​This new musical from playwright Carl Caulfield and composer Gareth Hudson is a celebration of Newcastle’s lively café culture.

In a world of Starbucks and Costa Coffee, Karma Kafé is Newcastle’s oldest café and remains fiercely independent. The owner, Rewa Golder, is a Māori woman and practising Buddhist who, with her hard-working staff (including an opera singing chef) provides a sanctuary for the city’s movers and shakers, its dreamers and schemers and its eccentrics who include Bongo Joe, a homeless man who plays his bongo outside the café every morning in exchange for food (provided in the hope he’ll stop).

A local developer plans to demolish the much-loved café to build a flashy multiplex as part of his vision for a “New Newy”. With the help of “The Fixer” he gets the site rezoned. How will the café avoid the wrecking ball?

With a large all-singing, all-dancing cast, live music, and the scent of roasted coffee, Karma Kafé will be an intoxicating and hilarious celebration of life and the human spirit.