Barbarian Productions Presents:
Speed is Emotional
Created & Performed by Jo Randerson
PERFORMANCE | TE TŪ
Jo Randerson
Elliot Vaughan
Geronimo LaHood
Thomas LaHood
Caspar Randerson
Pollyanna Ferguson
PRODUCTION | TE TUARĀ
Costume Design
Lighting Design & Operation
Sound Design & Operation
Direction
Production Management
Stage Management
Producer
NZSL Creative Consultant
Creative Access Consultant
Steven Junil Park
Bekky Boyce
Elliot Vaughan
Isobel MacKinnon
Jo Kilgour
Jack Gittings
Sally Barnett
Rāhera Turner
Laura Haughey
Speed is Emotional was created with funding from Creative New Zealand.
The Premiere Season of Speed is Emotional was presented in collaboration with SILO Theatre.
The NZSL integrated performance version of Speed is Emotional was supported by Arts Access Aotearoa and a grant from Foundation North.
Jo Randerson
Jo Randerson ONZM (they/them) is an Arts Foundation New Generation Laureate, and the founder and artistic director of Barbarian Productions. They are an award-winning playwright and author and a graduate of the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University. Jo has published four volumes of short fiction and poetry, many plays, and a new nonfiction work (Secret Art Powers). As a writer they have been twice-nominated for the IIML prize, received the Bruce Mason award, completed a Burns Fellowship at Otago University, and won the NZIFF Patron’s Choice Award for their first short screenplay Hey Brainy Man!
Jo is the creator of Barbarian’s twenty-five year catalogue of works, from their seminal solo performance Banging Cymbal, Clanging Gong (2001) to large-scale outdoor immersive experiences U R Here (2023) & U R Back (2024). Jo completed their Masters in Theatre Arts (Directing) at Toi Whakaari: The NZ Drama School in 2012. Their theatre work has won Absolutely Positively Most Original Production and Best Director - Wellington Theatre Awards 2019 and the ‘Unf**k the World’ award - Auckland Fringe Awards 2021 for Cook Thinks Again, and Winner: Excellence For Overall Production, Auckland Theatre Awards 2019 for Sing it to My Face. In 2023 they received the Topp Prize for Comedy.
Creation & Performance
Elliot Vaughan
Elliot Vaughan (he/him) is a composer-performer based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa. He was the 2024 CNZ/NZSM Composer-inResidence. He makes exploratory concerts, composed theatre, pop songs, performance art, and contributes to collaborative projects. He holds composition degrees from SFU (Vancouver) and Te Kōkī—NZSM. He plays with Moth Quartet and Eigenface.
PERFORMANCE & SOUND DESIGN
Steven Junil Park 박준일 (he/they) is a Korean born multi-disciplinary artist based in Ōtautahi. He is known for his work under the name 6x4 where he produces all manner of functional objects from recycled, repurposed, or vintage materials, focusing on the medium of clothing to address questions of identity and place.
COSTUME DESIGNSteven Junil Park 박준일
Bekky Boyce (they/them) is a non-binary freelance production designer and operator based in Tāmaki Makaurau. They have worked in theatre and dance since 2019, after graduating from Massey University. Recent lighting designs include A Slow Burlesque (Silo Theatre), What Happened to Mary Anne? (Pride Festival) and production designs for No time to Dry (Lucy Dawber). Bekky regularly operates for Te Pou Theatre and has worked on productions such as Kōpū, He Huia Kaimanawa, and The Handlers. Nominated for Best Lighting Design at the 2022 Wellington Theatre Awards, they have been Technical Manager for the Tahi Festival since 2021.
LIGHTING DESIGNBekky Boyce
Thomas LaHood (he/him) is a graduate of the Bont’s International Clown School (Ibiza) Autumn Academy 2006. He is an experienced clown with a history of performance including the touring children’s shows Tale of a Dog (Capital E, 20089), and Caterpillars (2015 - 2017), as well as frequent commercial acting roles. He worked for 4 years as a Clown Doctor at Wellington Public Hospital and has taught clown at Whitireia, Toi Whakaari, Victoria University and independently. Auckland audiences would have seen him last on stage alongside wife Jo Randerson in Soft n Hard, Q Loft 2019. He has been playing the drums for about 6 months.
PERFORMANCEThomas LaHood
Geronimo LaHood (he/him) is a year 13 student at Wellington High School and an avid student of Suzuki violin. He is the student representative on the Board of Trustees and works part-time at Baron Hasselhoff’s Chocolate Emporium in Berhampore. Geronimo is currently co-directing the WHS Shakespeare Society production of Romeo & Juliet (in the zombie apocalypse).
PERFORMANCEGeronimo LaHood
Caspar Randerson (he/him) is a year 10 student at Wellington High School with a Level 1 Award in Graded Examination in Music Performace for Grade 2 Piano from Trinity College. He’s currently in rehearsal to pay a zombie in the WHS Shakespeare Society production of Romeo & Juliet, and an ensemble member in the school production of Guys & Dolls. He has recently discovered that he loves playing sport, especially volleyball.
PERFORMANCECaspar Randerson
Pollyanna was born into this world wrapped in visual language (NZSL) and has always felt most alive under the lights. From theatre to TV and film, storytelling has long been her heartbeat.
While her main role is as a teacher of Deaf - nurturing language, identity, and confidence every day - she continues to follow her passion for acting. She has worked with Tim Bray Theatre Company teaching young Deaf people through theatre, Equal Voices Aotearoa, and several small Wellington-based theatre companies focused on children's shows, as well acting in Australia and USA.
Now, in this bold new chapter, she is acting alongside Jo - stepping into something different. Not interpreting, but truly performing within Jo's world, interweaving her presence into the show.
PerformancePollyanna Ferguson
Stage managementJackson Gittings
Jackson Gittings (Jack, he/him) is an artist and designer from Te Awanga. Working over the expanded fields of digital art, theatre, and radio, Gittings brings a considerate poise into any space of enquiry.
Rāhera Turner (Waikato-Tainui, Te Patupō, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) is an NZSL Creative Consultant who maintains an ongoing relationship with Equal Voices Arts. She works alongside Deaf and hearing artists to ensure NZSL and visual language choices on stage are led by first-language users.
Rāhera is passionate about elevating signed languages in theatre and strengthening opportunities for Deaf performers and audiences. She delivers Deaf Awareness workshops and consults with arts and government organisations to improve access, inclusion, and culturally grounded practice across the sector.
NZSL Creative consultantRāhera Turner
Dr Laura Haughey is an award-winning theatre maker, dramaturg and creative access consultant whose work reimagines access as a site of artistic possibility. She established the Deaf and hearing theatre company Equal Voices Arts, collaborating with Deaf artists to create cross-cultural, cross-linguistic productions accessible to D/deaf and hearing audiences.
Her devised works have been performed across Europe and Aotearoa, and she has taught internationally in universities and conservatoires. She was recently awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship from the European Commission to develop accessible embodied mindfulness-based performer training practices. Her consultancy develops innovative, inclusive approaches to creative access.
Creative ACCESS ConsultantLaura Haughey
E ora ana tātou! We are Barbarian.
We live and work in Wellington, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, in Aotearoa New Zealand. We love people, music, trees, costumes, dancing and parades. We are makers of theatre, but not as you know it. We’re about making magic happen in unexpected places, filling life with art and art with life. For Barbarian, art is the work we do every day to bring people together. We make live performance because we love what happens in the air between us when we meet face to face.
Founded by Jo Randerson in 2001, Barbarian has evolved as a powerful creative force, with partner Thomas LaHood, a small team of dedicated staff and a large horde of independent artists, performers, designers, makers, and technicians. We are driven by our belief in radical fun, courageous expression, fluidity, generosity and participation – that’s what keeps our play real for us and our audience. Barbarian works out of the Vogelmorn Bowling Club, now a revitalised community space with a bar, a café, a ginger beer brewery, and a toy library. It’s our turangawaewae - our place to stand. It’s both a physical and a spiritual home for us and all are welcome. Come visit us! – barbarian.co.nz
