A selection of recent reviews from Theatreview from the last week:

A selection of recent reviews from Theatreview from the last week:

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

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Whitirea Theatre, 25-27 Vivian Street, Wellington - WELCOME TO THE WOODS: Couldn’t see the play for the Acting

- reviewed by John Smythe

As produced here, it’s hard to see the purpose of the play beyond its being a vehicle for a high-energy performance, lots of it very camp, most of it very loud. It’s all great fun and wonderfully surreal but that doesn’t mean the complexities of human psychology and emotional behaviour cannot be explored ...

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THE BOX, Buick St, Petone, Wellington - TIC TIC: A life as a performance

- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

It can’t have been much fun growing up in Tawa in the 60s particularly if you were gay, liked singing, playing the piano, watching TV shows and having a body that often behaved in ways one could not control.

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Circa Two, Wellington - BEATCAMP!: Strong singing and dance moves with weak framing devices

- reviewed by Helen Sims

We are warned to “Prepare for a beating” at the BeatGirls’ BeatCamp. What we probably come off with is more of a light spanking, despite the first 15 minutes or so being devoted to S & M innuendo.

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Circa Two, Wellington - THE MILD WILD WEST!: Could do better

- reviewed by John Smythe

Kids flock to the opening show wearing cowboy hats, neckerchiefs and waistcoats. Some tote plastic six-shooters, and mindlessly pretend to shoot people throughout the show – what else do you do with a gun? – despite being told up front that the folk of Buzzard Gulch “don’t like guns none”

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Hagley Open Stage, Christchurch - PLAY WITH PICTURES: Set to be a winner

- reviewed by Lindsay Clark

Bright notions for children’s theatre so often involve a miserable tussle between representing a traditional tale and providing something appealing for today’s fast set. How satisfying then to roll up to The Open Stage and find a genuinely fresh idea at work

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Mangere Arts Centre, Auckland - POLLY HOOD IN MUMULAND: Students put da hood onto Red Riding Hood

- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

 A blast of high energy theatrical vitality from a troupe of Pacific Island performing arts students clearly demonstrates the future of Auckland theatre is in good hands. The Pacific Institute of Performing Arts, in association with Auckland Theatre Company, are presenting a school holiday extravaganza that puts da hood into Little Red Riding Hood. 

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Luggate Memorial Hall, Wanaka - 2 DIMENSIONAL LIFE OF HER: A surreal out-of-mind experience

- reviewed by Unattributed online 

If you like your theatre straightforward, 2 Dimensional Life of Heris not for you. But if you have a healthy imagination and a childlike enthusiasm for new ideas, see Fleur Elise Noble's remarkable performance.

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Edgewater Resort, Wanaka - HOTEL: Layered, skilfully acted, tightly directed and intrusively intimate

- reviewed by Unattributed online

 Just as hotels see only certain facets of their occupants, our view is limited to what the characters reveal to us in the time they have the room.

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Capital E - 2011 season, Wellington - SONGS OF THE SEA: Gorgeous puppets bedazzle and mesmerise

- reviewed by Hannah Smith

Colourful and cutesy, Songs of the Sea, the latest offering from Capital E, is an exuberant explanation of how the seas and all the creatures that dwell in its depths came to find their homes there.

The story is framed as a collection of creation myths; the dreams of a taniwha who sleeps in a conch shell. 

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Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, The Edge, Auckland - BOXES: Charming ingenuity

- reviewed by Nik Smythe 

Fair bursting at the glued cardboard seams with slapstick routines and all manner of amusing homespun gadgetry, Boxes is a charming journey through an intriguing other world. The characters, both puppets and human, largely co­mmunicate through physical gestures and grunting alley-oop type noises, so the problem of the language barrier between Wellington and Auckland is eliminated. 

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Wanaka Masonic Hall, Wanaka - RITA AND DOUGLAS: Novel and captivating

- reviewed by Laura Williamson 

“I am grateful to you for bringing the painter and the woman in harmony,” Rita Angus wrote to the composer Douglas Lilburn. Rita and Douglas does the same. 

Angus and Lilburn had brief love affair in the early 1940s. The relationship didn’t last but the two remained on-and-off friends until Angus’ death in 1970. 

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