The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of Allegro, Terror Highway, Mana Wahine, and An Unseasonable Fall of Snow.

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

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The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of Allegro, Terror Highway, Mana Wahine, and An Unseasonable Fall of Snow.

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

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TERROR HIGHWAY: Spunky, booty-shaking misfits – ‘dacting’
The Basement, Auckland
- reviewed by Kathryn van Beek

I’m not sure what I just watched, but it’s only playing at the Basement Theatre until this Saturday so if you fancy laughing your arse off this week you’d better get yourself a ticket.

The show is apparently the third in a trilogy ...

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OTHELLO: Othello the Celt
Te Manawa Museum of Art, Science & History, Main Street, Palmerston North
- reviewed by John Ross

This is a deliberately odd rendition of the play, not least in having Othello the Moor appearing instead as Othello the Celt, and more specifically as a kilted, red-haired Scot, with the text adapted, so that, for example, Iago exclaims, “I hate the Celt …”

The point is made in the programme note that it remains true that, however vital to the Venetian authorities he may be as a military general, in warfare, he remains inexorably an exotic alien among them, for ever excluded from the tribe, and its in-groups.

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MANA WAHINE: Inspired: inspiring women
Playhouse, Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts, Hamilton
- reviewed by Debbie Bright

Early in the work, an English word recurs in my head: plastic, in its original meaning of “giving form or fashion to matter, molding, capable of being molded; pliable” (Funk & Wagnalls Standard Desk Dictionary). I see the plasticity, the pliability of the projected images, the stage-floor-sized gauze fabric, and the dancers’ bodies. I am reminded of the inventiveness, adaptability and endurance of women and their ability to fully live their lives, nurturing and inspiring others, in harmony with the environment, molding themselves and their surroundings to their changing world, determining to solve problems, regardless of the circumstances and how challenging those problems might be.

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HOKI MAI TAMA MA: Much to admire, more work to be done
Forum North, Whangarei
- reviewed by David Stevens

So when it becomes clear that these issues of returning soldiers are the core of HOKI MAI TAMA MA, my interest sparks markedly, and those aspects of the play (the present day aspects), with its complex concepts of identity, maintain my interest throughout.

The question – who am I? – is visceral for all of us. The need to know who we are and where we are from is part of our grounding, our roots.

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ALLEGRO: High five to fantastic flights of fancy
ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland
- reviewed by Bernadette Rae

Allegro inspires with its eclectic five-ballet programme.

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THE GOOD SOUL OF SZECHUAN: Brecht-Through Experience
Q Theatre, Rangatira, Auckland
- reviewed by James Wenley

It’s surprising to learn that The Good Soul of Szechuan* marks the first time Auckland Theatre Company have produced a play by Bertolt Brecht. Surprising perhaps because a Brechtian sensibility is very much apparent in Artistic Director Colin McColl’s signature ATC productions – recall how often he strips back the stage of the Maidment such as in Other Desert Cities or Awatea, reflecting the Brechtian impulse to draw attention to the theatrical conceit, to make the familiar strange.

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AN UNSEASONABLE FALL OF SNOW: Ice-cool puzzler with a twist
The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
- reviewed by Janet McAllister

The twist in Gary Henderson's short 1998 mystery is just the right level of difficult: it's solvable but hard enough that you'll feel pleased you got it, with the help of some cleverly-spaced clues. On opening night, the solution was revealed earlier than the script indicates, possibly deliberately; this focussed attention on the second-half debate about moral responsibility.

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ALLEGRO: Dancers fizzing with enthusiasm and exuberance
ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland
- reviewed by Jenny Stevenson

Choreographically, the works vary from the elegant classicism of Russian-American choreographer, George Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante first performed in 1956, through to the world premiere of New Zealand’s own Daniel Belton’s technologically-inspired work Satellites. They are literally worlds apart. Between these polarities are the sprightly ballet, Les Lutins by Danish choreographer, Johan Kobborg and the urban glamour of New York choreographer Larry Keigwin’s two works, Mattress Suite and Megalopolis.

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

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