The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of Pacific Skin, The Lolly Witch of Mumuland, and Beards, Beards, Beards.

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

* * *

The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of Pacific Skin, The Lolly Witch of Mumuland, and Beards, Beards, Beards.

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

* * *

THE SHOWGIRL: Awesome ensemble work
Gryphon, Wellington
- reviewed by Maryanne Cathro

It’s Harlem, NYC in 1979, a world of seedy clubs, sequinned fabrics and platform shoes. Young cop John Gonzales is asking too many questions about who shot Fontella Pendavis, star of the stage at Studio Soul. The plot twists, and twists again, like a floor of dancers doing the Brooklyn Shuffle.

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

THE PIANIST: Bravura Recital
Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland LIVE, Auckland
- reviewed by Amanda Leo

We are greeted by a hanging chandelier and a beautiful grand piano, both which reek of possibilities for mishap. In The Pianist the humour arises from the disjunction between what the pianist is attempting to perform and what is actually being performed.

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

THE LOLLY WITCH OF MUMULAND: Consummate showmanship and spirited vitality
Mangere Arts Centre, Auckland
- reviewed by Nik Smythe

This is my first foray into Mumuland, the magical Pasifika fairy world setting for this Auckland Theatre Company production. The colourful adaptation of the classic Grimm Brothers folktale Hansel and Gretel is magical indeed; the sheer amount of energy, hilarity and music packed into one hour is simply incredible.

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

PACIFIC SKIN: Confronting, messy, mystifying and quite endearing
Q Theatre Loft, Auckland
- reviewed by Paul Young

Foregrounding alternative values, methodologies and knowledge systems in art is important, and there is room for different approaches. Ultimately the interconnectivity of, and collaboration between cultures, communities, artists and technologies is reason enough to see this challenging show.

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

IMPROV FOR KIDS 2015: Entertaining ingenuity
Circa Two, Wellington
- reviewed by John Smythe

The key to good interactive theatre is that it has to be needed and make a difference. “Let’s all be trees waving in the breeze” is a non-event compared with making a character’s survival dependent on the kids calling out, “Look out behind you!” or similar.

Improv theatre is a step up from that because scenarios can only get started once the audience has responded to an ‘ask for’.

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

WELLINGTON RAW COMEDY QUEST 2015: Four from twelve …
SAN FRAN, 171 Cuba St, Wellington
- reviewed by Patrick Davies

Reviewing stand up is like reviewing Improv, only a smidge easier. Regular appearances of comics lets audiences get used to the style of a particular comic and whether they want to follow them or not. But still this kind of performance is really a ‘you had to be there’ kind of night. We are at a well packed old haunt of comedy – San Fran Bar – where comics old and new have been ripping up the boards for years.

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

BEARDS, BEARDS, BEARDS: Highly entertaining and handsomely presented
The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
- reviewed by Lexie Matheson

Ralph McCubbin Howell’s newish play Beards, Beards, Beards is a work of light content but it sure has significant gravitas, not that you’d necessarily notice as you whizz at a million miles an hour through the whimsical eccentricity of the script, tasting the occasional tart tang of the lyrics and the zip/zap multiplicity of a plethora of outlandish performances.

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

BEARDS, BEARDS, BEARDS: Beardiful
The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
- reviewed by Amanda Leo

With a piece entitled Beards! Beards! Beards!, I had no doubt that theatre-watching beard-enthusiasts were going to enjoy this show about, well, a girl trying to grow a beard. I’m not exactly what you’d call an avid beard-enthusiast myself, but this show had me questioning why I wasn’t one.

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

WHERE THERE’S A WILL: Never less than entertaining
BATS Theatre, The Propellor Stage, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
- reviewed by Elspeth Sandys

Exactly where this play fits in Shakespeare’s lexicon of genres is hard to say. Tragic moments collapse into farce, comedy abounds, and there is an ending straight out of romance drama with Dekkers-Reihana acting as the deus ex machina.

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

STRIKE BETWEEN ZERO AND ONE: High energy ride through a multi-layered explosion of sound, visuals and harmony
Q Theatre, Rangatira, Auckland
- reviewed by Dione Joseph

John Psathas is an exceptional composer. If you haven't had a chance to behold his incredible scores ... you're missing out.

STRIKE Between Zero and One is a show of world class quality. It defies conventional categories of performance, expectations and creates a spectacle that is as loud as it is meticulous in creating distinct harmonies.

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

THE PIANIST: Pianist hits right keys for laughs
Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland LIVE, Auckland
- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

Kiwi performer Thomas Monckton is forging an international reputation with a style that has acrobatics, clowning and mime bouncing off each other in a wildly imaginative piece of absurdist comedy.

The show sends up the protocols of a formal piano recital as it takes us on a journey from backstage to the seat of a grand piano.

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

THE PIANIST: Entertaining and impressive in equal measure
Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland LIVE, Auckland
- reviewed by Kate Ward-Smythe

A minute into Thomas Monckton’s stunning solo performance, the kid sitting in front of me states emphatically, “This is great.” I couldn’t agree more. ... Moments in Monckton’s performance are like watching the mastery of a Cirque Du Soleil soloist with the glittery glamour replaced by gritty agility.

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

WHERE THERE’S A WILL: Plenty of topical jokes in serious comedy
BATS Theatre, The Propellor Stage, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

John Smythe's serious comedy Where There's a Will sets off on its 90 minute voyage with a mysterious stage manager hiding as a mannequin (later to appear as the live statue in The Winter's Tale) in a rehearsal room where two old actors are about to audition.

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

BREATH: THREE SAMUEL BECKETT SHORT WORKS: Faithful
Q Theatre, The Vault, Auckland
- reviewed by Dione Joseph

Beckett is a god of the theatre. His works are an exercise in lyricism often laced with black humour and a rather morbid outlook on life and it’s movements but his writing continues to have an undisputed legacy. For those who relish his self-deprecating prose, exquisite poetry and knack for capturing the rhythms of speech, his plays – particularly the minimalist ones – are enduring favourites.

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

BREATH: THREE SAMUEL BECKETT SHORT WORKS: Life is Krapp
Q Theatre, The Vault, Auckland
- reviewed by James Wenley

It is tempting to interpret Breath as an encapsulation of the ultimate message of all of Samuel Beckett’s plays: you’re born, life is rubbish, you die, and then it happens again to someone else. Breath is all of 40 seconds. Spoiler alert: we hear a baby’s cry, the lights fade up as we hear the inhale of a breath, we see a static image of a beach filled with plastics and pollution, and then the lights fade out on the exhale.

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

THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Stoned, articulate and entertaining
The Basement Studio, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
- reviewed by Tim George

Directed by Benjamin Henson, this new revival of Kenneth Lonergan's pressure cooker of disaffected youth in Reagan-era New York is by turns claustrophobic, bleak, and nihilistic. It is also blackly comic and surprisingly profound.

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

DAFFODILS [INSPIRED BY TRUE EVENTS]: Finely crafted, superbly delivered
Q Theatre, Rangatira, Auckland
- reviewed by Penny Dodd

The musical constructions combine pop song with classic musical theatre devices of scenes, vamps, underscores and sung sections. These are finely judged, well crafted, and most effective, furthering the story without ever feeling like a pop song has been shoe-horned into a story.

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

TOGETHER ALL ALONE: Highly entertaining
BATS Theatre, The Dome, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

Not for the first time has a show at Bats Theatre been a series of short pieces to make up the whole. Together All Alone, New Zealand playwright Angie Farrow has written six 10-minute long sketches that are succinct and complete and each in its own way engaging.

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

WHERE THERE’S A WILL: Vulnerability and bravery
BATS Theatre, The Propellor Stage, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
- reviewed by Charlotte Simmonds

The two spend most of the play trapped together in a rehearsal room, or possibly a props cupboard, while waiting for the mysterious director to appear and audition them, and yes, it’s supposed to remind you of very many famous plays. Overtly, the play revolves around Shakespeare. Covertly, it is Absurdist all the way through, with a faint trace of plot.

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

THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Stoned, articulate and entertaining
The Basement Studio, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
- reviewed by Janet McAllister

This is the second Basement play in two years about young New Yorkers mouthing off like there's no tomorrow, annoying the hell out of each other, stoned out of their brains. Last year's The Motherf***er With the Hat analysed working class characters while this production (a 1996 drama by native New Yorker Kenneth Lonergan) dissects rich slackers living on the upper West Side in 1982.

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

ALICE IN WONDERLAND – IN THE ATTIC: Committed performers keep us hooked
Court Theatre, Bernard Street, Addington, Christchurch
- reviewed by Grant Hindin Miller

All three players work beautifully together and each has their moments: Jimmie as the Queen of Tarts, Alice in the trial scene, and Uncle Lewis as the largest caterpillar ever to glide across a stage blowing bubbles down twenty metres of undulating torso. Colourful accents, great lighting, comical sound effects, a Cheshire Cat with fur-balls ...

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

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.