The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of Grandad’s Lucky Storm, The Road That Wasn't There, Jumpy, and The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate.

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

* * *

The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of Grandad’s Lucky Storm, The Road That Wasn't There, Jumpy, and The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate.

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

* * *

GRANDAD’S LUCKY STORM: Rally round rascally pirate
Hannah Playhouse (previously Downstage), Wellington

- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

Rachel Callinan's Granddad's Lucky Storm for Capital E is unusual in that it is a play for children with the audience reduced to 30 people, the actors to one and the performance area to the size of a small room with seats in a semi-circle round the walls.

------------------------------------------------------------------

THE FROG PRINCE: Rally round prissy prince
4 Moncrieff St., Mt. Victoria, Wellington

- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

Rachel Henry's The Frog Prince for KidzStuff is the nearest show to a keep- fit class that I have seen.

------------------------------------------------------------------

THE DRAGON OF DOOM!!: A good message neatly told in a lively production
Gryphon, Wellington

- reviewed by John Smythe

Writer George Harach has drawn on his Lebanese heritage and a tale his father used to tell him when he was a little boy to create this play, which he also directs with simple staging – apart from an impressive lighting effect and sound sting for when things get magical ...

------------------------------------------------------------------

THE ROAD THAT WASN'T THERE: Flows with a freedom that regenerates the fun afresh
Circa Two, Wellington
- reviewed by John Smythe (2)

The ‘real life’ story of a young man returning from mundane work in the city to St Bathens, where he grew up as the only child of a solo mum who has now become a problem in the small community, is ingeniously merged with her story about a girl who “followed a map off the edge of the world …” It plays with the idea of a ‘paper road’ that was never built but was taken all the same.

------------------------------------------------------------------

JUMPY: Crashingly funny and disturbing
Fortune Theatre, Dunedin
- reviewed by Barbara Frame

Greenham Common veteran Hilary is now in her fifties and clinging to feminism, literacy, education and the power of reason. Teenage daughter Tilly – determinedly vapid, hedonistic and rude – couldn't be more different.

Playwright April de Angelis has brilliantly contrasted 1980s feminist idealism with today's television and Facebook-influenced superficiality ...

------------------------------------------------------------------

JUMPY: Laughing hard as hard questions are asked
Fortune Theatre, Dunedin

- reviewed by Terry MacTavish

I may not be a parent but I work with adolescents and I know all too well that hideous moment when the child who has trusted and respected you suddenly looks at you with the cold, hard eyes of a contemptuous stranger. In Jumpy, April De Angelis confronts this universal domestic crisis boldly, not hiding the crucial part sex plays in both the rift and the expression of it. It is a splendid choice for the winter of the Fortune’s 40th year.

------------------------------------------------------------------

HOKI MAI TAMA MA: Kapa haka and Italian clowning a hard-case fusion
Mangere Arts Centre, Auckland
- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

The Pleiades constellation may be obscured in the drizzly haze of Auckland's pre-dawn skies but contemporary Maori theatre is shining brightly as the Matariki Festival provides a showcase for a remarkable new work by playwright Tainui Tukiwaho.

Te Rehia Theatre is a new company whose work is grounded in te reo Maori but employs an expansive, boldly experimental approach aimed at revitalising traditional forms.

------------------------------------------------------------------

THE WHALE RIDER: Gently told modern classic
The Pumphouse, Takapuna, Auckland

- reviewed by Nik Smythe

It is a beautiful and gently told tale, adapted for the stage from the 2005 picture-book version of the original 1987 novel and directed by the sure, tender hand of Mr Bray himself. Bearing the company’s trademark stamp of ingenuity, The Whale Rider will charm children and adults alike, at least all who share its palpable regard for humanity, its compassion and its preference to at least try to be with nature instead of defying it.

------------------------------------------------------------------

GRANDAD’S LUCKY STORM: Plenty in it for all age groups
Hannah Playhouse (previously Downstage), Wellington

- reviewed by John Smythe

Grandad’s Lucky Storm is a very different sort of children’s play involving a very different sort of grandparent: neither the wise old vegie-garden digging cocoa-sipping type nor the fantastically piratical Margaret Mahy type (who, I know, was a mother rather than a grandmother but you know what I mean) – although this Grandad does have a story to tell about being a pirate.

------------------------------------------------------------------

THE FROG PRINCE: Intelligently crafted entertainment
4 Moncrieff St., Mt. Victoria, Wellington

- reviewed by John Smythe

In a clever comment on contemporary society, The Frog Prince kicks off with a Fairy Godmother (Sherilee Kahui), who is a self-employed contractor competing on the open market, touting for business. Her point of difference is that she incorporates dance moves into her spell-making, and encourages the very eager children to join in to make it all work better. The dance they learn is used a number of times which increases the audience pleasure.

------------------------------------------------------------------

THE MAN WHOSE MOTHER WAS A PIRATE: Go the little man!
Bruce Mason Centre, Takapuna, Auckland

- reviewed by Vanessa Byrnes

At the Bruce Mason Theatre on a cold Friday night, a cast of eight actors playing many parts have us captivated in a totally entertaining way. Margaret Mahy’s classic tale of finding your own ‘song’ via challenges and expanding landscapes is a perfect school holiday theatre treat. My 10-year old twin girls deem the play “very entertaining and funny” and love the way it “brings the audience into it”. I second that.

------------------------------------------------------------------

HOKI MAI TAMA MA: Today’s artists use old forms to forge a future tradition with an exceptional work
Mangere Arts Centre, Auckland

- reviewed by Nik Smythe

At the best of times it’s a challenge to accurately express the experience of a live theatre production in written words. With its new original hybrid form of mask discipline created by the team who identify as Te whanau o Hoki Mai Tama Ma, to even adequately describe this work-in-progress feels more difficult than usual.

Being told we are the first people in the world to witness Te Mata Kokako o Rehia certainly feels pretty special.

------------------------------------------------------------------

HOKI MAI TAMA MA: Subverts a lot of assumptions
Mangere Arts Centre, Auckland

- reviewed by Simon Wilson

I love it when I think I’m watching one kind of thing and it turns out to be another. Hoki Mai Tama Ma, a new play that opened last night in Mangere and will transfer next week to the Aotea Centre’s Herald Theatre, is a surprise package: theatrically inventive, and then, late in the piece, revealing itself as a complex, challenging and extremely rewarding statement of cultural identity. It’s got great thematic intent.

------------------------------------------------------------------

MANA WAHINE: Mana Wahine, Q Theatre
Q Theatre, 305 Queen St, Auckland
- reviewed by Bernadette Rae

Okareka Dance Company has hit the jackpot with this exploration of the strength, the spirit, the wiles and the primal beauty of women, specifically Maori women. Five extreme dancers, three choreographers at the top of their game, a totally in-tune composer, exquisite lighting and audio visual design and a wealth of cultural wisdom come together in one of the best contemporary dance performances we have seen in years.

------------------------------------------------------------------

MANA WAHINE: Jaw-droppingly memorable
Q Theatre, 305 Queen St, Auckland

- reviewed by Sharu Delilkan

Never had I seen an audience so transfixed, so attentive, so mesmerised, so moved all at the same time. And the audience erupting in a spontaneous standing ovation clearly depicted that the crowd was just itching to show their delirious euphoria.

------------------------------------------------------------------

MANA WAHINE: Epic in scale, abstract in nature, and a rich fusion of elements
Q Theatre, 305 Queen St, Auckland
- reviewed by Raewyn Whyte

Epic in scale, and largely abstract in nature, Mana Wahine is above all a rich fusion of choreography, music, tikanga Maori and performance practices, AV, lighting and performance design. These elements are enriched and enlivened by the dancing of five powerhouse performers – Nancy Wijohn, Bianca Hyslop, Maria Munkowits, Jana Castillo and Chrissy Kokiri, each of whom bring their own particular qualities to the work.

------------------------------------------------------------------

PUTORINO HILL: Clever and astute

BATS Theatre (Out Of Site), Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington
- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

Many communities have dark secrets that are kept hidden for many generations.

One such community is the rural township of Reinga where Chris Molloy’s fascinating play Putorino Hill is set.

------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Further information:

What began as a glorified blog by John Smythe has now become a major organ of communication, interaction and information that has created an online performing arts community by recording, critiquing, celebrating and debating NZ’s professional performing arts activity.

If you value Theatreview, and want to see it survive and grow to further serve the interests and needs of the performing arts community and their audiences, please join the Performing Arts Directory or offer a donation/koha