by Lauren Morley, Year 13 Student Kaipara College
This year’s annual Kaipara College production is Murder on the Nile. This production will follow the story of Kay Ridgeway. Kay has lived a charmed life, blessed with beauty, enormous wealth and a new husband, she embarks on a honeymoon voyage down the Nile. Fatal circumstances await when the idyllic surroundings are shattered by a shocking and brutal murder. Under scrutiny is a multitude of memorable passengers, all with a motive to kill. The tension and claustrophobia builds on the vessel as a shocking and audacious conspiracy is laid bare. This production is based on the 1937 novel, and 1944 play by Agatha Christie. This narrative has recently become more popular following the 2022 film adaptation “Death on the Nile” which stars Kenneth Branagh.
Our production at Kaipara College is performed by 2 all-ages casts, with students ranging from years 9 to 13. There is no doubt that we have an insurmountable level of talent here at Kaipara College, especially when it comes to the arts. With this stage production incorporating drama, dance and music, as well as the amazing sound and lighting skills from many of our performing arts technology students, it is sure to be astounding. We see many of our senior students, some of whom have been in our productions for the last 3 or 4 years, bringing a more experienced element to the show. We also have many younger students who are taking their first steps into live performances.
Last year’s annual production, Dracula, was nominated in 9 categories at the Auckland Showdown Awards, where drama teacher and production director, Stephen Lunt, deservingly walked away with the “Best Director” award.
As you can imagine, putting together an entire production is not a small feat. Set design, music, lighting, costume, dance lessons, and of course countless hours and days of rehearsals, all go into making this production everything it deserves to be. This year, we are incredibly grateful to our sponsor ITM building and to Louise Wilkie from studio 246 who donated her time teaching dance to our cast. The performance would not be possible without them.
Murder on the Nile will take place over 4 nights in June: Tuesday 20th, Wednesday 21st, Thursday 22nd, and Friday 23rd. All shows begin at 7pm and last the duration of 2.5 hours.
Because we have such a large number of passionate drama students, this year, we have 2 full casts. This means that the Tuesday and Thursday shows will be performed by the “Scarab” cast, and the Wednesday and Friday shows will be performed by the “Lotus” cast.
Tickets are available to book now on the Eventbrite website, where you can find our production by searching “Kaipara College” and then selecting “Murder on the Nile.” Tickets are only $15 per person, and with merely 80 seats per show, be sure to get in quick!
Students during production rehearsals
