https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/shine-on
Watch a cast of characters – writers, dancers, artists celebrate what Katherine Mansfield means to them.
She lives vibrantly in the hearts and minds of scores of people here and everywhere, although she died more than 100 years ago. She was 34. Shine On Katherine Mansfield, AC Productions’ series of short documentaries, beams into the life and times of creatives who find inspiration in Mansfield’s writing and the wild, exotic life she led.
Some of the Shine On team, Glenis Giles, Anna C, Nicola Olsen
If anyone thinks Katherine Mansfield is old school, boring, they haven’t read her short stories or her journals and letters. She’s witty, acerbic, irreverent, observant with a wicked sense of humour. Her descriptions of Aotearoa are evocative of the landscape, which she missed towards the end of her short life.
Described as a modernist, admired by international and local writers, poets, and other artists, 100 years on Kiwi creatives bring Mansfield into the 21st century.
In Shine On Katherine Mansfield we spotlight artists who write, sing, dance, and share their views on a writer who continues to inspire and who died in Europe too young.
Available RNZ eight short films (details of each ep below)
- Inspiration to Write – Nina Mingya Powles & Sarah Laing
- Inspiration to Dance – Mansfield & Maata
- Inspiration to Live – Trysh Murphy-Dally
- Inspiration to Survive – Odette British spy & Mansfield’s Letters
- Inspiration to Paint – Sally Burton
- Inspiration to Create – Cadence Chung & Chris Tse
- Inspiration to Risk! – Karl Stead & Charlotte Grimshaw
- Inspiration to Compose – Charlotte Yates in Concert
Episodes
Inspiration to Write
Nina Mingya Powles writer poet & Sarah Laing writer graphic artist
Nina Mingya Powles grew up in Thorndon near Katherine Mansfield’s Wellington home.
As a kid she says Mansfield ‘loomed’ over her childhood. Later she became entranced by her life, her writing and her humour. Now Powles is an internationally acclaimed writer and published poet living in the UK. Her poem If Katherine Mansfield Were My Best Friend is a youthful frolic. In this episode she shares the spotlight with witty, award-winning Sarah Laing, writer, cartoonist, novelist and graphic artist. Like Powles, she makes Mansfield a character in her own life story, a graphic memoir, Mansfield and Me.
Inspiration to Dance
Loughlan Prior & the Royal New Zealand Ballet / Mansfield & Maata
Loughlan Prior is an international choreographer and has just been honoured by the prestigious American Dance Magazine as ‘one of 25 to watch in 2025’. You can watch him in this episode featuring his ballet, Women of Words for the Royal New Zealand Ballet.
Prior would love to hang out with Mansfield. His idea of a good time would be a night out with her. He’s intrigued by Katherine’s close friendship with Maata Mahupuku, Ngāti Kahungunu. They met at school in Wellington. Prior choreographs an unusual pas de deux with two women: Kirby Selchow as Katherine and Mayu Tanigaito as Maata.
Also starring in this episode is one of Maata’s great grandsons, te reo Māori web designer Paul Ransfield. He’s researching his relative’s connection with Aotearoa’s greatest short story writer, Katherine Mansfield. Writer Witi Ihimaera wraps this story by suggesting Mansfield was writing a novel about her relationship with Maata Mahupuku. Who knows?
Inspiration to Live
Trysh Murphy-Dally ‘At the Bay’
Possibly Katherine Mansfield’s biggest fan outside academia and the literary world, Trysh Murphy-Dally was introduced to Katherine Mansfield by her Mum reading Katherine Mansfield’s Complete Stories as a young girl. Mansfield’s influence and writings have had a profound effect on Trysh’s life.
Inspiration to Survive
Katherine Mansfield’s link with Odette Hallowes, World War 2 spy
A smuggled copy of Katherine Mansfield’s letters published in 1925 was given to Odette, Britain’s most decorated spy in World War 2. Odette was caught by the Germans in France, brutally tortured and transferred to the notorious Ravensbrück Concentration camp. She survived Ravensbrück, suffering from starvation and torture. She refused to disclose names or information. Many years later her family found a battered disguised copy of The Letters of Katherine Mansfield. Odette had copied sections of Mansfield’s letters, especially those relating to ‘the outside world of nature.’ This book was recently handed to the Imperial War Museum. We reveal this intriguing link with Mansfield through Odette’s relatives, Nicole Miller-Hard and her daughter who live in Aotearoa.
Inspiration to Create
Cadence Chung & Chris Tse
Cadence Chung is a juggler: words, opera, theatre, musicals … and she’s an occasional host on RNZ Concert. At high school she won the Mansfield short story award. Now she’s in her Honours year at the NZ School of Music. She’s 22. Chung’s chapbook anomalia, a collection of short poems is a best seller. She writes and produces plays and musicals.
In spite of her many talents she says she’d be nervous about meeting Katherine Mansfield.
Not so Chris Tse, Poet Laureate. He features boldly on the back of buses in Mansfield’s centennial year. Together they share a cameo role in Shine On Katherine Mansfield.
Inspiration to Paint
Sally Burton Nelson artist
Sally Burton a celebrated artist, has always been intrigued by Katherine Mansfield’s ‘bold recklessness.’ Her fascination with Mansfield began at Nelson Girls’ College. She read every Mansfield manuscript she could lay her hands on. Later in her painted series of high-profile New Zealand women artists she begins a series of portraits attempting to capture the elusiveness of Mansfield. Masks play a role in her paintings.
Inspiration to Risk
Karl Stead and Charlotte Grimshaw
We feature father daughter writing duo CK Stead and Charlotte Grimshaw. They’re both winners of the Mansfield Menton Fellowship, Karl in 1972, Charlotte in 2024.
This year Charlotte Grimshaw has won the NZ Society of Authors President of Honour, a prestigious award recognising her superb writing skills: novels, short stories, literary criticism.
Karl Stead, writer, novelist, and former Poet Laureate is 92. He’s still writing. His latest collection of poems In the Half Light of a Dying Day is a finalist in the Ockham Poetry Awards. In stunningly beautiful poetry he farewells his late wife Kay.
Charlotte Grimshaw, a columnist, novelist, biographer, short story writer, collects accolades for her sharp eye, quick wit and exquisite story-telling.
Like Katherine Mansfield she’s a risk taker. In her literary life she takes courage from Mansfield’s quote, ‘Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others! ‘
Inspiration to Compose
Charlotte Yates in Concert
Charlotte’s show Mansfield In Her Own Words brings together some of our most talented musicians. Yates chooses poems for composers and performers Brooke Singer and William Ricketts.
On a Wellington beach Ricketts reflects on Mansfield’s poem, A Sunset. We film Singer’s poignant rendition of A Wounded Bird. Both poems foreshadow Katherine Mansfield’s early death. Brooke Singer is 34, the same age as Mansfield when she died.
More information:
Anna Cottrell
Producer Director
AC Productions Ltd
0274575695
anna.c.cottrell@gmail.com
Nicola Olsen
Co Producer
0210445438
nicola@olsen.co.nz
AC Productions 
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