Kia ora koutou. We’re Courtney, Caden, James and Alex. Together, we’re Half Trick Theatre, a company based in Edinburgh made up of four kiwis. After three glorious years in Scotland, we’re now looking to apply for new visas for the next five years. The problem is, one five-year Global Talent visa sets one back approximately £5,900/$13,500 NZD. With four of us, we’re needing to pay £23,700/$54,500NZD to the British government. Every little bit helps.

Over the last three years, we’ve staged 10 full productions, 4 work-in-progress pieces, been nominated for 4 awards, staged 1 rehearsed reading, and toured 1 show to Brighton. We’ve self-funded all the work we’ve produced, as our current visa prohibits us from accessing any arts funding in the UK. We’ve also worked countless intense jobs in customer service, tour guiding, childcare, rural hotel-ing, pizza delivery, and scare acting in a Scottish accent to stay afloat amid staging these shows.

Individually, we’ve been pursuing theatre with abandon too.

Courtney has performed her award-winning, internationally acclaimed show Alone in three Edinburgh Fringe Festivals and toured it to London’s Theatre503. She’s also directed for Framework Theatre, Dundee Rep Stripped Festival, Gateway Festival, Edinburgh Horror Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Capital Theatres Open Studio.

Caden has learned what a scratch night is, directed for over ten scratch nights including with Framework Theatre and Capital Theatre, written 3 plays, became a devoted acolyte of the King in Yellow, appeared in 8 theatre shows in 2025 and arguably has the best Scottish accent of all of us.

James is the backbone of our theatre company. With the help of our community, they’ve constructed sets, puppets, costumes, operate and programme lights and sound, and used these skills to manage all backstage operations. They’ve learnt how to do all of this since moving to Scotland. They’ve also performed for the first time with Martyr Theatre Company, tech operated several shows and made countless beautiful pieces of art on commission.

Alex has written two award-winning plays, been longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize and shortlisted for The Women’s Prize for Playwriting and The Alpine Prize. Her play We’re Gonna Kill Billy was read as part of The Royal Court Theatre’s Open Submission Festival, making one of five plays selected out of 3,500. She’s developing new work for Wonderfools, was part of The National Theatre of Scotland’s Beyond the Draft programme and has toured an educational show to Scotland primary schools.

Above all else, we have made a lot of friends.

Unfortunately, despite our endeavors, we are still poor. Facing being unable to pay for the full global talent arts visa fee, we are reaching out for support from our communities in the UK and Aotearoa. We have loved living in Scotland so much the last few years, and would love to stay. Receiving the global talent visa would mean we could continue to chase artistic opportunities here in the UK and continue to make irreverent work. It would also mean getting to stay in the communities we’ve become part of, and the country we consider home.

Where does the money go?

The money will go towards partially covering the costs of our visas. The cost breakdown for our visa is below:

£766/$1,762 NZD application fee

£1,035/$2,383 NZD NHS healthcare surcharge for each year of the 5 year visa

= £5,941/$13,679 NZD each for a five year global talent visa

We will split all donations between the four of us to help cover this visa cost. £9999 would seriously help us, as covering just under half of our visa cost would be a huge relief.

Times are tough, and it’s always a hard sell to convince you to part ways with your hard-earned money to help four immigrants in plight. So, as part of our fundraising effort we are performing the one-off show RIGHT TO REMAIN on August 30th, in Bedlam Theatre at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival at 12.30am. We plan to earn your donations by doing literally anything for them. We will shave our heads. We will drink disgusting concoctions. James will draw you some lovely personalised pictures. It’s all on the table. MC’d by the wondrous Moira Hamilton (Global Talent visa recipient 2026), we will put ourselves through challenges, humiliations, and physical changes to help fundraise for our visas. One night. Cash and card payments. All livestreamed. How far will Half Trick Theatre go for the RIGHT TO REMAIN?

If you’re unable to make the show, this gofundme is a great way of supporting us. No donation is too small and every little bit truly makes a world of difference to our ability to stay in the UK. Thank you so much for your time, help and support.

Ngā mihi maioha,

Half Trick Theatre