The Court Theatre’s Associate Artistic Director Tim Bain shares how their Rainbow Weekend festival is evolving to meet the moment.
For Associate Artistic Director Tim Bain, The Court Theatre’s current energy can be summed up in a single word: momentum.
“We’re doing well,” he says, almost casually. “People are coming to 9 to 5 in their thousands — it’s been a huge, huge hit.”
Since moving into its long-awaited central city home, The Court has enjoyed what Bain calls a “honeymoon period”: audiences eager to check out the new building, see what’s possible, and reconnect with live theatre. But he’s under no illusion that the novelty alone will sustain them.
“You get that first year where people are like, ‘Oh, we want to go check it out and see it all.’ But soon, we’re no longer the new building in town. (Christchurch’s new stadium opens in April.) The hard work starts.”
That philosophy — that theatre has to earn its audience — sits at the heart of the Court’s Rainbow Theatre Festival, now in its third year. And if the first two iterations proved anything, it’s that Bain has no interest in repeating himself.
A Festival That Responds to the World
“It’s never the same twice,” Bain says. “I learned very quickly after the first one: to mix this up every single year. Seeing what’s going on in the world and tailor the experience for that.”
Last year’s festival leaned heavily into drag, a deliberate response to increasing attacks on drag performers internationally. This year, the tone has shifted again — shaped by a global climate that Bain says has started to feel exhausting, even from Aotearoa.
“A lot of our news comes from America,” he explains. “With what’s going on there around LGBTQ+ rights, it just seemed like no one was having a good time. I felt that starting to creep in here — through politics, through how we’re living, how we’re seeing the world.”
The result is a Rainbow Theatre Festival that is consciously lighter on its feet. “This year, everything had to be positive and uplifting and kind and joyous,” Bain says. “Nothing could sit in the dark.”
That meant stepping away from heavier community projects like last year’s The Laramie Project. “There’s enough doom and gloom,” he says simply. “This needs to be uplifting and fun — an escape for people to come to.”
Queer Stories — Told With Allies
Another key evolution has been a renewed focus on allies. Bain is clear that the festival’s core queer audiences show up year after year — but he’s equally interested in who isn’t coming yet.
The answer lies in programming that feels welcoming rather than intimidating: more mainstream entry points, more familiar faces, and more consideration for audiences often overlooked — teenagers and older theatregoers alike.
One of the clearest examples is Divas of Theatre, an event designed to gently invite people in through familiarity. “It started as a question,” Bain says. “What is queer literature? But also: who are some people older or straight audiences already know?”
Featuring respected performers like Linda Milligan and Justine Smith — both long-time allies — the event pairs recognisable names with explicitly queer material. “They were trailblazers,” Bain says of Milligan and her peers. “They showed allyship when it might have been scary to do so.”
The format is intentionally low-pressure: 60 minutes of scenes and monologues, scripts in hand, drawn from a wide canon that includes The Vagina Monologues, Oscar Wilde, and contemporary works. “It’s designed for theatre nerds and buffs,” Bain says. “And for hearing work out loud that we don’t often get to hear.”
Chaos, Camp & Community
Of course, Rainbow Theatre Festival isn’t all gentle introductions. Bain lights up when talking about the events that push The Court into less expected territory.
“I’m excited to have drag kings for the first time,” he says, pointing to Hugo Grrrl’s Hugo’s Rainbow Show and their appearance in the Big Gay Gigantic Game Show.
The latter is exactly what it sounds like — and more. Set on the mainstage, it’s designed for what Bain cheerfully calls “absolute carnage”.
“We’re breaking the audience up into doms, subs, and switches,” he says. “They fight for points. There’s a pie-eating competition — but it’s off people’s laps.”
Will it get complaints? Almost certainly. “But I don’t mind that,” Bain shrugs. “It’s designed to be fun — a place to escape for an hour and let yourself go. It’s naughty. But why can’t The Court Theatre be naughty?”
A Festival of One-Night-Only Shows
If there’s one phrase Bain repeats like a warning, it’s this: these are one-offs.
That’s especially true of the festival’s centrepiece, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. The contemporary British musical — hugely successful, adapted into a film, and never before staged in the Southern Hemisphere — will be presented in a one-night-only concert performance.
“It blows my mind we got it,” Bain admits. “I asked — and like last year — it just came through.”
Even more remarkably, the production features teenagers playing teenagers. “A 16-year-old is playing Jamie,” Bain says. “That’s a huge ask.”
With limited rehearsal hours and no second chances, the urgency is real. “If people are reading this and they’re even slightly interested — book,” Bain says. “This is your only chance. Theatre only exists in the moment between the people sitting in the seats and what’s happening on stage.”
Looking Ahead: Risk, Scale and Ambition
Beyond Rainbow Theatre Festival, Bain is clearly energised by the challenges ahead in the Court’s wider programme.
Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen pushes the boundaries of solo performance. Let the Right One In promises to be the most technically demanding production the theatre has ever staged — complete with water, blood, and brutal theatrical spectacle.
“There’s a swimming pool,” Bain says plainly. “There’s a truck-ton of blood. People are hung up by their feet.”
Then there’s Teenage Dick, a bold reimagining of Richard III set in an American high school, which requires disabled performers to be cast in specific roles. “That’s a turning point for us,” Bain says. “We finally have a space that makes that possible.”
It’s ambitious. It’s risky. And it’s exactly where Bain believes theatre needs to be.
