The comedy duo are now unleashing a new episode of The Bitches’ Box at the World Buskers Festival next week.
Set on a North Canterbury farm, the hour-long show follows a pack of farm dogs. The matriarchs of the pack, Red and Twink, are on heat and are locked in the bitches’ box. This leaves underdogs Wayne and Dick convinced this is their opportunity to impress the boss.
Structured like an episode of Country Calendar, but with the animals being interviewed, the show is a celebration of the real heroes of rural life: the dogs.
This is the show’s first time featuring at the festival.
Said Newborn: “They get such rich, wonderful acts from all over the world.
"Very excited to be in the programme this year and bring it to the city.”
Newborn and Dunbar met at an event called Stranger Things in 2011. By chance, the two creatives were thrown together and given a week to come up with a 10 minute piece of entertainment.
"We came up with these two women who were talking really candidly about wanting to screw everyone in the district, but the punchline was that they were dogs on heat in a bitch box and then it grew from there really,” said Newborn.
They have since developed four distinct episodes of the show and toured woolsheds around the the country, performing for more than 30,000 people over eight years.
That was until the Covid pandemic made live touring no longer viable.
"It’s about making people laugh and a little bit of ridiculous, silly escapism in a world which sort of seems to be getting increasingly tricky to navigate,” said Newborn.
The pair has just wrapped shooting for their first feature film titled Sons of a Bitch based on the second episode of their stage show.
It centres on a usual day for two country dogs named Jack and Russell on their farm. But they find themselves trapped in a therapy session with freshly shorn sheep, led by an intimidating ram - played by Josh Thomson. To appease the baas, the two dogs recount their adventures to the big smoke - Ashburton, describing the diverse dogs they met, and begin to confront the truth of what happened there.
Newborn and Dunbar also wrote and co-directed the film with Zac Beckett-Knight, who has worked in the Canterbury film industry for more than 10 years.
Newborn moved from Auckland to Lyttelton two years ago to film the movie.
The film is expected to be released nationwide in July.
Newborn said she would have laughed if she was told a 10 minute sketch would lead to entering the editing room on her own film. "That was not what I expected when I signed up to that initial gathering of creative people, you’ve just got to follow the threads,” she said.
While grateful for the prolonged success of the show, Newborn appreciates the relationship formed with creative partner Dunbar even more.
"I just think it's so joyful to be able to jump around on stage with someone that you have got a really close friendship with,” she said. "I feel incredibly blessed to have found Amelia in the world and to be making stupid shows alongside her.”
- The duo will perform at the Black Box in Rolleston Ave on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7.30pm. To purchase tickets go to https://worldbuskersfestival-premier.eventfinda.co.nz/2026/the-bitches-b...
