Whales

"A remarkable happening"
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Binge Culture’s Whales is a community-building event in which strangers on the street suddenly find themselves working together to save a pod of stranded whales and help them back into the ocean.

A pod of whales emerges from the central city... They are slow and majestic but also playful, diving and splashing together along the pavement, past cafes, across pedestrian crossings, all the while singing their whale song. They are trying to get back to the ocean, but before they can they strand near the water's edge.  For them to get safely into the ocean, they need the humans to pull together, to keep them cool and keep their spirits up until they can be refloated.

Devised by Binge Culture, directed & produced by Claire O'Loughlin & Fiona McNamara

Nominated FRINGE SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE AWARD, Edinburgh Fringe 2017
Winner SPIRIT OF THE FRINGE AWARD Auckland Fringe, 2015
Winner BEST IN FRINGE, CNZ AWARD FOR INNOVATION, FRINGE OUTDOOR AWARD, NZ Fringe Festival 2013

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Production History 
The first season of Whales was performed on Saturday 16 February as part of NZ Fringe 2013, with support from Kakano Funding.  

The whales swam through Wellington city, from Cuba Street, through Civc Square, to the waterfront, where they beached on the harbour side of Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand. Huge thanks to the members of the public who joined together to care for them. We got 32 out of 33 safely back into the water. The highlight for us was the way the children responded to the whales – from driving a tiny tractor to singing songs to keep their whale calm, they really showed the adults how to do the job.

Read a review on Theatreview here 
Read a media release post NZ Fringe 2013 performance here 

The second performance was at Splore 2014
The third performance was for the opening of NZ's National Whale Centre in Picton, November 2014
The fourth was Auckland Fringe 2015
The fifth was on Turtle Lake Lawn, Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival 2015
The sixth was staged on The Strand as part of the Tauranga Arts Festival
The seventh was at The Octagon for the Dunedin Arts Festival 2016
Multiple whales strandings occurred 13-24 March 2017, as part of Capital E National Arts Festival
In August 2017 the whales swam all the way to Edinburgh Fringe and were nominated for the Fringe Sustainable Practice Award.
In February 2018 they stranded at Shared Lines Kaikoura.

See details of each season, including a list of performers, here