational performance fusing courtroom drama with social practice, creating a theatrical forum to discuss current political and social issues. Part Forced Entertainment, part farce, and part community theatre, It’s A Trial! attempts to utilise the theatrical nature of the law to have important conversations in an artistic setting.

Staged as a real trial, using traditional court procedures and requiring legal research and argument, the company litigates an issue over a 2 - 6 hour period. The trial includes witness examination of non-actors who are experts in their relevant field.

Each season of It’s A Trial! features a new legal question, new plaintiffs and respondents, and new witnesses. There have been four iterations of the Trial to date, respectively examining public broadcasting responsibility, the housing crisis, government support of arts practitioners, and the capacity of local government to provide cultural wellbeing services.

It’s A Trial! was created by Karin McCracken, Joel Baxendale, Jo Randerson, Maria Williams and Anya Tate-Manning, and was originally co-produced by Binge Culture and Barbarian Productions.

Presentations:

• BATS Theatre, April 2016 (TVNZ v NAME SUPPRESSED: Is Kiwimeter racist?)

• Wellington Museum, November 19 2016 as part of Spring Uprising Festival (MANNING V ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Social housing)

• Samoa House, February 22 2018, Auckland Fringe Festival (MATE-TANNING V MINISTRY FOR CULTURE AND HERITAGE: commercial incentives in the arts)

• Wellington Museum, July 2019, Local Government New Zealand Conference (PHIL E. STINE V ATTORNEY-GENERAL)

Awards

• Most Original Production: Wellington Theatre Awards 2016