However the company has continued to produce a number of productions – The Earthquake in Chile,[5][6][7] Hereafter,[8][9][10] and Canterbury Tales,[11][12] Free Theatre members have also been involved in post-earthquake initiatives such as Gap Filler, Greening the Rubble and Arts Voice.
[17] The Free Theatre Group also staged a number of cabarets in the 1980s, presented in what was known as Nibelheim, the basement space below Te Puna Toi and the SoFA Gallery in the Christchurch Arts Centre.
In the 1990s, Free Theatre performed: Hamlet Machine, Salome, Medea Material, Crusoe, Murderer Hope of Woman/The Philosopher's Stone and Bakkhai/Diotek.
[17] Over the last decade Free Theatre has performed Last Days of Mankind, Footprints/Tapuwae, Samson Airline, Fantasia, Philoctetes, Diana Down Under, Ella and Susn, Faust Chroma, Distraction Camp, Doctor Faustus, The Earthquake in Chile, Hereafter, I Sing the Body Electric.
[11] Over the years a wide range of emerging and established artists, including poets, filmmakers, sculptors, writers, musicians, dancers and actors, have collaborated within the Free Theatre to perform in various spaces around the North and South Island of New Zealand.
From the start, the emphasis of Free Theatre's work has been on non-verbal action and high production standards, discouraging the star system and encouraging long rehearsal and training periods in a company context.
The exercises used in training have evolved from a diverse range of sources, including the theory and practice of Vsevolod Meyerhold, Bertolt Brecht, Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook, Richard Schechner, Augusto Boal, Eugenio Barba and Tadashi Suzuki.