Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Babyface
Nick Tipa
Genre: New Writing, Physical Theatre, Theatre
Venue: Paradise in the Vault
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Babyface follows ten-year-old Kahu as he faces a move away from the city home and friends he’s known nearly all his life to become the “new kid on the block” in a small rural town in Aotearoa. Being accepted takes eons in these parts, especially for a city kid trying desperately to fit in.
Review
Babyface, the creation of Kāi Tahu writer-performer Nick Tipa, bursts into life with a loud, passionate karakia, grabbing the Paradise in the Vault audience’s attention immediately and holding it throughout fifty-five minutes of compelling storytelling and physical theatre.
Babyface follows ten-year-old Kahu as he faces a move away from the city home and friends he’s known nearly all his life to become the “new kid on the block” in a small rural town in Aotearoa. Being accepted takes eons in these parts, especially for a city kid trying to blend in with the mix you’ll typically find in such a locale – big kid, dumb kid, smart kid, cute kid, you get the picture.
True to expectations, fitting in proves a real challenge, so (clever allegory alert here!) Kahu (which translates literally as covering, costume or cloak) uses his interest in wrestling to invent Whiplash, an invincible champion of this art form. Kahu escapes into, and develops confidence from, the cover his alter ego provides him, helping to navigate his new school’s social hierarchy, steering him through his early crushes and even his parents’ increasingly troubled relationship.
Kahu uses Whiplash to create a fantasy world of mastery, status and physical confidence, giving him the feeling that he’s a champion of the world. Tipa’s performance teased this out very effectively as he repeatedly crosses from flashbacks to his domestic memories into wrestling bouts, Whiplash being the proxy by which Kahu processes his fears. Whilst not everything turns out rosy and bright, Whiplash gives Kahu something to cling onto through the darker times, including the breakdown of his parents’ marriage. You’re left with the feeling that, somehow, Kahu will cope with growing up and successfully flee the nest when the time comes.
As Tipa sings the aroha farewell so the curtain falls on a piece of theatre that’s as much about how kids explore and establish identity as working out the uncertainties they need to accommodate as they mature. With a generous side serving of full-on, very realistic wrestling bouts of course. And Tipa’s charm and warmth as a storyteller bring a tenderness, even vulnerability to his performance, drawing the audience inexorably into his world in what becomes a genuinely shared experience.
This is a really daring, exciting piece of performance art, and not just because it’s arrived from the furthest corner of the planet! It’s daring in the sense of the range and complexity of the physical theatre delivered on the tight, ingeniously designed set, complete with what looked like a bespoke padded stage block, on which Tipa performs some very realistic looking wrestling matches, playing both the contestants, complete with grunts, throws and spectacular crash falls. There’s also a range of physical theatre vignettes that included riding a bike, fighting fires, creeping into the house of his latest squeeze to name but a few.
Tipa also takes on one heck of a challenge in terms of the range of characters he portrays, from primary school kids with immature voices/bodies to fully grown adults of both sexes. The multi character staccato conversations were particularly impressive, necessitating split second changes of voice pitch and accent, body movement and mannerisms. His evident vocal dexterity ensured that not once did he miss a beat.
Multimedia and vocal overlays were impressive as well, often used in conjunction with complex physical theatre – get the timing wrong there and the whole show could (literally) come crashing to a halt. And the action on stage is supported by one of the more innovative, complex sound/lighting designs doing the rounds at this Fringe. Credit then to Tipa’s backstage NZ team – director Sara Georgie, dramaturg Bronwyn Wallace, and sound designer Zac Nicholls who integrated the switches between rural life and the spectacular wrestling.
Tipa has described Babyface as being influenced by the part of his childhood he spent in Middlemarch. I’ve cycled through Middlemarch. It’s real remote goat territory, parked in the middle of absolutely nowhere in rural Central Otago, population 250 on a busy day, an isolation Tipa draws on as he narrates Kahu’s struggles to integrate as a new arrival.
Tipa has produced a show that has real impact, and is performed with passion, superb characterisation and a physicality that was committed and evocative. Judging by the prolonged ovation at its conclusion, this is a piece of theatre that will live long in the memory. Seek it out.
