The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of Ian D Montfort: Unbelievable, The Kitchen at the End of the World, and Bitter Sweet.

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

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The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of Ian D Montfort: Unbelievable, The Kitchen at the End of the World, and Bitter Sweet.

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

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THE RAGGED (WELLINGTON 1840): Richly textured, insightful, humorous, sobering and energising
Soundings - Te Papa, Wellington
- reviewed by John Smythe

Under the overall direction of Jim Moriarty, Helen Pearse-Otene’s exquisite script finds a generously open performance style to honour its fictionalised evocation of how M?ori and Pakeha both clashed and coalesced in the process of colonisation. In distilling an essence of the Wellington experience, The Ragged captures a nationwide, even global, phenomenon in all its complexity.

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THE KITCHEN AT THE END OF THE WORLD: Marionette play tugs on feelings of warmth for old values
Circa Two, Wellington
- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson [Reproduced with permission of Fairfax Media]

There’s something about the guest-less hotel that features in The Kitchen at the End of the World that reminds me of The Grand Budapest Hotel. It has the same sense of isolation and a craving to preserve the past from the ravages of contemporary urban life.

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SEED: Lack of babies creates drama
Circa One, Wellington
- reviewed by Ewen Coleman [Reproduced with permission of Fairfax Media]

There are those who can easily get pregnant even when they don’t want to and those, no matter how hard they try, who are never able to conceive. Which is the case with the two sets of close friends in Easther’s play, all of them in their 30’s.

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RICHARD III: Shakespeare meets Black Adder and Monty Python
BATS Theatre, The Dome, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson [Reproduced with permission of Fairfax Media]

For its15th birthday and 30th production the inimitable, irrepressible and energy-driven Bacchanals repertory company is once again upsetting apple carts and cocking a snook at theatrical conventions, right-wing politics and murderous monarchs.

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MR & MRS ALEXANDER: Charming postmodern sideshow
BUSKERS BOUTIQUE, Old Boy’s Theatre, Christ’s College, Christchurch
- reviewed by Erin Harrington

In a festival that showcases the best of the world’s modern day circus performers, it’s fitting that we have a homegrown show that celebrates our ongoing fascination with the weird and the wondrous through an historical tale of con artists and carnival trickery.

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SEED: Deserves to flourish
Circa One, Wellington
- reviewed by John Smythe

Judging by the rapturous reception it received on opening night, Circa clearly has a hit on its hands with Elisabeth Easther’s SEED. Post-show the foyer was abuzz with people extolling the excellence of the cast and production and trading stories related to the experiences depicted and issues raised in the play.

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BITTER SWEET: The right mix
TAPAC Theatre, Western Springs, Auckland
- reviewed by James Wenley

With a sprawling ensemble cast of young refugees, migrants and locals, in Bitter Sweet Mixit repurpose the Romeo and Juliet proto-narrative and respond with a unique collective voice that can only come with having so many distinct voices in the devising room.

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THE KITCHEN AT THE END OF THE WORLD: Engaging at human, metaphysical and meta-theatrical levels
Circa Two, Wellington
- reviewed by John Smythe

In essence the Vastness at the End of the World represents the great unknown beyond our present lives, to which everyone has a different response. The characters’ meta-theatrical acknowledgement that they are marionettes with strings attached that simultaneously bring them to life yet restrict them is both amusing and thought-provoking.

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BUSKERS BURLESQUE 2015: Flirtatious, funny and raucous
The Press CLUB at Christ’s College, Christchurch
- reviewed by Erin Harrington

This year’s Buskers Burlesque offers up a showcase of song, dance, drag, striptease and acrobatics, all held together by Aussie comic and MC Asher T ... It’s a noisy affair, with a fair helping of skin and lots of wolf-whistling, and this show has become a much anticipated fixture of each year’s World Buskers Festival.

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IAN D MONTFORT: UNBELIEVABLE: Provokes fits of astounded laughter
BUSKERS BOUTIQUE, Old Boy’s Theatre, Christ’s College, Christchurch
- reviewed by Erin Harrington

The show is a satirical takedown of all manner of pseudoscientific and supernatural claptrap, from spiritualists and tarot card readers to homeopaths and celebrity psychics, but it’s made all the better by the fact that the feats of mentalism are outstanding.

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BITTER SWEET: Vibrant diversity
TAPAC Theatre, Western Springs, Auckland
- reviewed by Vanessa Byrnes

This vibrant feast of colour and movement is a real treat and is perfectly situated at TAPAC: The Auckland Performing Arts Centre. Mixit’s first production in a theatre (as opposed to other outdoor venues and spaces over the past nine years) is passionate and raw. Not always clear as a narrative drama, the vigour and energy driving the piece is its real strength.

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BLUE BATHS COMEDY CABARET 2015: IT’S A QUACK UP: Burlesque reveals real talent
Blue Baths, Government Gardens, Queens Drive, Rotorua
- reviewed by Jill Nicholas

Burlesque has come to the Blue Baths and Rotorua's nightlife is all the better for it.

This show is a delicious melange of everything that makes showbiz showbiz.

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RICHARD III: A memorable satirical romp with bite
BATS Theatre, The Dome, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
- reviewed by John Smythe

Consciously continuing in the same “tragical-comical-historical-political vein” as their most recent productions ... The Bacchanals pitch their Richard III – “Shakespeare’s classic tale of how a whole country can ignore the evidence and elect a lying villain as their leader!” – thus:

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SIREN: Captivating
The Press CLUB at Christ’s College, Christchurch
- reviewed by Erin Harrington

I am still surprised at the number of people I talk to in Christchurch who are convinced that the World Buskers Festival isn’t for them because they’re not into pitch shows or physical comedy. The festival has enormous scope and this year Siren, from classically trained singer and cabaret star Lili la Scala, is an outstanding example of the broad variety of top international acts that we are spoilt rotten to be able to access.

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THE BOY WITH TAPE ON HIS FACE: Imaginative, outlandish, deceptively simple
The Press CLUB at Christ’s College, Christchurch
- reviewed by Erin Harrington

As The Boy with Tape on his Face, Sam Wills – gagged by a black strip of gaffer tape – takes us on a breakneck trip through a gloriously convoluted array of prop-heavy gags. He is a masterful clown and exceptionally deft at communicating with us through a mixture of nimble movements, subtle gestures, bewildered looks and exasperated shrugs.

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THE VAUDEVILLIANS: Irresistible duo
The Press CLUB at Christ’s College, Christchurch
- reviewed by Lindsay Clark

Dr Dan Von Dandy and his supercharged partner Ms Kitty Witless whip up a potent cocktail in this revue style show. It is cabaret on speed, with dazzling drag and raucous burlesque scorching eyeball and ear. At times it is simply feral.

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PROMISE AND PROMISCUITY: A NEW MUSICAL BY JANE AUSTEN: An assured and completely engaging presence
BUSKERS BOUTIQUE, Old Boy’s Theatre, Christ’s College, Christchurch
- reviewed by Lindsay Clark

On her way to establishing a new/familiar Austen world with music, Penny Ashton has demonstrated a few universally acknowledged truths of her own, namely that we never tire of shrewd social observation, especially when it is delivered with unflagging elan and good humour.

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BLUE BATHS COMEDY CABARET 2015: IT’S A QUACK UP: Flamboyance, sophistication and humour
Blue Baths, Government Gardens, Queens Drive, Rotorua
- reviewed by Jill Harrington and Kaye Graham

And it is - a Quack Up! What an amazing production: a professional, classy cabaret show which deserves recognition beyond Rotorua.

The Blue Baths provides the perfect setting for shabby chic glamour, with a show set back in the venue’s heyday: the 1930s. Pushing the barriers when it opened back in 1933, the Baths encouraged rather risqué behaviour when seemingly scantily clad bathers enjoyed mixed-sex bathing, for the first time in New Zealand.

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

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