The Pumphouse Theatre

The Pumphouse have an amphitheatre, seats about 200 people, where ‘Summer Shakespeare’ takes precedence here! Normally used through the warmer months of the year, for you to bask in the sunshine, while watching a show.
The main theatre is busy all year round with a mix of theatre shows for adult and children’s audiences. Love Tim Brays’s work.’ Badjelly The Witch’ and ‘Mrs Wishy Washy’ comes to mind. There are poetry performances, speech competitions, play readings and a mix of amateur and professional theatre, that house the space.
Located in Killarney Park, Takapuna. Gorgeous spot by Lake Pupuke with outdoor seating for your enjoyment.
There is also a small café there open for show times.
I think the theatre is due for refurbishment, looking a bit tired on it!!!

The Pumphouse in Takapuna is one of Auckland’s more interesting wee theatre spaces and certainly one of the most picturesque, set as it is in the old brick pumphouse building on the shores of Lake Pupuke. There are a couple of different theatre spaces — the main indoor theatre and the outdoor amphitheatre (both 190 seats), and a smaller indoor space as well. My experiences here have been mostly confined to Summer Shakespeare productions in the outdoor amphitheatre which I have enjoyed very much — it’s a treat to be out in the open and up close to the performers in such an intimate setting. A couple of mates have also performed music in the theatre, and this typifies the grass roots nature of the place — it’s half professional and half community run, and that makes it fun and unique in my book.

The Pumphouse must be located in the most picturesque setting of any of Auckland’s theatres: right on the banks of Lake Pupuke. It even has a small jetty in front of the theatre which has been put to good use for productions on occasion. It’s a small theatre, only seating 190, but that’s a good size for many independent companies. The Pumphouse probably suffers slightly from a bit of a split personality: there’s some excellent professional shows mounted here, but also some less-​excellent shows; it’s one of the risks of being a theatre for hire rather than somewhere actively programmed year-​round. It means it’s not necessarily front of mind as an entertainment option for people who aren’t very local to it. However, they do have a few initiatives going on that might draw more people to it: «Friday Forums» — talks in the café, and «Dark Mondays», where writers can have their script read by actors.
There’s a small amphitheatre out the back, most often used for Summer Shakespeare productions; I would definitely recommend bringing a cushion if you’re attending one of these.
There’s also a French café next to the theatre; I’ve only had a pastry there but seemed fine!

A group of us recently went to the Pumphouse to go see a rendition of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Hubby and I were the newbies to this location. It is situated by the water, making for a nice view and atmospheric intermission, the theatre itself however was nothing extraordinary. To get to our seats we had to walk through an empty dimly lit room with a sharp angled roof above our heads, this ‘roof’ was the seating our bums were soon to occupy. To cut them some slack, this is an amateur theatre company, therefore budgets can only stretch so far. Unfortunately I did have a bit of a run around when organising the tickets too. The purchase online was fine but I had a few queries — the website led me to a phone number which I could only leave messages on and the email address bounced back. It was during the summer break, however the show was coming up and I wanted to have everything organized in advance since I was trying to book for a group as mentioned previously. I eventually gave up trying to contact them directly and just went with the information I could obtain from the website.