“The dead cannot cry out for justice.”

Provocation is a topical new play in the Auckland Pride Festival, by the award-winning writer Aroha Awarau and directed by Jennifer Ward-Lealand.

The story is set in the afterlife and explores the gay panic defence. This defence was an unjust legal strategy used in the past by the killers of gay men, as a way to downgrade their murder charges to manslaughter.

The ground-breaking show is brought to life on the stage by Hori Ahipene (The Piano, The Ring INZ), Joe Dekkers-Reihana (Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for Most Promising Male Newcomer), Ruby Hansen (Pop Up Globe’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Sound of Music) and Paul Barrett (The Sound of Music, Little Shop of Horrors).