A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including: The Legend of Hector, Slava's Snow Show, and K'Rd Strip: A Place to Stand.

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 Legend of Hector, Slava's Snow Show, and K'Rd Strip: A Place to Stand.

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

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ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland - SLAVA'S SNOW SHOW: Completely enchanting
- reviewed by Nik Smythe

From the great spectacle – an incredible feast of technical visual effects, like storms of literally millions of tiny strips of paper ‘snow’ blown asunder in billowing fog – to the tiniest physical detail, such as the way Slava’s gait visibly expands and contracts as he sighs long-sufferingly, at every level you would have to be blind or psychotic to not be completely enchanted.

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Downstage Theatre, Wellington - K'RD STRIP: A PLACE TO STAND: A continuous parade of personality
- reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant

This work is also a welcome - K Rd Strip opens arms and stories to the audience and draws us onto this ridge that sits above Auckland city and has many secrets and stories to tell. An entertaining series of episodic vignettes and personal narratives form a cabaret style evening of smiles and curiosity. A continuous parade of personality is performed by six performers who give their all in delving into their own experiences and perspectives.

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Civic Theatre, Auckland - YES, PRIME MINISTER: Adaptation’s satirical edge could be sharper
- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

Sir Humphrey Appleby, the consummate civil servant with a patrician disdain for the delusions of democratic government, is an almost perfect comic creation. He functions like one of the stock characters of commedia dell'arte – endlessly adaptable and brimming with humorous potential that is both timeless and topical.

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BATS - Out Of Site - Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - JANE AUSTEN IS DEAD: Obsessions that can bedevil us #2
- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

Sophie (Mel Dodge) runs a posh bar which includes shelves for the Austen novels. She sees herself as Elizabeth Bennett in search of Mr Darcy but she goes looking in all the wrong places such as a dating website where she comes across a cross-section of the modern male. All seem to be Mr Wickham and none comes anywhere near a Mr Darcy.

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BATS - Out Of Site - Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - THE LEGEND OF HECTOR: Obsessions that can bedevil us #1
- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

The three authors and performers of The Legend of Hector have an ability to quietly lead us into a quirky fantasy that they have created with medieval costumes and props as well as electric lamps, a vast duvet, and a microphone.

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Civic Theatre, Auckland - YES, PRIME MINISTER: I could hardly say no
- reviewed by Matt Baker

The play’s political content, wrapped in its comedic contextual shroud, constructs a rather simple dramatic plot, but the snowball effect allows for a huge amount of ground to be covered, from oil routes and global warming, to Rupert Murdoch and Silvio Berlusconi.

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Civic Theatre, Auckland - YES, PRIME MINISTER: Mild farce with a political agenda
- reviewed by Adey Ramsel

After this much hype I think I sat down expecting to be disappointed. And I was. Someone said to me on the way out, “Imagine what it would have been like with bad actors”. A praise and a damn.

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Circa One, Wellington - C – A MUSICAL: An uplifting journey through cancer
- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

Musicals are usually considered as light, bright, fluffy pieces of entertainment.

It is therefore rare to find one that is entertaining yet poignantly touching and very human.

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BATS - Out Of Site - Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - JANE AUSTEN IS DEAD: Piercing accuracy and finesse
- reviewed by John Smythe (2)

When I reviewed my 'first date' with Jane Austen is Dead (a ‘development season’ in the 2008 Fringe), I declared it was “definitely one I'd like to meet up with again.” I’ve waited five years and at last she’s come through, after ‘playing around’ to gain some maturity in Palmerston North, Melbourne, Western Australia and Adelaide – and apparently Sydney is on a promise later this year.

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - CAT AND MOUSE: More misanthropy than misogyny
- reviewed by Nik Smythe

The nature of the ensuing tale is such that it’s hard to reveal much of the plot without making spoilers, given that virtually every scene contains some form of revelation that shifts the balance of power and changes the direction of each character’s desires and intentions. The action is predominately conversation-based, with a largely casual, low key energy that borders on sombre but is carried by the script’s subtly natural wit.

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The Basement Studio, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - CHAMPAGNE AND LIMOUSINES: An eclectic vision for the expanded field of art pra
- reviewed by Tru Paraha

Champagne & Limousines is an event that deterritorialises familiar conventions while cultivating a multiplicity of artistic voice and terrain. Shout-outs and firm handshakes to Auckland Blackout Performance Assembly for a visionary project, fuelled by an indomitable spirit. Ko nga mihi nui ki a koutou i runga i te ahuaranga o tenei kaupapa me nga whakaaro nui e whai ake nei.

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Opera House, Wellington - YES, PRIME MINISTER: Promising start but descends to prostitution for its laughs
- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

The setting for Yes Prime Minister is the PM’s country home Chequers where Hacker is faced with crisis after crisis made more so by the controlling and obstructive Humphries. The first half is mildly amusing with many satirical lines that say as much about our own politicians as those in Britain.

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Circa One, Wellington - TU: Many poignant and heart wrenching moments
- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

The writing and presentation is abstract in nature with a lot of physicality and action used to complement the dialogue making the story telling very theatrical although initially this hinders clarity of the various threads of the story and who each character is and their relationship one to another.

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - JANEECE GUNTON: HERSTORY: Herstory makes Outrageous Fortune look like Go Girls
- reviewed by Sam Brooks

It would be an insult to begin a review of Janeece Gunton: Herstory with anything but the incredible actress who swallows this show, and the entire Basement Theatre up with her performance, and spits it back out at us. So there it is, Yvette Parsons.

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Circa One, Wellington - C – A MUSICAL: A ‘must-C' show: highly entertaining, deeply moving, honest, witty, informative, imaginative and very, very human
- reviewed by Pepe Becker

What a warm, human and humorous show this is – humorous in every sense of the word, that is to say, touching on every emotion within and around us, triggered by reflections on the experience of the disease cancer ... At times it feels almost as if we’re all family members listening to funny anecdotes about our loved one at a significant birthday party or a wake; a celebration of life that unites people at times of joy and times of loss.

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Musgrove Studio, Maidment Theatre, Auckland - INTIMACIES: Spirited performances
- reviewed by Heidi North-Bailey

Sweet Thing opens on Sally having a touching reunion with her mum. However things are quickly revealed to be not quite what they seem when brother Philip arrives and becomes outraged that Sally has in fact, cloned their mum.

What follows is a comedic exploration of what might happen if you could force your family to listen to you and you really could air all your grievance’s – especially if those family members are nothing but willing to please you and are deeply regretful. It poses the question: would it help?

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Downstage Theatre, Wellington - SYDNEY BRIDGE UPSIDE DOWN: Powerful evocation of a derailed rite of passage
- reviewed by John Smythe

The ingenious subtlety of Ballantyne’s writing, the way you just know in your bones what has actually happened without its being explicitly stated, is why the book is now being touted – again – as a neglected masterpiece. The shifts in tone skilfully capture Harry’s changing states between lucidity and emotional turmoil; respectful behaviour and … something quite other. We are left in the position of a social worker, having to determine whether we are in the presence of a fantasist, a psychopath or something somewhere in between.

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BATS - Out Of Site - Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - THE LEGEND OF HECTOR: Good in parts if not yet the whole
- reviewed by Hannah Smith

The Legend of Hector explores the “fantasy and suspicion of all things epic” – which translates as the comic possibilities of contemporary knights with contemporary problems. Devised by Bright Orange Walls, the latest company to emerge from the VUW theatre program, we follow three young knights (Jonathan Price, Barney Olson, and Tom Clarke) at emerging stages of their careers, in situations that explore the clash between the epic and the everyday.

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

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