Stories About My Body: On Film
Written & Performed by Morgana O’Reilly (The White Lotus, Mean Mums)
“Brilliant and beautiful.” - Parker Posey
“Gorgeous, gross and hilarious.” - Carrie Coon
In a tiny theatre in Aotearoa, New Zealand, four teenage stagehands work tirelessly to help Morgana tell the stories that shaped her - from her own teenagehood in 1998, to working foot-fetish parties in New York City, to falling in love and later birthing her babies in a Melbourne living room.
Following a sold-out live theatre season, Stories About My Body has been tenderly transformed for the screen by husband-and-wife collaborators Morgana O’Reilly (The White Lotus) and Peter Salmon (After the Party), bringing the fearless, funny and deeply personal show to cinema audiences for the very first time.
Screening as part of the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, the film will have its World Premiere this Mother’s Day (Sunday 10 May 2026) at New Zealand’s longest-running cinema palace, The Hollywood Avondale. Audiences will be the first to experience Stories About My Body on the big screen.
Created and performed by Morgana O’Reilly, and co-directed with her husband and real-life birth partner, Emmy Award-winner and BAFTA nominee Peter Salmon, the film blends nudity, heart-swelling honesty and real birth footage into a stand-up comedy special like no other – intimate, fearless and unexpectedly profound.
Blending memoir, stand-up and theatrical storytelling, the film follows O’Reilly as she revisits the moments that shaped her. From teenage diary entries in 1998 to working foot-fetish parties in New York City, from falling in love to the raw realities of birth, boobs, body image and the lifelong quest to make peace with your chins.
Filmed with the intimacy of its stage origins intact, the film moves between riotous comedy and striking vulnerability, using the body itself as the living template for every story it tells.
SCREENING DATES
Auckland / Tāmaki Makaurau
Sunday 12 May, 5pm | The Hollywood Avondale
Doors and entertainment from 4pm
Wellington / Te Whanganui-a-Tara
Thursday 16 May, 7.30pm | Penthouse Cinema
Christchurch / Ōtautahi
Friday 17 May, 7pm | Lumière Cinema
For tickets, visit:
https://www.comedyfestival.co.nz/
