Flat Earth: Kiwi fruitcakes

MOVING from artistic pretension to artistic anarchy, we put you in Hamilton, New Zealand, where members of the McGillicuddy Serious Party staged their annual 'passion play' on Thursday night.

Last year they 'crucified' a woman, the year before a rabbit. This year they stuck to a man, but a pastor from a fundamentalist Christian church stormed on to the stage as the cross was about to be raised, and, with the help of his congregation broke up the proceedings. There were fisticuffs but no arrests.

The McGillicuddy party promised at the last general election to launch a 'Great Leap Backwards' to return New Zealand to a clan-based subsistence economy. The party's defence wing is armed with paper swords and flour bombs.