Ode to a Grape

Johann is launching a poetry book. Johann is a very bad poet.

Prepare to be simultaneously charmed and berated by Tīrau’s resident self proclaimed artist, incompetent anarchist, and lover of grapes.

Born in Limburg; Germany, Johann packed his quill and moved to the small town of Tīrau, (NZ) to free himself of his parental constraints and find himself as an artist. Now he is ready to share his angst with the world.

With a diary full of inspiration (and sheep poo), Johann has arrived in Naarm to launch (or attempt to launch) his first poetry book.

Unfortunately, as he presents his painfully curated manifesto, he will be sidetracked by his hatred of society, his love for Elton John, and his ongoing frustration with capitalism. Will we ever hear the full book? Do we want to?

Join award winning actor and writer Em Barrett as she presents to you her ultimate artistic alter ego. Based in Naarm, Em is an experienced clown, character actor, and performer with a background in theatre and drag. In 2022 she won the Tour Ready Award for her solo comedy Community in NZ Fringe where Johann originally appeared. Since then Johann has broken out into the comedy scene to share his internal angst and terrible poetry with the world. He has appeared at venues such as The Butterfly Club and The Motley Bauhaus, shouting awful poetry and giving unsolicited life advice to comedy audiences as they laugh along, mildly terrified but nevertheless enabling his grandiose mediocrity.

A show for poetry lovers and haters alike.

Presenting Artist or Company

Em Barrett is a queer emerging artist, writer, clown, and comedian originally from Aotearoa, New Zealand. She likes to inform her work with obscurity by creating characters and narratives from unusual places to reflect society today. She does this through clown and character comedy, with loved characters such as “Johann,” who has featured in comedy clubs around New Zealand and Australia. Among winning the Tour Ready Award, she has also been nominated for Best Solo Performance and Most Talented Emerging Artist by the New Zealand Fringe Festival.

Her work is often a comedic exploration into gender and social politics. Demonstrated recently by her dark comedy, PURE GRIME, which explored the relationship between flies and human kind in an effort to discuss human empathy. Outside of her own work, Em has worked on commercial and small scale productions as a performer, most notably with Barbarian Productions (NZ) and The Ironing Maidens (AU).

Sameena Zehra is an award winning comedian, storyteller, actor, writer, director and blues singer/songwriter. She has performed her solo shows all over the world, including Edinburgh Fringe, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Brighton Fringe, Adelaide Fringe and New Zealand Fringe, where she was nominated for 'Best In Fringe' 2016, and won 'Outstanding Performer' in 2017. Before moving to New Zealand in 2019, Sameena lived and worked in the UK where she has performed a season at the National Theatre, and toured internationally with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Most recently, her critically acclaimed show Tea with Terrorists was nominated for 'Outstanding Performer' and 'Director of the Year' at the Wellington Theatre Awards 2022.

Sameena’s work is rooted in the human condition, in holding power to account and in bringing people together in spaces that are tender and robust. Sameena is excited to be directing Johann again, and enabling whatever nonsensical angst he comes up with.