A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including:  A Shortcut to Happiness, Rock the Ballet, Tribes, and Enlightenment.

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:  A Shortcut to Happiness, Rock the Ballet, Tribes, and Enlightenment.

See more recent reviews at theatreview.org, the NZ Performing Arts Review & Directory.
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SKYCITY Theatre, Auckland - A SHORTCUT TO HAPPINESS: No Shortcuts here
- reviewed by James Wenley

I attended A Shortcut to Happiness on Saturday night, the same night as the All Black/ Ireland test.

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Bruce Mason Centre, Auckland - ROCK THE BALLET: Bad Boys of Dance = guilty pleasures
- reviewed by Raewyn Whyte

The six stunningly well-matched virtuoso twenty-something male dancers of Rock the Ballet (aka The Bad Boys of Dance), make it easy to sit back in your seat, relax and take pleasure in their dancing. And their dancing is the thing in this show – it’s all about the movement. There’s no social commentary, no narrative, nothing profound to come to grips with, just the dancing and their pride and joy in performing with panache.

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Opera House, Wellington - MADE IN NEW ZEALAND 2012 - FOOTNOTE DANCE COMPANY: Footnote's excellent pedigree to the fore
- reviewed by Sam Trubridge

It is a wonderfully diverse programme, which the strong company of dancers unite with a common vocabulary. The drama of Trance Like Happiness, the endless movement of Southern X, the earthiness of (SEX) and the crystalline In Pieces: this collection of works describe a contemporary terrain for the body that is emotional, sexual, spiritual, and transient.

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Maidment, Auckland - TRIBES: Now how to express my experience?
- reviewed by James Wenley

Tribes comes to Auckland’s stage with a babble of hype and expectation. Only playwright Nina Raine’s second play (after Rabbit which Silo performed in 2008 ), it’s something of an international critical darling after its debut at London’s Royal Court in 2010.

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Centrepoint, Palmerston North - ENLIGHTENMENT: Damned good, skilful storytelling
- reviewed by Richard Mays

So here we have something of a whodunit, and a problem for any commentator is how much to give away? This is, after all, a New Zealand premiere and presumably other theatres around the country will be interested in producing Enlightenment if it proves to be artistically as well as economically rewarding.

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Centrepoint, Palmerston North - ENLIGHTENMENT: Fluctuating emotional dynamics in high quality production of a seriously good play
- reviewed by John Ross

We clearly have a visceral desire for answers, yet abiding questions are far more fascinating. One has to admire a playwright with the courage to resist the tempting expectation to provide a tidy story, with a denouement, a closure, which are denied here to the audience just as they are to the central characters.

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Downstage Theatre, Wellington - ABOUT FACE - REBOUND DANCE COMPANY: Fit, Fabulous and almost Fifty
- reviewed by Virginia Kennard

About Face is what is says on the poster – a celebration of dance that highlights the performance qualities of the dancers. It is not about the steps but how one feels whilst watching, and certainly there is a strong focus on performative energies.

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Maidment, Auckland - TRIBES: Riveting, heart-wrenching theatre
- reviewed by Lexie Matheson

Nina Raine’s dazzling play Tribes has a tribe, an outsider, rituals, a unifying idiom and plenty of attitude. It’s a play about language, about communication, about miscommunication and what happens when the means by which we communicate is turned into a political tool.

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Maidment, Auckland - TRIBES: Exhilarating battle of wits
- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

With award-winning shows in the West End and New York, young British playwright Nina Raine is a rising star of international theatre and Silo's presentation of Tribes suggests the hype is well deserved.

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SKYCITY Theatre, Auckland - A SHORTCUT TO HAPPINESS: Opening night shortcomings in journey of discovery for seniors
- reviewed by Kate Ward-Smythe

While this production had some issues on opening night, fans of our most prolific playwright’s latest work will be pleased to know his much loved hallmarks are liberally sprinkled throughout the script: accessible circumstances and some recognizable characters plus those classic laugh-out-loud one-line gags.

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St James Theatre, Wellington - ROCK THE BALLET: Stunning, if a little shallow
- reviewed by Jennifer Shennan

Well, Rock the Ballet may not rock the ballet, but it certainly rocked the audience. A troupe of six stunningly fit and fine male dancers, and one smiling coquette, sped through almost 30 numbers that drew on a range of dance influences.

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ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland - RIGOLETTO: Rigoletto takes a bold step into today’s world
- reviewed by William Dart

Once again, NBR New Zealand Opera offers a theatrical experience on a scale unlikely to be found elsewhere in our city.

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Circa One, Wellington - ALL MY SONS: Career best performances
- reviewed by Lynn Freeman

Arthur Miller’s story resonates with a 2012 audience in ways he could never have imagined. All My Sons was written in 1947 in the shadow of World War II but the play’s dissection of corporate greed and dishonesty got me thinking about the reasons behind the current global recession. It is a masterful and insightful work that is one of the year’s must-sees.

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Assembly Room, Hawkes Bay Opera House, Hastings - THE INTRICATE ART OF ACTUALLY CARING: Wit, humour, and perfectly balanced emotion
- reviewed by Kirsty van Rijk

A lot of reviews have been written about this work as it has developed from the playwright’s bedroom and the Fringe Festival performance to Downstage and a road-trip of its own tour of New Zealand.

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ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland - RIGOLETTO: Surprises amid complexities in inventive production
- reviewed by Penny Dodd

This is a Rigoletto to remember, for the lavish setting and moody scene changes, the powerful music beautifully sung and played, and the modern twist that gives a vital sense of relevance to the narrative, but mostly because all these elements combine so that none overshadows the other. You are given a thoroughly integrated piece of fabulous story telling.

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CBS Canterbury Arena, Christchurch - RIVERDANCE - THE FAREWELL TOUR 2012: The star is the ensemble
- reviewed by Elizabeth O’Connor

Praise to the band, Guy Rickarby, Patrick Mangan, Martin McCormack and Ken Edge, who are superbly skillful and roused even the snow-chilled Christchurch audience to clapping and yelling in time. Outstanding delivery of solos was balanced by brilliant ensemble work. The curtain calls should have included a band call.

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St James Theatre, Wellington - ROCK THE BALLET: OMG did you see that move!
- reviewed by Lyne Pringle

The dancers have a WOW factor and it is intriguing to see the mishmash of forms layered onto pretty marvellous classical technique. They are very good; handsome, lithe, athletic and accomplished with on stage charisma and commitment to burn. One chick dances she is named ‘Pretty Girl’ huh? On the night I attended Jordan Lombardi took this role and she was fresh, chirpy, cheeky and great to watch.

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

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