A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including The Beaten Track, Silent Night, The Twits, and Meat.

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

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A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including The Beaten Track, Silent Night, The Twits, and Meat.

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

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Musgrove Studio, Maidment Theatre, Auckland - THE BEATEN TRACK: Light and dark, the familiar and the new, and solos and duets

- reviewed by Dr Linda Ashley

The considered delicacy and incandescent ruminations of Clare Luiten’s re.new.al sets a benchmark of a mature artist’s look at slices of her own life. Similar darkness sets the stage for Mike Holland’s Ooops! Tongue-tied by his costume, the bound, repressed torture is underpinned with touches of dark irony–a delightfully silly twist being tiny touches of underpants’ elastic snapping. It’s worth seeing, but you have to be alert.

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Downstage Theatre, Wellington - RAYBON KAN IN CLEAR AND PRESENT MANGER: Juicy stuff in the main course

- reviewed by John Smythe

Kan explains that his super-religious primary schooling with its ever-present threat of hellfire and damnation is the root-cause of his having to question Christmas and indeed Christianity itself. Revisiting the basic teachings gets us attuned to considering Luke’s Gospel account of the Nativity from a fresh perspective.

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BATS, Wellington - SILENT NIGHT: Entertaining and finally moving gift

- reviewed by John Smythe

There is humour and pathos-aplenty in Yvette Parsons’ beautifully modulated performance – directed by Stephen Papps – as she peels the onion of her story while navigating through a full range of emotional states.

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Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, The Edge, Auckland - A CRIMINAL CHRISTMAS: Stress-relieving absurdist fun in frenetic spaghetti of activity

- reviewed by Aidan-B. Howard

Like many people, I hate Christmas. And I particularly hate the flood of schmaltzy, feel-good, same-old stories that this season brings. But the editor of this site urged me to set my cynicism aside. This play, A Criminal Christmas, he assured me, would be different… and he was right.

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Q, 305 Queen St, Auckland - THE TWITS: Pair of twits has children of all ages chuckling

- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

Opening with a breathless invitation to enter a world of pure imagination ATC’s Christmas show captures the magic of an old fashioned music hall pantomime and presents a wonderful opportunity to introduce children to the enchantments of live theatre.

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BOOKFEAST, 173 Jackson St, Petone, Hutt Valley - MEAT: Feast of entertainment as chef relates to vegetables

- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

Abe Millar, a star chef, welcomes his audience to his cooking demonstration like a high priest ushering pilgrims into a holy place and it is made clear unbelievers such as vegetarians and vegans (his eyes roll and he can barely utter the word) should sit in the back row and be quiet.

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Q, 305 Queen St, Auckland - THE TWITS: Madcap Anarchic Absurdity i.e. Dahl

- reviewed by Nik Smythe

What particularly appeals to me as a writer about Roald Dahl’s writing is the seeming disregard for narrative structure in the established literary sense. The stories simply are, however they come out, and are all the more curious and exciting for it. This pseudo-anarchic approach to authorship is embraced and translated to the stage in playwright David Wood’s madcap adaptation, courtesy of director Alison Quigan and company.

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Civic Theatre, Auckland - THE MERIDIAN SEASON OF THE SLEEPING BEAUTY: A feast of virtuoso dance

- reviewed by Bernadette Rae

Former artistic director Gary Harris has gone all out with his designs for this ambitious new production of the most romantic of all the fairytale ballets, with its feast of virtuoso dance.

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Raye Freedman ARTS CENTRE, Gillies Avenue (Cnr Silver Road) Epsom, Auckland - TOUCH. PAUSE. ENGAGE - UNITEC DANCE SHOWCASE 2011: Dancers shown off to advantage

- reviewed by Jenny Stevenson

Not a single scrum to be seen in this high energy show – but the rugby referee’s mantra of touch... pause... engage... could easily parallel a choreographer’s instructions to a group of dancers, and has a pleasing synergy in this context,

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Civic Theatre, Auckland - THE MERIDIAN SEASON OF THE SLEEPING BEAUTY: Truly first rate pure escapism

- reviewed by Rosemary Martin

This version of The Sleeping Beauty suits the company down to a tee. The paring back and careful editing by choreographer Greg Horsman; the exquisite designs; a live orchestra and a splendid company of dancers has resulted in a production that is truly first-rate. If you are after an evening of pure escapism to a fantasy world where good triumphs over evil and love conquers all, then you must go and watch this delightful production. The season at The Civic runs until Sunday 4th December.

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BOOKFEAST, 173 Jackson St, Petone, Hutt Valley - MEAT: Rich pleasures and poignancies

- reviewed by John Smythe

’Tis meet we meet for Meat at Bookfeast: a specialist shop in Jackson Street, Petone. With a demonstration kitchen at one end, it offers an ideal intimate setting for this development season of Geraldine Brophy’s latest tasty theatrical treat, served up with seductive love by K C Kelly.

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

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