The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of Live Live Cinema: Little Shop Of Horrors, Scene, and The Lola Show.

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

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The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of Live Live Cinema: Little Shop Of Horrors, Scene, and The Lola Show.

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

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THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES: World-class hilarity
Lake Wanaka Centre, Wanaka
- reviewed by Pip Harker

So, off we go at break-neck speed into Victorian England, with the three actors playing all the characters, moving props around for scene changes and not missing a beat for the entire play. A right hoot it is too: mad, mad, mad. One is left astounded at the energy, talent and enthusiasm on stage, not to mention the astonishing physical comedy.

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SHORT+SWEET THEATRE NZ 2015 THEATRE WEEK 2: Five or six contenders
TAPAC Theatre, Western Springs, Auckland
- reviewed by Nik Smythe

conceptuality and more humour.

The line-up includes two plays about estranged families, two about aspiring playwrights, at least three about the quest for love and/or relationship, plus a few about mortality including two set at or after funerals. The closest thing a running theme I think would have to be personal identity and fulfilment ...

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SCENE: Objective observation still enlightens
BATS Theatre, The Propeller Stage, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
- reviewed by John Smythe

While LGBT/Queer people would certainly be pleased to witness their stories being told, I’m thinking the best audience for Scene would be those who are not in the scene but want or need to understand it, so they can relate better to family members, friends, acquaintances, their community in general and the wider world.

Then it becomes apparent there is much more to the scene, or there are many more scenes, than most people realise.

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CATS: Not a paw put wrong
The Civic - Auckland Live, Auckland
- reviewed by Bronwyn Elsmore

Okay, to me it’s not 100 per cent purrfect, as the publicity suggests, but it comes within a whisker of it. The early musical number ‘The Naming of the Cats’, delivered by the cat chorus, is tonally effective but the clarity of the lyrics suffer – it would be better delivered by single voices in turn.

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LIVE LIVE CINEMA: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS: Coheres into a thrilling whole
Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch
- reviewed by Erin Harrington

Given that they’re racing around the stage, swapping instruments and throwing things about, all up doing the work of fifteen people (and amazingly at that), I hope they’re getting paid well.

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THE LOLA SHOW: A Good Time
The Dark Room, Cnr Pitt and Church Street, Palmerston North
- reviewed by Joy Green

This kind of show relies on all the elements being done well – and, most importantly, the performer being someone we want to spend time with. To begin with the last, Lola is certainly that: the character’s lively humour connects with the audience from the get-go and keeps us all engaged throughout.

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EVERYTHING IS SURROUNDED BY WATER: Ensconced in Life
The Dark Room, Cnr Pitt and Church Street, Palmerston North
- reviewed by Adam Dodd

This is also a convergence of two stories. As a kind of background, the first illustrates how our not-so-inviolable sense of self can be wrenched from us. The second relates the search for such a sense lost, or traded for a chip at age seven.

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SHORT+SWEET THEATRE NZ 2015 THEATRE WEEK 1: What has happened to the Short+Sweet Festival?
TAPAC Theatre, Western Springs, Auckland
- reviewed by James Wenley

It’s started to bother me that the promoters of Short+Sweet are still running with the line that if you don’t enjoy one play, it’s okay, the next is just 10 minutes away. The subtext for potential ticket buyers is that some of the plays will be a bit shit. Short+Sweet Theatre has been going in Auckland for seven years. I would expect most plays by now to be good to excellent.

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ALL YOUR WANTS AND NEEDS FULFILLED FOREVER: Unfurling lightbulb moment
Q Theatre Loft, 305 Queen St, Auckland
- reviewed by Janet McAllister

The first two-thirds of this wink-clever Playground Collective comedy are exceptionally assured and superb – writing, design and acting interlocking perfectly – even if things come a bit unstuck at the end.

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CAL WILSON: IT COULD HAVE BEEN ME: Jokes become running gags that dance their way to a satisfying pay-off
TVNZ Festival Club, Arts Centre, Christchurch
- reviewed by Erin Harrington

If comedian Cal Wilson is having a mid-life crisis, it’s certainly the cheeriest one I’ve seen. It Could Have Been Me gives Wilson the opportunity to examine the path her life has taken and think about some of the people she may have become, if only she’d hung onto an early job as a birthday party fairy, kept hooking up with volatile losers, or carried on with the very short-lived (and incorrect) assumption that ardent feminists need to be unfulfilled, humourless shrews.

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THE WHITE GUITAR: Laughter and tears, joy and loss
Court Theatre, Bernard Street, Addington, Christchurch
- reviewed by Erin Harrington

This review can be condensed like this: The White Guitar is the best and most affecting piece of theatre I have seen, hands down, for a long time.

The piece tells the story of three of the men of the Luafutu family - father Fa’amoana, and sons Matthias and Malo, the latter being better known as the rapper and hip hop artist Scribe.

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ALL EARS: Fascinating on a number of levels
BATS Theatre, The Propeller Stage, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
- reviewed by John Smythe

And to go into too much detail about it would spoil the experience, so … trust me. Unless you only like predictably packaged, highly processed theatre, treat yourself to this, if you’re in Wellington tonight or tomorrow. Book now, read the rest later.

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REAL FAKE WHITE DIRT: Delightfully disconcerting
The Dark Room, Cnr Pitt and Church Street, Palmerston North
- reviewed by Joy Green

To create a good piece of performance poetry, it’s important that the elements of both performance and poetry are done well: first it’s essential that the theatricality of the piece is effective – and it certainly is here. Bates has an engaging physicality and verbal dexterity that allow her to flit around the stage, step seamlessly in and out of personas and then become herself again, in direct conversation with the audience to commentate on what she’s just shown us.

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SWING: Can, should, and will go further
Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch
- reviewed by Grant Hindin Miller

Swing is a good concept, exploring the lives of dance class attendees, the joy of rhythm and movement, and a burgeoning romance. The two actors adopt various personas during the performance but the main storyline is that of May and Joe, who know there is something missing from their lives and have come to the class to expand their horizons

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THE MAURICIO KAGEL PROJECT: Commitment, skill and creative high jinks
Fletcher Construction Festival Studio at The Arts Centre, Christchurch
- reviewed by Lindsay Clark

One of the defining attributes of Free Theatre is its strength in collaborative work and especially in presenting experimental theatre where international practice is explored. In the current project, listed as a work in development, the theatrical composition of avant garde Argentine-German Kagel and similarly ground breaking material from international composer Gao Ping are put together in an evening of exhilarating colour and sound.

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BAND OF MAGICIANS: You got me!
Bruce Mason Centre, Auckland
- reviewed by Michelle Robinson

Thanks to the mind-taunting stunts of the fabulous four that are the Band of Magicians, you will be eyeing everyone up with suspicion as you try and work out who’s in on the act. Surely some audience members have been prepped to play into the hands of these clever tricksters.

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LIVE ORGY: Lively, funny, cleverly paced and makes you think
The Dark Room, Cnr Pitt and Church Street, Palmerston North
- reviewed by John Ross

Ladies, you too could be drawn into the acting area and dressed up to represent a clitoris, to be duly stroked and rubbed with sticks, to the point of orgasm, as it were. By this stage of a really full-on show, this is simply funny, and the volunteer involved gets a big round of applause for her cheerful participation.

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NGA TAI O KURAWAKA: HE KURA E HUNA: A story of great worth beautifully told
Court Theatre, Bernard Street, Addington, Christchurch
- reviewed by Erin Harrington

Taki Rua’s work-in-progress He Kura E Huna Ana, which is presented entirely in te reo Maori, offers a dual narrative: the famous Maori legend about the origins of pounamu converges with and enriches a modern day story about a young woman who needs to find a way to deal with the issues and mounting pressures that face her, both practically and spiritually.

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A SIMPLE SPACE: Exhilirating non-stop celebration of the human body
Charles Luney Auditorium (St Margaret's College), Christchurch
- reviewed by Ian Lochhead

to the very edge of the performance space the show has a visceral immediacy as the acrobats perform seemingly impossible feats, muscles straining and lungs gasping for breath. Yet paradoxically, such is the strength, skill and balance of these superbly drilled performers, that it is the grace and control of their movement that is the most impressive element.

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HEROES: Bon Mot Attack
Maidment, Auckland
- reviewed by Matt Baker

There is nothing inherently theatrical about it, its Britishdryness, as implied by the original playwright Gérald Sibleyras himself, being far more suited to a BBC or ITV series. However, three veterans of New Zealand theatre, under the command of director Alison Quigan, firing off bon mots with impeccable precision and timing, is one of the funniest productions this year.

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THE BLACK: The National Bank horse is back. And she's pissed.
The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
- reviewed by Tim George

A multimedia piece about a woman's battle with depression, The Black comes with a terrific pedigree. Written by and starring Josephine Stewart-Tewhiu, and directed by the impressively prolific Tom Sainsbury, it is a well-produced piece with ambition to spare in its use of back-projected images and animations.

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ERNEST RUTHERFORD: EVERYONE CAN SCIENCE!: Lord "Comedy" Rutherford
The Basement -return season, Auckland
- reviewed by James Wenley

Lord Ernest Rutherford hasn’t had his due. No emotional biopic, no sharable internet meme. Sure his face is on our $100 bill, but how many of us have that sort of denomination in our wallets? Father of the nuclear age, but his recognition has been as tiny as the atom he split. No, he hasn’t had his due. Until now.

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ALL YOUR WANTS AND NEEDS FULFILLED FOREVER: Sharply comedic quest
Q Theatre Loft, 305 Queen St, Auckland
- reviewed by Heidi North-Bailey

Simon is just a normal guy, dealing or not, with grief. However Simon’s life begins to unravel when a mysterious box is delivered to him. Tantalising him with questions, he begins on his own hero’s quest.

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ALL YOUR WANTS AND NEEDS FULFILLED FOREVER: "What are stories, but mystery boxes?"
Q Theatre Loft, 305 Queen St, Auckland
- reviewed by James Wenley

Usually, I can put a play away for the night and come back to it the next day. Not this one. My mind was whirring - and then: a realisation that added a new layer of significance. What this play is really about. Maybe.

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

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