A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including reviews from the Dunedin Fringe Festival 2012.

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

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A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including reviews from the Dunedin Fringe Festival 2012.

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

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Fortune Theatre Studio, Dunedin - RICHARD MEROS SALUTES THE SOUTHERN MAN: Dazzling logic and bizarre flights of fancy

- reviewed by Terry MacTavish

As his valiant attempt to save New Zealand by becoming Helen Clark’s young lover so tragically failed, Richard Meros seeks out a new source of salvation: the Southern Man; stuff of legend, tough, taciturn, indomitable. Good for selling beer.

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Ironic Cafe & Bar, 9 Anzac Ave, Dunedin - POLSON HIGGS COMEDY CLUB 2012: Hardly Fringe but well worth seeing

- reviewed by Patrick Davies

The Polson Higgs Comedy Club has moved and changed at this year’s Fringe. Now at Ironic Bar and no longer a collection of three separate shows, we have one 2 hour evening of three stand up sets, MC’d by a national comic.

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Basement Theatre, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - LITTLE HISTORIES OF THE LIFE ORDINARY: Disparate narratives held together by existential glue

- reviewed by Nik Smythe

The message, as far as I can distinguish from the endearing characters’ momentary soul journeys (and one prominent scientists’ radio talkback contribution), is that we are all made of stars; that is to say, the atoms which make up all our bodies, and everything else, have traversed the universe during the billions of years it’s existed.

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The Church, 50 Dundas Street, Dunedin - TANGLED WATERS: Sublime creatures and casual style win through

- reviewed by Patrick Davies

Scientist-comedian Andrew Scott travelled all the way from Banff,Scotland, to have an epiphany while wandering along the St. Clair Esplanade. One Masters in Science Communication later he has wrapped his journey to make a documentary about the shark nets of Dunedin into an entertaining and informative show.

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BATS, Wellington - LOSER: Couldn't see the play for the acting

- reviewed by John Smythe

Sainsbury's perceptive and darkly satirical comedy is as broad in its conception of archetypes as commedia dell'arte and it requires the same level of emotional truth to bring it off.

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Globe Theatre, Dunedin - CATCH ALL: Stretching the rules with crowd participation

- reviewed by Hannah Molloy

The third dance, Fragmentality, was easily the most beautiful. Anna Noonan and Aliza Yair were graceful and methodical. It felt like an experimentation of dance, testing the strength of a ‘choreographic phase’, to see how the body will react and evolve a series of movements with changing parameters. The care and serenity with which Anna Noonan holds her body to form the movements is inspiring and Aliza Yair will be a drawcard for future performances.

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Vertical Aerial Dance Studio, 27 Moray Place, Dunedin - SEX*DEATH*MAGIC: RENAISSANCE POETRY UNBOUND: A most diverting entertainment indeed

- reviewed by Robbie Ellis

This isn’t the first time a company has cobbled together a collection of the English Renaissance’s greatest hits – poetic, theatrical and musical – and it won’t be the last either. This one grabs hold of the spirit of the time, reusing and borrowing material for a slice of the golden age that doesn’t outstay its welcome.

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Te Papa Amphitheatre, Wellington - THE MAORI TROILUS AND CRESSIDA - TOROIHI RAUA KO KAHIRA: An awe-inspiring marvel

- reviewed by Paul Diamond

Shakespeare’s ‘problem play’ explores the costs of love and war, and works well in a Maori setting. A well-known whakatauki (proverb) came to mind while I was watching the performance: He wahine, he whenua, e ngaro ai te tangata. (By women and land, men are lost.)

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Maidment, Auckland - IN THE NEXT ROOM (OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY): A Play In Need of Its Own Treatment

- reviewed by Rosabel Tan

We live in an age of sexual liberation: where mutual attempts to disentangle emotional and physical expressions of love are treated as an act of empowerment – friends with benefits, no strings attached. But whether they can be separated is another question altogether, and this is a focal point of Auckland Theatre Company’s latest production, In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play.

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Globe Theatre, Dunedin - AANANDA – THE DANCE OF JOY: Singular artistry

- reviewed by Sharon Matthews

Aananda - The Dance of Joy is a moment out of time, classical Indian dance at its very best, lyrical, evocative and visually and musically expressive. Unni takes and transforms the rich traditions of Bharatanatyam and Kuchupudi classical dance forms with her own distinctive choreography, revealing the fresh contemporariness of an ancient art form.

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Maidment, Auckland - IN THE NEXT ROOM (OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY): Good vibrations raise laughs

- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

The play's two titles are intriguingly conflicted: the first has an allusive poetic quality while the alternative gives a blunt reminder of what the show is all about.

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BATS, Wellington - RICHARD MEROS SALUTES THE SOUTHERN MAN: Wickedly funny

- reviewed by Lynn Freeman

Richard Meros salutes the Southern Man is very clever. And funny, topical and entertaining. It has the same theatrical premise as the adaptation of Meros’ book On the Conditions and Possibilities of Helen Clark Taking me as her Young Lover where he (in the fine form of the charming Arthur Meek), Prince of the Powerpoint Presentation, persuasively argues his point.

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BATS, Wellington - A PLAY ABOUT LOVE: A little too clever?

- reviewed by Lynn Freeman

Love eh? It brings us agony and antagonism, conflict and compromise, but we always start off with such hope. All the above are examined in A Play About Love, a devised work from My Accomplice.

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BATS, Wellington - A PLAY ABOUT LOVE: Witty, charming and thoughtful

- reviewed by Jarrod Baker

Everyone involved in devising, writing, designing and performing (not to mention producing, stage-managing and teching) A Play About Love is on stage for the entire duration of the work. Cast and crew (although there’s not really a line between the two) mill about with the audience as they enter ...

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BATS, Wellington - A PLAY ABOUT LOVE: Experience more than just pleasure

- reviewed by Neal Barber

A Play about Love has at its heart one relationship between a girl who makes snow globes and a stationer who jots brief snippets – including text messages – on post-it notes.

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XII Below, Dunedin - IMPRO SHOWDOWN: Like a delicious layer cake

- reviewed by Patrick Davies

Comedy Intelligence Agency (CIA)’s Improsaurus strike gold once again in this extremely funny and entertaining show which also has the added attraction of taking the piss out of improvisers.

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Regent Theatre, Dunedin - NYC THREE SHORT BALLETS FROM THE BIG APPLE: Ballet that makes you marvel

- reviewed by Hannah Molloy

In three pieces, NYC is all about the city it is named for - fast, gritty, doesn’t stop, is always changing and new and different, vibrant... the descriptors are endless and entirely appropriate. If this is RNZB Artistic Director Ethan Stiefel’s first year of programming, New Zealand is in for some very good ballet times ahead.

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Maidment, Auckland - IN THE NEXT ROOM (OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY): Dense, witty, sharp, insightful and pushes the boundaries

- reviewed by Vanessa Byrnes

It’s always been true that opposites, like magnets, attract and repel just as violently, and the drama brought about by the juxtaposition of two different forces always makes for great drama; reason and emotion, science and art, private and public, male and female, birth and death.

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Court Theatre, Bernard Street, Addington, Christchurch - CALENDAR GIRLS: Hilarity attends spirited cast

- reviewed by Lindsay Clark

If warm and spontaneous applause on opening night are anything to go by, The Court has found another winner in this adaptation of the screenplay, itself based on a gutsy real-life fundraising project by the Yorkshire Women's Institute, for the care of leukaemia sufferers.

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Globe Theatre, Dunedin - GOODNIGHT, IRENE: The role of the artist affirmed

- reviewed by Sharon Matthews

As the two central characters speak, it is revealed that these images relate to their individual lives, and to those traumatic events which have shaped them. It becomes clear that this is not a direct dramatisation of a specific time and tragedy. This is, as the programme indicates, a subtle exploration of “how events become memory.”

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Mangere Arts Centre, Auckland - BIRDS: Real, Raw and Revealing

- reviewed by Sharu Delilkan

It was like deja vu arriving at The Mangere Arts Centre, from Avondale, only to be thrust back into the thick of my own neighbourhood.

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Fortune Theatre Studio, Dunedin - THE FICKLE FINGER OF FATE: The funny, charming, mad logic of clowning

- reviewed by Terry MacTavish

Still reeling from the news that Dunedin must throw yet more appalling amounts of cash at our inept Rugby Union, I stagger into the Fortune to have my hurt healed by The Fickle Finger of Fate. Thank Heaven for the Arts, and Fringe Fest for bringing us these fabulous artists of physical comedy.

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Mangere Arts Centre, Auckland - BIRDS: Dynamic physical theatre

- reviewed by Grant Hall

The primary power of this play is with the acting. It transports the story as it dances, prances, jumps and shouts. The performers thrust the narrative in your face, like graffiti, like the wail of a siren, like a good hiding and even like a rock-filled poi!

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Centrepoint, Palmerston North - MICHAEL JAMES MANAIA: A performance of huge variety, subtlety, inventiveness and energy

- reviewed by John Ross

Portraying one Maori man’s life, this is also an exposure of the horrific impacts of warfare upon the lives of those involved in the on-the-ground fighting, whereby even the men who come home alive and without visible wound-injuries are all-too-often damaged for the rest of their lives.

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Various venues, Wellington - NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL 2012: Theatre Wrap Up: Homegrown fare right up there in the highlights

- reviewed by John Smythe

Last Wednesday Downstage hosted a Writers and Readers week lunchtime forum of playwrights called Why Isn't Theatre Dead Yet? Ken Duncum and Dave Armstrong were joined by British playwright Robert Shearman, who kept using the Circa production of Gary Henderson's Peninsula as a prime example of what theatre does best.

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Opera House, Wellington - HOHEPA: A must-see for anyone interested in what we can now muster in New Zealand

- reviewed by Michael Gilchrist

Hohepa is an event to be celebrated in New Zealand theatre. It is a collective, decisive step forward in terms of how a bi-cultural society can conceive of and create itself. And it has a prismatic, rich beauty.

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Sammy's Entertainment Venue, Dunedin - ZOMBURLESQUE: A fine show for those with a taste for it

- reviewed by Jonathan W. Marshall

There is a lot more than sex going on here, to be sure, but be in no doubt: sex is at its core, and the women do a fine job of disporting themselves in ways both subtle and explicit.

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Alleluya Bar and Cafe, Auckland - COFFEE WITH EELCO: An extraordinary story about a delightful man

- reviewed by Kate Ward-Smythe

Nelson born and raised actor/writer/director Grae Burton has co-created (with Tim Coughlin) an interesting one-man-play, based on the life and times of one of Nelson’s most famous characters: coffee house owner, Eelco Boswijk.

Given that Grae launched his acting career in Chez Eelco, his full-length work is very personalised, with more than one nostalgic 'life imitating art, imitating life, imitating art' moment.

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Fortune Theatre Studio, Dunedin - MY DINNER WITH DICK: A wasted opportunity

- reviewed by Patrick Davies

Last year Theatre As Is astounded with their Dunedin Fringe offering Once Was. This year’s show. My Dinner With Dick, is loosely based on the film My Dinner With Andre, in which two men have dinner.

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Maidment, Auckland - HINE 2012: Hine 2012 - performance as action, activism and critique

- reviewed by Val Smith

Three moments to fall in love with. Tru’s half naked lip-syncing with the policeman puppet upstage and boil- up date with invited guest from the audience happening in the foreground, bahaha, brilliant, wow. Cat’s squatted humping in heels an endurance test with intense statements about the sacred and the mundane. The hair is shooting energy into space like an emergency flare, I’m scared. The electric unplugged fans and ethno-erotic mash-up hip unison duet, a feeling of soft focus lighting and hair flying lulls us. The romance is killing me, god I love this. But the prize for the most-talked-about moment in the show goes to ...

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Globe Theatre, Dunedin - BE GLAD YOU’RE NEUROTIC: Somewhat pointless?

- reviewed by Jennifer Aitken

Neurotic people are better than ordinary people. To be normal is to be mundane. The neurotic thinks deeply about life. One must harness one's neurosis and use it like a superpower! This is what you will learn if attend Be Glad You’re Neurotic at the Dunedin Fringe Festival.

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Mary Hopewell Theatre, Dunedin - PICCOLO COR: Panche filled Fringe opening

- reviewed by Hannah Molloy

Piccolo Cor is a work many will identify with, as it describes the anxiety of being alone and misunderstood and what that means - "There are five people in my life..." - to laying bare one's soul to another and accepting their foibles and allowing them to accept yours.

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Soundings - Te Papa, Wellington - PRIVATE PEACEFUL: Strong script and acting let down by design

- reviewed by Michael Gilchrist

The story has a strong overall structure that echoes the argument that an earlier British literary icon, Allan Sillitoe, explored in many different narratives: the first world war – and, in steadily more complex fashion, subsequent wars – was nothing but the logical extension of the class system in Europe and Britain.

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Soundings - Te Papa, Wellington - PRIVATE PEACEFUL: Politicians, generals should see this play

- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

War and Shakespeare are two themes running through this year’s theatrical offerings at the International Arts Festival. They conjoined in Henry V, which also came to mind during Private Peaceful, a compelling solo play set in the First World War, the war to end all wars, in which a young Devonshire lad is to be shot for cowardice.

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Theatre Royal, Nelson - THE ABBA SHOW: Popular demand satisfied once sound is sorted

- reviewed by Gail Tresidder

A full house – the majority baby boomers plus, some dressed the part with fetchingly tied head scarves, loud floral prints, flared trousers and floaty tunics, many of them waving light sticks – give the band and singers of The ABBA Show a vociferous welcome to Nelson. The audience is psyched up for a good old-fashioned singing, dancing night out.

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St James Theatre, Wellington - RAOUL: Silent master at work, but the show went on too long

- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

Like his grandfather before him Charlie Chaplin, James Thiérrée is a master of expressing actions and emotions through the physicality of his body unaided by words.

In his latest show Raoul he shows off his skills and abilities aided by an incredibly creative production team that supports him with an amazing lighting, sound, music and set design as well as some awesome puppets.

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St James Theatre, Wellington - RAOUL: Exotic yet somehow familiar: fantastic fun

- reviewed by John Smythe

Insofar as you can pin down his shows, Raoul is about his relationships with himself, his place of abode and the world around him. He is trying to find himself and a way to be …

When we take our seats the stage is a mess of drunkenly hung, half-dropped, patched old canvass backdrops – the collapsing remnants of old-style theatre, perhaps – from which a drift of smoke rises.

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Pipitea Marae, Thorndon Quay, Wellington - TU: Life in the raw after the war

- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

The effects of war at a personal level rather than global are the subject of another of the NZ theatre offerings at this year’s NZ International Arts Festival.

Based on Patricia Grace’s award winning novel Tu, this play of the same name distils down the essence of the book into a 2 hour piece of theatre yet never loses the intensity or power of the personal traumas the characters go through.

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

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