Meet the Maker behind H.R. The Musical: Amy Mansfield
Published: Tuesday 30 June 2026
Image Credit: Michelle McLennan.
Introduce yourself and your arts practice.
I’m Amy Mansfield and I’m an independent theatre-maker. I’m the writer-composer and producer of, and I’m also one of the performers in, H.R. The Musical.
What’s your favourite thing about what you do?
Making people laugh with recognition at the songs and sketches I’ve written and, with the help of my extraordinary collaborators, brought to life, and seeing how a room of strangers come together around a shared experience of joy or hilarity in the moment. I love that live performance is different every night and I love that there are so many variables, only some of which you can control. It’s a beautiful matrix that we work inside of and create anew night after night.
What’s the hardest thing about what you do?
Not gonna lie, making a living out of it is no walk in the park, even with a show that resonates with so many people. The arts ecology and infrastructure in Aotearoa is basic at best. But apart from that, the hardest thing is actually turning off from work, particularly when it’s something I’m passionate about. I think that describes how a lot of us feel about our work - it’s all-consuming - and I’m interested in that phenomenon at the same time as I acknowledge I need to resist it.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
A lawyer friend of mine told me to get out of the law early if I wanted to avoid getting addicted to the money/lifestyle/status and not have those things drive my decisions. I did and have been committed to the precarious life/career of an arts worker (an “outlaw”) with absolutely no status ever since. It’s not to say I like it, or that I think it should be like this (quite the opposite), but it does provide a kind of clarity of vision about people and institutions which I continue to find stimulating and honest.
Who are your favourite artists / theatre companies / musicians etc and why?
Tim Minchin, both as a performer and a writer: he is so naughty and so smart and I love the way he rhymes and his sense of timing. I’d say he, along with British musical comedian Victoria Wood, whom I watched as a kid, and Rachel Bloom in the TV series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, would be my main influences in terms of musical comedy.
Other artists and thinkers whose work I love: New Zealand Theatre company A Slightly Isolated Dog - their sense of fun and frivolity is unmatched in Aotearoa; living legend Lin Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) for his vision and artistic voice; the one and only Stephen Sondheim for the depth and breadth and human heart of his work; anthropologist David Graeber, especially his seminal work Bullshit Jobs; performance artist Tricia Hersey (Rest is Resistance), NZ economist Marilyn Waring (Still Counting), and writer Jenny Odell (Saving Time) for articulating how notions of rest and time affect how we conceive of and define work and labour.
What inspired you to create H.R. The Musical?
I’ve been collecting crazy work stories for as long as I can remember, from roles I’ve had in both the private and public sectors, and have long thought the workplace is a kind of theatre. Things went pretty wacko (even more wacko) for a lot of people’s employment conditions during COVID, and that’s when I really got stuck into researching the show. I started testing the idea with people and got such a good response just from sharing the name of it that I knew I had to give it a proper crack. I actually quit my day job to read books about work, which is an irony I like to return to now I’m working on it, mostly without pay, 24/7.
What has been the audience reaction to this work?
Audiences have said they “felt seen”, that it’s “close to the bone”, that they were now “going to have to quit their job”, and that "it’s like everything you think at work but can't say out loud". They’ve also told me “the world needs to see this”, which I am taking quite seriously.
Tell us about your upcoming fundraiser season of H.R. The Musical.
We’re taking the big step of going over to Edinburgh Festival Fringe with the show. The invitation to perform the show at Gilded Balloon came during our run at Adelaide Fringe in March this year. Gilded Balloon has hosted Flight of the Conchords and Tim Minchin, amongst other incredible musical comedians, so it’s the perfect place for this show. Unavoidably, it’s costing an arm and a leg, so we are going hard to raise the cash to cover our travel and accommodation for five weeks and to reduce the financial risk of presenting a show there in competition with more than 3000 other shows.
At the fundraiser season at Herald Theatre, we’ll perform the same version of the show that we’ll be performing in Edinburgh. It’s a “best of” of earlier iterations of the show (2024’s H.R. The Musical and 2025’s H.R. The Musical #2) - the pointiest songs and sketches - so even if people have seen an earlier version, this will feel new, and newly ridiculous.
How have Auckland Live supported you with this season and what does this support mean to you?
There is no way I could call the season a “fundraiser” season (or run a season at all) were it not for the support Auckland Live are providing in terms of venue hire, technical equipment, labour costs and marketing, costs which - in a professional venue like the Herald Theatre - are significant. Unlike many New Zealand shows which have toured nationally and internationally, this show has had no (public or private) funding or sponsorship and has got this far purely on box office income and bloody-mindedness. I have worked with Auckland Live in many capacities over my career in the arts, mainly wearing my producer hat, but this is the first time I’m lucky enough to have their support for my own creative project, and it honestly means the world.
What are you most looking forward to about bringing this work to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe?
Edinburgh Festival Fringe attracts audiences from all round the world as well as from the UK itself, i.e. people who are proper theatre/comedy/arts junkies. So I’m intrigued to compare the responses of Edinburgh audiences with those of Kiwi and Australian audiences.
As a writer, I like to get quite granular and collect feedback word by word, phrase by phrase, line by line. Having a long run of 26 performances is going to be an incredible way to learn and understand the show itself (the “learnings” just keep on coming) as well as get to know the different audiences for it.
What can audiences expect from this upcoming season of H.R. The Musical?
A 60-minute trip through workplace madness via sketches and songs in a wide range of musical genres. Some of them are absurd, a category I sometimes feel was created just to help us share the modern work experience. Audiences might recognise their co-workers, or themselves, in the characters we share with them. Ultimately, I reckon we need to laugh not just at the insane situations we find ourselves in daily, but at (and for) ourselves.
