Nailed it! - A Builder Play

Te Auaha, Tapere Iti, 65 Dixon St, Wellington

17/02/2023 - 19/02/2023

NZ Fringe Festival 2023

Production Details


The Awkward Company


Hey Mate. Grab a hammer, take a smoko, scoff a pie. Welcome to the construction site.

The Awkward Company is back! After a sold out show last Fringe we’re back with a brand new play, ‘Nailed It!- a builder play’. Join a ragtag group of builders as they discover how weird and wacky the building site can be. These builders aren’t just one-note Sally’s, but have dreams and ambitions of their own.

Will these tradies finish their project or will their antics get in the way? Come to the site to find out!


Aimee Dredge
Sam Lewis
Tom Hayward
Brock Oliver
Shauwn Keil
Brandon Entwistle
Ryan Holtham
Alex Fox
Kip Powell


Comedy , Theatre ,


Duration 60 minutes

Builder-style repartee amongst the many highlights

Review by Margaret Austin 20th Feb 2023

As the title suggests, this is a theatre piece about the construction industry. It’s performed at Te Auaha by The Awkward company (Whitireia graduates). Lack of a programme means not being able to specify names.

The action begins in semi darkness, the stage featuring a half-constructed shed where a slow moving elderly man takes a tumble while attempting to hammer in a nail.

Enter the building crew where head honcho Christo takes a roll call. “Who watched the game last night?” takes precedence over a eulogy for Pedo, who has died as a result of the forementioned accident.

Enter a health and safety inspector – nicely caricatured and duly made fun of. His intermittent appearances and bureaucratic rantings are one of the play’s highlights.

A new apprentice is on the way and when this person turns out to be a young woman, Dylan, we sense trouble brewing, Will she prove to be a spanner in the works? Bubbles, Spanko and Wanko aren’t sure whether to keep their distance or offer helpful tips about when to use the portaloo: “Don’t go in there after Brick”. Left alone, Dylan laments “Wish there was some way I could earn my place”.     

Builder-style repartee amongst the crew is another highlight, plus learning that Christo has dreams of creating a musical: Tiler on the Roof perhaps? There’s a hilarious team-bonding game. As for the health and safety inspector’s discovery of multiple violations of his beloved code and his threat to shut down the crew and their work – corruption is not where you’d expect it to be. The fun reaches its peak in a denouement involving a block of wood and a half hammered nail. The inspector and Dylan get their dues.

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