The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of Cut.Paste.Collaborate, A Boy Wonder, Black Romedy, and Refining Light.

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

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The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of Cut.Paste.Collaborate, A Boy Wonder, Black Romedy, and Refining Light.

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

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - A BOY WONDER: Heart-felt humorous homage
- reviewed by Adey Ramsel

So, how does Ryan Richards fair? I’d say pretty darn well. In fact, I’d go so far as to say if this is his first solo show then it stands up there amongst some of those I’ve seen written and performed by those established in the business. First night nerves, trembles and stutters aside, Ryan Richards delivers some simple moments of home-grown comedy gold

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BATS Theatre (Out Of Site), Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - BLACK ROMEDY: Much to recommend it as a showcase and testing ground for emerging talent
- reviewed by John Smythe

As I understand it Jared Kirkwood’s 14 Days Left is presented by recent graduates of the Whitireia’s Bachelor of Applied Arts (Stage and Screen) and the team presenting Arthur Meek’s Fight The Fat won a senior student pitching competition to gain this Bats double bill season.

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The Anteroom, Dunedin - REFINING LIGHT: Some magic, some scope to muse, some room to improve
- reviewed by Jonathan W. Marshall

If we cannot all agree on the definition of theatre—or Expanded Cinema for that matter—there is plenty of theatricality within sound art and the related disciplines which were on display.

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Allen Hall Theatre, University of Otago, Dunedin - CUT.PASTE.COLLABORATE: Ingenious, diverse, cohesive and appealing
- reviewed by Hannah Molloy

What a show! Cut.Paste.Collaborate., performed to a capacity audience was great, start to finish. The seven choreographies by Gasp! Dance Collective, were each very distinctive while remaining relevant to each other both through the theme of “connection and disconnection” and through a common vocabulary of movement, rich in symbolism and empathy.

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Playhouse Theatre, Dunedin - VELCRO CITY: A joy to watch
- reviewed by Patrick Davies

Velcro City is “the most German town” in New Zealand and is a great riff on Rural Kiwi, similar in vein to Little Britain. Full of characters formed from caricature but given depth by the two performers on stage it starts with the unveiling of the new town slogan – “Smells Like Community” – and, through a series of unfortunate and seemingly unrelated events, ends up somewhere else altogether.

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Centrepoint, Palmerston North - THE WAR ARTIST: Surprising depths
- reviewed by John Ross

Appointed an official war artist for the New Zealand Division in the Great War of 1914-18, how should one depict the warfare happening, the men taking part, the devastated landscapes? To glorify, in some way? Or to register the routine slaughter, the bleakness, the ruination, as one witnessed the evidence of them?

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Q Theatre Loft, 305 Queen St, Auckland - DAFFODILS [INSPIRED BY TRUE EVENTS]: Love note to Kiwi songwriting not forgotten lightly
- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

What may well be the quintessential Kiwi love story is brought to life in an utterly charming show that has intimate family history blended with a heartfelt tribute to New Zealand songwriting.

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Q Theatre Loft, 305 Queen St, Auckland - DAFFODILS [INSPIRED BY TRUE EVENTS]: Love not given lightly
- reviewed by James Wenley

Watching Daffodils is like watching a little miracle come into bloom. Praise has already been high for this remarkable debut show from Bullet Heart Club, but allow me to add my voice too: this is an incredibly special theatre experience of a kind that almost never comes along. I go to the theatre again and again in the hopes of experiencing a show like this. It’s an intimate personal story about playwright Rochelle Bright’s family, a boy meets girl classic, a love-filled tribute to her parents that does not shy away from their flaws.

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Fortune Theatre Studio, Dunedin - HEART GOES BOOM: Sometimes ludicrous, often crude, always very funny
- reviewed by Reuben Hilder

A large portion of the show focuses on the recent hardships that Bowen has endured and many of the low points in his show centre around actually very tragic stories from Bowen’s past, but Bowen always undercuts the tragedy by proceeding to laugh at what was, at the time, emotionally devastating for him. Bowen reminds us of H L Mencken’s famous assertion, that “God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh,” assuring us that now, looking back, he sees the joke. And because he is laughing at the tragedy, we feel as if we can too.

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Allen Hall Theatre, University of Otago, Dunedin - ELEPHANTS IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE: The healing power of the arts and education
- reviewed by Kimberley Buchan

The Garden of Gethsemane is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. A symbol of peace and faith. However there is a problem that our peaceful society ignores. It is tiptoed around softly, with people trying to pretend it isn’t there. Is it too hard to solve? Too complex? It is difficult and complicated but it can be worked out and Jay Williams and Phoenix NZ Performing Arts are taking the first steps.

They take ‘the elephant in the room’ of cultural alienation and mental illness and look straight at the huge impact these things have on our suicide rates.

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Chisolm House, 45 Ross St, Roslyn, Dunedin - THIS IS MY REAL JOB: Fanciful, funny, real and touching
- reviewed by Reuben Hilder

As can be expected from a show that takes place in the living room of the artist’s parents’ house, This Is My Real Job is a highly personal piece of theatre, taking its audience on a journey into its creator’s world. Fischel-Chisholm’s energy and charisma captures her audience the instant she begins and doesn’t let them go until she has finished.

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Q Theatre Loft, 305 Queen St, Auckland - DAFFODILS [INSPIRED BY TRUE EVENTS]: A good, deep, marvellous New Zealand story; a story of us
- reviewed by Simon Wilson

What a thrill. Right now, upstairs in the Loft at Q Theatre, there’s a play to turn you inside out and set you back, heart pounding and eyes all wet, terribly upset, terribly full of thanks that it could be so good. It’s a new-formed, fully fledged wonder. I love it. I think it’s a work of genius. I can’t, as you may have guessed, praise it enough.

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The Office at CBD Bar, Christchurch - VELCRO CITY: Bloody funny big little show
- reviewed by Erin Harrington

Hamish and Eli portray a broad cross-section of Velcro City’s inhabitants including an elderly couple who keep falling asleep because of the soporific effects of the nearby lavender fields, a moustachioed divorcé and his wayward toddler, a handful of earnest and gormless teens, a brusque bus driver, the blokesy populist mayor and his magnificent comb-over, and a pair of lesbian vegan café owners who are much reviled by the other townspeople but who ultimately provide the solution to the town’s problems.

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The Basement Studio, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - STOMACH: Satiable
- reviewed by Matt Baker

While the mutual love of Lisa Left-Eye Lopez may not grab all potential audience members, Stomach is a surprisingly accessible piece of theatre – for both men and women. Granted, there are one or two references that will completely skip men, but overall the themes of friendship and one’s self-respect are presented with a degree of authenticity that make for an engaging 50 minutes of theatre.

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Q Theatre Loft, 305 Queen St, Auckland - DAFFODILS [INSPIRED BY TRUE EVENTS]: Heart-wrenching, personal, near-iconic New Zealand theatre
- reviewed by Stephen Austin

Eric (Todd Emerson) is eighteen and Rose (Colleen Davis) is sixteen when he picks her up, drunk, having fallen in a daffodil garden by a lake. This is the exact location where his parents met two decades earlier, so this love at first sight feels like it may be fate, but events conspire to force them both to examine their futures and relationships with the past and the greater world around them.

All to the tune of some of the great rock anthems of twentieth century New Zealand.

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St Paul’s Cathedral Crypt, The Octagon, Dunedin - MILKMILKLEMONADE: Bizarrely original, darkly edged comedy
- reviewed by Kimberley Buchan

It contains a pyromaniac in a onesie, a wannabe comedian chicken, a dying chicken farmer, a lady in a leotard and a ribbon dancing eleven year old boy. This fantastical combination bursts into a flurry of energy on stage.

Playwright Joshua Conkel said: “I wanted to write a play about growing up queer that takes place in a nightmare landscape that expresses how terrifying life can be for gay kids in an expressive, rather than strictly literal way.”

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The Playhouse, Dunedin - THE BOOKBINDER: Spell-binding
- reviewed by Terry MacTavish

Close before us sits a character straight from an old book illustration: Gepetto apron and spectacles, soft brown beard and kindly yet penetrating eyes. Absorbed in his work, initially he pays us no attention at all. Beside him is a beautiful old phonograph, His Master’s Voice, and the seductive voice of a French songstress weaves around us. Only when the gramophone winds down does the Bookbinder, muttering, “Bloody new-fangled technology,” acknowledge our presence.

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Inch Bar, 8 Bank St, Northeast Valley, Dunedin - PUPPET FICTION: A knock-out
- reviewed by Terry MacTavish

Glory be, Fringe is yet again filling, with its special magic, the most unexpected Dunedin venues, from the sublime to the ridiculous: the Festival Gala launching impressively with Film Noir trappings in the huge Town Hall, while next night I find myself squeezed into intimate contact with lovely strangers in the unbelievably teeny but twinkly Inch Bar.

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Community Gallery, 20 Princes St, Dunedin - DEMIGOD HALF-HUMAN: Bold and impressive first full-length work
- reviewed by Anna Bate

For the most part, I am struck by how bold and well edited this work is. How images are thoughtfully chosen and precisely framed and how the choreographer gives value through stilling (Andre Lepecki, 2005) scenes so that they might shout their presence loud and clear in the Community Gallery of Dunedin. I would be happier yet if the images could linger a little longer and if the shifts between were given more attention. The occasional awkward transition, whilst so tiny, is too loud in a work like this. However, the gutsy choices made show sophistication and a sharp intuitive eye for knowing what works. In particular I am drawn to Jahra’s gabbling plead, Shani’s slithering near nude body, the prelude to Rosa’s hair flinging solo and of course the golden skeleton.

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Soundings - Te Papa, Wellington - AGE: Meditative stories wound around a stellar cast
- reviewed by Jillian Davey

While McCormack requires his audience to think for themselves, he creates an often meditative pace, allowing us to contemplate several options at once; all while being affected by the calibre of dancing. There is not a weak cast member among them. Mick Rose, Alex Leonhartsberger, Claire O'Neil, Nicola Leahy, James O’Hara, Luke Hanna, and Harry Eathorne give equal believability and talent to whichever character we decide to bestow upon them. (Though particular credit goes to Mick Rose who is trained and works as an actor, yet holds his own among the rest of the crew of trained dancers.)

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The Basement Studio, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - STOMACH: Stunning
- reviewed by Lexie Matheson

The script is innovative, inventive and seriously funny. It travels backwards from the demise of a beautiful friendship to its beginning in, of all places, a library and is peppered with illustrative and moving vignettes covering everything from fathers – love them and hate them – to obsessing over a boyfriend, binge-eating, throwing up, Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes and everything TLC, along with making YouTube clips featuring their favourite home grown personas.

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Playhouse Theatre, Dunedin - RAGEFACE: Complex ideas impressively explored
- reviewed by Sharon Matthews

Rageface is an impressive piece of ensemble theatre which draws heavily upon the physicality of the actors. The bodies of the actors form walls, supermarket aisles, and even café stools. While all of the actors achieve a very high standard of performance — particularly Anisha Hensley Wilson (Madrugada) and Helen Fearnley (Allison) who do well with comparatively less fleshed out characters — stand-outs for me are Jakub Green (as the Bros), Robins, and Elliott Phillips as the incredibly annoying Pierce.

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Fortune Theatre - Hutchinson Studio, Dunedin - THE I TEST: Connectedness and challenge
- reviewed by Hannah Molloy

The performers elicited sympathy for their attempts to connect and engage with each other, and their perseverance in the face of a callous disregard for each other’s feelings. Coppersmith’s stuttering speech was wrenching as was Flaherty’s display of a range of emotion from anger to worried and trying to explain to the others ranged against her, laughing at them with an ‘I don’t care what you think’ flip of her hand to breaking down into tears on the floor. It’s difficult to laugh on cue and to sound and look as though you mean it and she did it cleverly.

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Ombrellos, 10 Clarendon Street, Dunedin North - TIME OF MY LIFE: Some stumbles and mis-steps in an otherwise hilarious try-out show
- reviewed by Reuben Hilder

Tarun ‘That Indian Guy’ Mohanbhai does not claim to present a polished show but confesses at the beginning of the evening that he is simply “trying things out” in a much more autobiographical vein of stand-up than any of his previous work. He has chosen the perfect informal venue – the restaurant floor of Ombrello’s – for his experimentation.

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BATS Theatre (Out Of Site), Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - ONCE WE BUILT A TOWER: Warm, engaging tribute to a forgotten hero
- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

Once We Built a Tower is a thoroughly entertaining, good old-fashioned musical documentary in the tradition of Mervyn Thompson's Songs to Uncle Scrim and O Temperance! It is performed with the usual warmth, simplicity and gusto that David Lawrence's Bacchanals bring to their shows.

The play pays homage to a forgotten hero in the establishment of our welfare state in the 1930s, Dr Gervan McMillan ...

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St James Theatre, Wellington - RIAN: An impeccable evening of joyous expression
- reviewed by Lyne Pringle

The dancers from all over the world are memorable in their individuality and each has a moment to shine as the Irish diaspora morphs and changes to envelope them. They conjure and draw the audience in with a subtle flick of the wrist. The sound of a foot tapping floats up from the auditorium and it is difficult to stay still in one’s seat as the kinaesthetic tendrils from the stage make the dance accessible to all. At one point they are like nature sprites on hot coals with the soundscape of bodhran, concertina, Irish pipes, piano, harp, fiddle and mandolin perfectly delivered by the stunning band of musicians.

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - GIRL IN TAN BOOTS: Clever whodunnit keeps everyone on edge while plot thickens
- reviewed by Janet McAllister

This intriguing whodunnit is entertaining and excellently produced. Its pleasing twists and turns balance humour and seriousness with just the right light touch.

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - GIRL IN TAN BOOTS: Six strong women sparkle
- reviewed by Sharu Delilkan

It is not long before the audience realises that award-winning Australian playwright Tahli Corin’s play Girl in Tan Boots has the makings of a great contemporary urban mystery (adapted to include Kiwi references that please the audience no end). Her dialogue is insightful, pithy and above all riddled with humour.

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Opera House, Wellington - AN ILIAD: Brings an unwelcome truth home
- reviewed by John Smythe

I almost resent having to spend more time in the world of An Iliad, in order to write this review. That’s not to say it’s not a powerful, salutary and important piece of theatre. It’s all of that, thanks to an astonishing solo performance with excellent musical and technical support. But it reminds us what a decadent bunch of warmongering arseholes so-called humanity has always been – and still is. And I am resistant to truths that make me feel powerless.

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Opera House, Wellington - AN ILIAD: War’s horrors recited
- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

Like the Ancient Mariner, the Poet who tells the story of the Trojan War is driven to tell it but, unlike the Mariner, he finds no solace or forgiveness for the sins of man.

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Court Theatre, Bernard Street, Addington, Christchurch - WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING: An intensely absorbing experience
- reviewed by Lindsay Clark

A play of ideas then, moving about in space and time, as what seems to the perpetrator to be a half understood lapse of judgement spreads its roots outwards and onwards, through successive generations of fathers and sons. Wives deal with the fallout. For the audience, subtle links across time and place are marked by recurring phrases, actions and objects in a sequence which is as intriguing as the action itself.

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

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