The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of Unmythable, Mamma Mia!, 3 X 20, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

See more recent reviews at theatreview.org, the NZ Performing Arts Review & Directory.

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The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of Unmythable, Mamma Mia!, 3 X 20, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

See more recent reviews at theatreview.org, the NZ Performing Arts Review & Directory.

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Civic Theatre, Auckland - MAMMA MIA!: Here I go again
- reviewed by James Wenley

Here’s a simple test: Do you like Musicals? Do you sing along every time ABBA comes on The Breeze? Do you have your own flared lycra jumpsuit in your wardrobe? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you probably have already booked your tickets.

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BATS Theatre (Out Of Site), Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - 3 X 20: A rather unsatisfying hour
- reviewed by John Smythe

There is no doubt the three actors presenting 3 x 20 are talented. The question is what their solo pieces have to offer their audiences beyond displaying that talent. They were first produced as part of the Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School’s Go Solo 2013 season (within groups A, B and C).

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Civic Theatre, Auckland - MAMMA MIA!: Not served as well as it could be
- reviewed by Kate Ward-Smythe

Full of smash hits, Mamma Mia is perfectly crafted light entertainment and family fun with universal appeal. It is designed to resonate easily with both parents, who sang ABBA’s hits into their hairbrushes when they were young, and their kids, who are familiar with the film version.

Therefore the global phenomenon comes with undeniable audience expectation.

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Civic Theatre, Auckland - MAMMA MIA!: Euphoric swirl
- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

A local re-working of a musical that has achieved world domination is a big ask but Auckland Music Theatre and Amici Productions really hit the mark with a production that is all heart and avoids the trap of trying to replicate the razzamatazz of a mega-budget extravaganza.

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Uxbridge Centre, 35 Uxbridge Road, Howick, Auckland - WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?: More than competent
- reviewed by Adey Ramsel

On the whole the production works well and no finer testament is needed than to say than on opening night I was only one of eight adults in the audience that I could count. The rest of the house was jammed with teenagers from the local college. Apart from a reminder or two about them not actually needing a mobile phone during a play, (‘What?’), and the etiquette of not choosing another random seat at each interval, (‘Why not?’), they sat enthralled. You can’t ask more.

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Opera House, Wellington - STONES IN HER MOUTH: Wrapped in a cloak of secret power
- reviewed by Jennifer Shennan

Ten beautiful Maori women, all powerful performers, dressed in black, move from stillness and slowest motion through to speed-of-light poi rhythms and ceaseless wiri They chant their individually written texts in volumes from softest whisper to angriest tirade. They hold the stage alone or in assembled groups. The light ranges from total blackout to candlelight to frames and lines of dazzling brightness that assails our eyes. Their vocals are powerfully pitched against a continuous white noise sometimes reaching a decibel level that assails our ears.

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Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, The Edge, Auckland - BLACK FAGGOT: Perceptive, eye popping honest, great fun
- reviewed by Johnny Givins

Two remarkable actors, Taofia Pelesasa and Iaheto Ah Hi, play a Pacific landscape of characters and situations as they reveal the Polynesian gay world. They have superb timing, huge performance energy, and bare their souls as they move instantaneously from character to character with power and accuracy in series of poignant monologues and short hilarious scenes.

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BATS Theatre (Out Of Site), Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - STRAIGHT LACED: Societal pressures explored in nightclub
- reviewed by Ann Hunt

This window on to the world of sex and sensuality illustrates the effects a predominantly heterosexual society has on young people trying to discover and establish their own sexuality.

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BATS Theatre (Out Of Site), Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - STRAIGHT LACED: Emergent dis-ease with homogeneous heterosexuality
- reviewed by Lyne Pringle

There are breath-taking solos and a minimal amount of unison dancing. Repetition is used sparingly and brilliantly throughout to accentuate key moments. Dramatic scenes are used to express more specific ideas. Text, representing the thoughts of society, is used to pummel a dancer into submission or to pull two dancers away from each other. Lucy Marinkovich takes the lead here, using her voice stridently as a disapproving presence in a jarringly blunt scene where Luigi Vesco is identified and shamed for his errant desires

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - THE SLAPDASH ASSASSIN: Killer Father Ted
- reviewed by Andrew Parker

If you knew nothing at all about Ireland or its people then chances are a trip to see Mark Power’s play The Slapdash Assassin would get you up to speed, or at the very least deter you from visiting anytime in the immediate future. One half of the Basement’s ‘Murder Season’, Assassin is a blackly comic microcosm of the country’s sociological make-up, tackling religion, terrorism and politics in a fashion which is half-way between Father Ted and Reservoir Dogs. It’s a play where the humour is used to excoriate, cutting to the heart of modern Ireland and laughing, perhaps a little ruefully, at the darkness within.

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Expressions Arts & Entertainment Centre - Upper Hutt, Wellington - UNMYTHABLE: Enjoyable show on a shoe-string budget
- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

This Temple Theatre (UK) production of Unmythable does to Greek mythology what The Reduced Shakespeare Company has done to Shakespeare and to The Bible.

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Studio 77, VUW, Wellington - NOT IN OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD: Entertainingly potent theatre with purpose
- reviewed by John Smythe

Jamie McCaskill and Kali Kopae are a dynamic team, using their combined skills to produce theatre that goes to the heart of who we are. In this case they expose dimensions of our communities some may prefer to ignore but they do it in such a winning way it’s impossible not to sit up and take notice.

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Old Arts Quad of the Maidment Theatre, Auckland - PERICLES PRINCE OF TYRE: Plenty to enjoy
- reviewed by Nik Smythe

Pericles is a bit of an odd sample from the Auld Bard’s renowned canon . It plays like a tragedy, as indeed one expects the works based on historic figures to be, but is technically a comedy given (spoiler alert) the redemptive conclusion and the fact that the titular character yet lives at the final curtain.

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Hannah Playhouse (previously Downstage), Wellington - UNMYTHABLE: Largely entertaining with few new insights
- reviewed by Fiona McNamara

Staging the Greek myths, and numerous ones in just over an hour, is an admirable undertaking and Unmythable bullets through the material in lightening speed. Three actors perform all the roles, with rapid changes, and on a bare stage but for three crates and a few props and costume items.

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BATS Theatre (Out Of Site), Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - BIRDS: Telling it like it is
- reviewed by John Smythe

Along with the Niuean notion that birds near a house embody the spirits of those far away (usually passed on), the title could be said to refer to birds who have flown the Niuean coop and those who fly back, the dad who took flight from the home and his son or was it the mum who took flight from a dad, the way a good education and cultural rootedness may help you fly as an adult – and of course to females, as seen from a young male perspective.

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BATS Theatre (Out Of Site), Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - BAREFACED STORIES IN NEW ZEALAND: Admiration for bared bitterness, pain and vulnerability
- reviewed by Charlotte Simmonds

So if you’re not familiar with The Moth, it is “true stories told live without notes” and this is the same format that Barefaced Stories follows with the added “empty pint time limit” which appears to have been the way the hosts selected the local storytellers, by following the rule of, “If I was sitting here with an empty pint, would I keep listening to you?”

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Whitireia Performance Centre, 25-27 Vivian Street, Wellington - FRAME OF MIND: Short snappy dance suite for dance collective debut
- reviewed by Raewyn Whyte

The movement vocabulary is drawn from a mélange of ballet, jazz, acrobatics and commercial styles with crisp attack and emphatic gestures. ... care has been taken to make the most of the individual strengths of the dancers.

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People’s Cinema, 57 Manners Street, Wellington - TUT: Whimsical response to eternal question
- reviewed by John Smythe

A young writer /performer /comedian’s “attempt to present some of [her] anxieties about death and the ‘afterwards’” is an admirable starting point for making a play. For Alice May Connolly to achieve it through an afterlife meeting between ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun (the titular ‘Tut’) and a recently deceased possum from New Zealand suggests a fine creative mind is at work.

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Modernist Garden, Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton - BANGING CYMBAL, CLANGING GONG: Short, punchy, worth a look
- reviewed by Ross MacLeod

Here’s a show that bears its banner not only proudly but quite literally. Graffitied over the back drop is a quote from Macbeth: “Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” It’s an upfront admission that the performance isn’t really ‘about’ anything. Certainly there is meaning to be drawn from it; what it means to be civilized, to love, to trace your lineage; but at its heart this is a character piece, a 40 minute monologue from a woman known only as The Barbarian.

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Expressions Arts & Entertainment Centre - Upper Hutt, Wellington - CAMPGROUND CHAOS: Busking works of art
- reviewed by Pip E-Lysaah

You can take the kids, you can take granddad, you can take a date, it features something for everyone! My recommendations: take a camp seat, a blanket and sit as close to the front as you can, but behind the kids of course, clap loudly, chant when asked and don't be ashamed to throw a little money!

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Fringe Bar, 26 Allen St, Wellington - A FIELD GUIDE TO CHARLATANS: Interesting secrets revealed
- reviewed by Deborah Eve Rea

Mike Kmiec begins A Field Guide to Charlatans by saying, “I’m going to be honest – I’m going to lie to you.”

Through his ‘field guide’Kmiec demonstrates, using magic, how we are influenced and suggestible. He explores cold readings, card tricks, loaded dice, mind reading and predictions.

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Opera House, Wellington - LA CURVA - ISRAEL GALVAN: Review: La Curva
- reviewed by Ann Hunt

You can forget any other flamenco you may have seen. This is something else. It is a soul collaboration.

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BATS Theatre (Out Of Site), Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - LIES: Less may have been more enjoyable
- reviewed by Hannah Smith

These tangentially connected games and episodes bleed from one into the other, staged all around the audience (seated in the Understudy bar space, sectioned off with bright red curtains) in explorations of performativity, truth and deception. Audience reactions are mixed. Some laugh loudly, while others appear to be asleep.

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BATS Theatre (Out Of Site), Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?: Absurdist and surreal deconstruction of performance
- reviewed by Deborah Eve Rea

What Have You Done to Me? forms a dreamscape in parts and at others the theatre and audience relationship is overt and exploited. The show features many absurdist and surreal explorations including an ink blot test and a stunning tango with telescopes, as Bain and Madhan rediscover and investigate their attraction.

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Puppies, cnr Tory & Vivian Streets, Wellington - BEAUTY IS A BEAST: Quick, quirky and very funny
- reviewed by Deborah Eve Rea

In Beauty is a Beast, McShane muses and educates on the trials and tribulations that come with being a “hairier than average woman” in today’s society.

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Opera House, Wellington - LA CURVA - ISRAEL GALVAN: A mysterious, powerful, unpredictable dance
- reviewed by Jennifer Shennan

Galvan could dance every farruca or alegria in the book, as his driving rhythm of zapateado footwork, and proudly sculptured arms make abundantly clear. But he doesn’t want to do again what’s been done before. Instead he detaches ancient roots of flamenco from its soil, grafts it together into new stock, then takes it and us into uncharted territory.

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St James Theatre, Wellington - A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (AS YOU LIKE IT): Inspired monumental trivia
- reviewed by John Smythe

It may be said that the ancient tale is merely a starting point for a random assortment of clowning, circus tricks and theatrical spectacle. The lovers, when they finally appear, are gigantic junk-assemblage puppets, mobilised by multiple cast members. Which is not to say they lack 'anatomical correctness' and bodily functions. The former elicits shrieks of laughter, the latter is a lame joke that goes on too long.

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St James Theatre, Wellington - A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (AS YOU LIKE IT): Don’t miss this delectably funny Dream
- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

Pick up the phone right now and book a seat, if there are any left.

This superb Russian production takes Shakespeare's most popular comedy and leaps into an anarchic, fantastical comedy about those quintessential tragic lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe.

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Gryphon, Wellington - SKETCH-UAL HEALING: Well-crafted, excellently executed hilarity
- reviewed by Maraea Rakuraku

Entering the Gryphon Theatre to songs where a key word has been replaced by another has the audience chuckling. Yes, chuckling and has me reminiscing for the 90’s ‘Now That’s What I Call Music’ soundtracks. It also sets up the premise there may be some nudity and being a late night show and after seeing the posters, I expect it. There isn’t.

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Studio 77, VUW, Wellington - THE BATTALION: True power and wonder in the showing
- reviewed by Maraea Rakuraku

There is something poignantly moving about watching kids of diverse cultures acting out roles that their grandparents, great-grandparents or in this case, given how young they are, great great grandparents lived for real. At one stage my hair is prickling at the back of my neck and I feel tears welling as it’s likely, they don’t even know just how significant it is that they re-enact this story of Maori involvement in the Second World War as part of the 28th Maori Battalion.

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Chinoiserie Garden, Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton - IN FLAGRANTE: A sense of occasion.. and a hint of critique
- reviewed by Debbie Bright

The dancers change quickly behind the curtain and reappear for the next item. One dance item follows another: adult play-acting, fantasy, flaunting display, titillation – an erotic ‘come on’ – to the music of Austrian cabaret group Waldeck’s Ballroom Stories. We see eroticism, humour, parody, irony, role-playing, classiness, sauciness, and, above all, polished performance. Sophisticated late night entertainment, perhaps seen as less risque now than in earlier times. Yet, in this setting and time, it still has the power to shock, or at least startle, while providing great fun and entertainment.

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Museum of Wellington City & Sea, Wellington - THE WAY WE FALL: Falling theme acessible and entertaining
- reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant

The “Catch a falling star” section utilised lovely glittery show time stars effectively, and this tune and its sense of catchy childhood memory was a constant recurring theme both musically and conceptually. Dance genres and personal viewpoints were interlaced and it was an accessible and entertaining hour of dance in an interesting venue.

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Soundings - Te Papa, Wellington - PANIORA!: Many memorable moments
- reviewed by John Smythe

Plot-wise there are many threads to follow and they don’t, in the present moments of performance, seem to weave around a thematic core. No one character or quest is driving the action forward, although the looming bullfight does offer something along those lines, despite the dubious nature of Valdez’s credentials. And just when that seems to have become a ‘blind alley’ it does pay off in a spectacular way.

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Soundings - Te Papa, Wellington - PANIORA!: Perfect synthesis of dance styles
- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

Paniora is an extraordinary piece of theatre. I can't think of any New Zealand play, Maori or Pakeha, which is anything like it, combining as it does storytelling, dance, music, family melodrama, and a touch of farce and sprinkling of magic realism. Without the dance, however, it might be a disaster.

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People’s Cinema, 57 Manners Street, Wellington - VELCRO CITY: “I liked all of it the best.”
- reviewed by Hannah August

Velcro City is the kind of show you hope will turn up at the Fringe, and all too rarely does. It’s clever, funny, engaging, and koha. Given that they won Best Comedy at the Auckland Fringe with this show last year, Eli Matthewson and Hamish Parkinson could easily have got away with charging for their Wellington season – their brand of skilfully inventive humour deserves the price of a ticket far more than some of the other shows I’ve seen this Fringe.

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James Cabaret, Hania Street, Wellington - BREL: THE WORDS AND MUSIC OF JACQUES BREL: Finishes strongly
- reviewed by Michael Gilchrist

Placing an artist on a pedestal is, of course, an ominous start to a review of a performance of that artist’s songs, even if the performance in question is by some of our finest local talent. Nevertheless, there is a more general artistic imperative at stake. Key works in the canon, like this one, have to be reimagined and reconceived if they are to survive their periodic replication.

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James Cabaret, Hania Street, Wellington - BREL: THE WORDS AND MUSIC OF JACQUES BREL: All singers portray standout moments
- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

The intimate and cabaret- like atmosphere of James Cabaret is an ideal venue for Silos Theatre's exhilarating and vibrant show Brel: The Words and Music of Jacques Brel.

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Fringe Bar, 26 Allen St, Wellington - WHY DO I DREAM?: Intimate body comedy executed with dedication
- reviewed by Lucy O'Connor

Her use of props is ever surprising, notably the bum bag she wears, which is so much more. It is a strangely sexual monster and from it emerge the props. One thin pale pink scarf is presented and re-created to represent several different characters while a simple plastic bag becomes a nappy, a phallic symbol and a man’s beard. She is an everyday-object illusionist.

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See more recent reviews at theatreview.org.nz, the NZ Performing Arts Review & Directory

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