A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including: Swan Lake - The Royal NZ Ballet, Footnote Made in New Zealand 2013, and Don Giovanni.

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: Swan Lake - The Royal NZ Ballet, Footnote Made in New Zealand 2013, and Don Giovanni.

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

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Opera House, Wellington - FOOTNOTE MADE IN NEW ZEALAND 2013: Inexhaustibly committed dancing
- reviewed by Jillian Davey

I hope it's not the end of "Colt". I'd love to see it again in a year or so with a bit of development. And like a strange, compelling book you love to read over and over again, I'm sure the audience, and perhaps the performers too, would find new details and new ways of approaching the subject.

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Civic Theatre, Auckland - SWAN LAKE - THE ROYAL NZ BALLET: Principals superb, matched by impressive dancing all round
- reviewed by Raewyn Whyte

[Gillian Murphy's] subtly quivering foot which comprises the last moments of a stunning grand pas de deux near the end of Act 2, absolutely rivets all attention, and when it comes to the famous fouettes which mark Odile’s total command of events, she nonchalantly varies them with triple pirouettes, upping the ante. We are extremely fortunate to have her dancing regularly in New Zealand.

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CBS Canterbury Arena, Christchurch - DON GIOVANNI: Illuminating the cavalier and foolish
- reviewed by Elizabeth O’Connor

The choice of setting does illuminate the extraordinary and cavalier delight with which Don Juan and all his successors up to the present day have deceived women for their pleasure, and the foolishness of said women in believing their blandishments and allowing themselves to be overtly sexualized throughout every dimension of culture.

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BATS - Out Of Site - Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - GUNPLAY / HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN / THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF FIREARMS AND HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTINGS: An eloquent decoding of the gun culture paradox

- reviewed by John Smythe

The first gloriously celebratory song, ‘Welcome to Fairview’, has the 16-strong cast singing, “Now you have come to Fairview / Let Fairview come to you.” And every day and night, on our small and large screens, the USA comes to us, invariably brandishing a weapon of some kind and inflicting death and destruction in the name of entertainment.

“Life is like a movie,” someone declares towards the end of this extraordinary 100 minute show. “You can’t be the main character if you ain’t packin’ heat.”

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BATS - Out Of Site - Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - WHAT GOES UP…: It’s mean not to share

- reviewed by John Smythe

Apples are used throughout, referencing the converse gravity of the title, as discovered by Isaac Newton. As a play it is a demonstration of how one – or two or more – may play with apples: the apple as sustenance, status symbol, treasure, means of exchange, weapon; the apple as a metaphor … for pretty well anything you want it to mean.

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The Basement Studio, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - RESIDENT ALIEN: Inside-outsider’s guide to style

- reviewed by Nik Smythe

Roy Ward bestows a softly intense, phlegmatically flamboyant portrait of a 90-year-old Quentin, presumably self-directed given the absence of a director credit. How very Quentin Crisp! Never one to be told what to do, by anybody.

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The Basement Studio, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - RESIDENT ALIEN: Crisp

- reviewed by Sharu Delilkan

We enjoyed a lovely warm theatrical experience tonight – a charming, threadbare, Thatcher-ite, and acerbic view of the world from the portrayal of an old queen with no will or wit to be ordinary or dated.
http://www.theatreview.org.nz/reviews/review.php?id=6191

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Theatre Royal, TSB Showplace, New Plymouth - THE BRAVE: Spellbinding courage, honesty, generosity and grace
- reviewed by Victoria Kerr

This is truly an experience devised by the brave. Powerful, intense and stunning performances from the ensemble cast keep the audience enthralled. The show, The Brave, follows the stories of a diverse range of young men who are trying to negotiate what it means to be a man in today’s society.

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Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, The Edge, Auckland - SPEAKING IN TONGUES: Actors portray strong emotional ties to multiplicity of characters

- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

Playwright Andrew Bovell brilliantly deploys the intricate counterpoint and self-referencing variations found in Bach's fugues, and Shane Bosher's precise staging is finely attuned to the musical quality of the script.

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Assembly, Roxy, Edinburgh, Scotland - IN FLAGRANTE: Discomforting, not challenging; offensive, not provocative

- reviewed by Robbie Nicol

In Flagrante is supposed to be a performance that confronts its audience with male fantasies, fighting sexism with irony and neo-burlesque. That is not what it ends up being. Straight 1950s sexism blended into an often light-hearted show stops the performance from being anything other than offensive.

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Various Fringe venues, Edinburgh, Scotland - EDINBURGH FRINGE WRAPS: Wrap #2: the quest for life and confronting death
- reviewed by Robbie Nicol (2)

There are a number of things you learn as a critic at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe: a media pass is unnecessary so long as you can speak; as far as Edinburgh is concerned a city cannot have too many independent bookstores; when the third week rolls around and the actors start to give up on handing out flyers, you miss their tenacity a lot more than you thought you would.

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Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, The Edge, Auckland - SPEAKING IN TONGUES: Lucid, defined and clear
- reviewed by Stephanie Johnson

Speaking in Tongues is also concerned with relationships, but purely of those between men and women, with little of the wider world intruding. In the opening scene two couples occupy two motel rooms. All are married, but not to each other, and all are intent on committing adultery. Dialogue is quick and witty, with lines crossing over the top of one another and at times forming a chorus.

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - MOTEL: Would benefit from a snappy edit
- reviewed by Frances Morton

Motel has a great concept for stage – one dodgy motel room and a shifting kaleidoscope of characters. In essence, it’s a collection of one-act plays loosely tied together by a crotchety old innkeeper (played by stage veteran Ken Blackburn).

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Assemby, George Square, Edinburgh, Scotland - THE BITCHES’ BOX: Characters worth sharing

- reviewed by Robbie Nicol

The energy between Amelia Guild and Emma Newborn is extraordinary. The piece is full of the choreographed movement and quick-fire line delivery that one loves to see in a double-act, and the transitions between characters are immediate and total.

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Bruce Mason Centre, Takapuna, Auckland - SWAN LAKE - THE ROYAL NZ BALLET: Iconic moments splendidly performed
- reviewed by Raewyn Whyte

In their New Zealand debuts, Australian Ballet principal dancers Ty King-Wall and Amber Scott provide beautifully complementary performances as guest stars in the roles of Prince Siegfried and Odette/Odile respectively.

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TSB Showplace, New Plymouth - ENNIO: Clever cartoon cabaret
- reviewed by Holly Shanahan

It is not surprising to read that Ennio Marchetto was born in Venice, Italy, the birthplace of Commedia Dell’arte and a country renowned in the art of mask-making. Most parts drag-esque cartoon cabaret, the show plays like a YouTube montage of craft costume magic and vignette caricature set to an array of contemporary and classical music.

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C venues - C aquila, Edinburgh, Scotland - ECHOLALIA: Tremendously endearing

- reviewed by Robbie Nicol

Despite the invasive nature of the questions, we do not feel embarrassed for ourselves. We are too busy trying to encourage Echo as she struggles to say the right things. The audience bonds together throughout the show as we become increasingly responsible for Echo’s success.

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Paramount, Wellington - PLAYSHOP LIVE: GUEST DESIGNER: A great way to end a shaky Friday

- reviewed by John Smythe

A goody number gather at The Paramount for their weekly Friday night dose of PlayShop LIVE, which kicks off at 10.15-ish. The Bergman Theatre offers a small patch of floor in front of the screen upon which this improv troupe gets to work their alchemy. Most of us keep well away from the exposed brick wall …

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Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, The Edge, Auckland - SPEAKING IN TONGUES: A tangle of emotional tightropes that demand to be walked
- reviewed by Adey Ramsel

A potential powder keg follows us out of the theatre after witnessing Silo’s latest production of Andrew Bovell’s multi-layered and wildly poetic play.

Right? Or wrong? How do we conduct ourselves emotionally, how do we bare our strengths, or more importantly our weaknesses to others? What binds us to some people but not others and how can fleeting moments between strangers reveal more about ourselves, our inner workings and maybe our more solid relationships than we thought possible?

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Assembly, Roxy, Edinburgh, Scotland - SQUIDBOY: Liberating absurdity

- reviewed by Robbie Nicol

Squidboy reminds us how freeing it is to be silly. Like the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi (the one who dreamt he was a butterfly), it is not clear whether Squidboy is a fisherman dreaming he is a squid, or a squid dreaming he is a fisherman. In the end it doesn’t matter because, as the show so often reminds us, neither of them are. It’s a play.

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Te Whaea National Dance and Drama Centre, 11 Hutchison Rd, Newtown, Wellington - EARTHQUAKES IN LONDON: A high level of excellence

- reviewed by John Smythe

As I write this has become immediately topical for Wellington, at a literal level anyway. This Friday afternoon has brought us a 6.6 magnitude earthquake just 8km deep (centred off Seddon) followed by a continuing swarm of ‘severe’ 5+ and a couple more 6+ shakes … Are such events, or the apparent escalation in their frequency around the globe, a manifestation of climate change?

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Theatre Royal, TSB Showplace, New Plymouth - LIVE AT SIX: Funny, clever and witty satire
- reviewed by Victoria Kerr

Television news is the villain and truth its victim when rival television news stations and a celebrity news anchor are caught in an apparent scandal.

A funny, uncompromising and cynical presentation of the modern media age, Hewsion and Wadham’s New Zealand satire exposes the harsh realities of the unscrupulous nature of modern news broadcasting in the age of the internet and immediate ‘reporting’ ...

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - BALMY: Interesting concepts in isolation

- reviewed by Johnny Givins

The Basement is to be congratulated for its policy of promoting emerging talent in their two spaces.

It allows us to see the creative spirit of our theatre community experimenting with new concepts, new forms and new ideas in the theatrical spaces. Some are magical and intriguing, and some need to be just experiments.

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The Basement Studio, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - WINGS: Craft, integrity and entertainment

- reviewed by Johnny Givins

These three actors live every moment of their journey. The performances are focussed in every image and event. The dramatic changes are filled with reality. There are wonderful interactions between the sisters as they reach out for each other with an amazing sense of truth and discovery. They create wonderful funny sequences, sing favourite songs, and have huge arguments.

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Mayfair Festival Club, 67-73 Devon St West, New Plymouth - PARTY WITH THE AUNTIES: Whanau values, behaviours and expectations
- reviewed by Ngaire Riley

A strength of the performance is the easy layering of traditional and contemporary values, behaviours and expectations. A weakness is the lack of development of relationships between the characters. Only at the end do we explore the love triangle of Te Manawa, Sia and Tai.

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

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