The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews from the Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival and more from the Fringe and NZ Festival in Wellington. 

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

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The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews from the Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival and more from the Fringe and NZ Festival in Wellington. 

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

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BATS Theatre (Out Of Site), Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - FIRST DAY OFF IN A LONG TIME: Beyond open, beyond moving and not to be missed

- reviewed by Deborah Eve Rea

Stop reading this review. Go book a ticket for First Day Off in a Long Time.

Brian Finkelstein, from the USA, brings us a tale of working at the “Humanitarian Suicide Hotline” with tangents on philosophy, love and how one survives while being “aggressively passive-aggressive”. He is a master of conversational storytelling. His delivery is sparky yet charmingly conversational in that New York rhythm that Mamet made us fall in love with.

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Bus stop opposite the Embassy Cinema (Kent Tce), Wellington - BUS TICKET: Delicious Fringe favourite

- reviewed by Deborah Eve Rea

At some stages of Bus Ticket, it’s hard to tell who the actors are. Some are writing in notebooks, gazing out the bus’ window; one is trying to change their clothes in the seat without causing alarm. A domestic parody of the everyday is juxtaposed with moments of surrealism. The actors join as a chorus to deliver poetic verse while at other times they utilise heightened physicality, almost dancing with the acceleration and inertia of the bus.

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Gryphon, Wellington - LITERALLY ANYTHING: An improvised delight

- reviewed by Lori Leigh

Christine Brooks, of (WIT), and Rik Brown, a Melbourne-based improviser, clearly share a ‘group mind’ and work well with one another; it’s a delight to see them team up and play. They are also very witty individuals so the show offers lots of one-liners to chuckle at.

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Fringe Bar, 26 Allen St, Wellington - LOVE IN THE KEY OF BRITPOP: Emotional story affectingly told

- reviewed by Michael Gilchrist

A lot of its enchantment lies in its fusion of the very traditional and the very contemporary. Its rhythms and rhymes seem to play on some ancient part of our cultural brain and the rapt attention Andersen elicits from the opening night audience has a magical quality at times. That’s also due of course to her skill with this medium. Her writing is beautifully balanced between narration and reflection, the colloquial and the lyrical and shows a great sense of how Britpop song lyrics can be woven like sparkles into, well, life’s rough tapestry.

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - THE SLAPDASH ASSASSIN: Savagely funny

- reviewed by Johnny Givins

The Slapdash Assassin presents a triumphant performance from Jeremy Elwood. He not only anchors the play, fills it with energy and wonderful one liners, he gives a heart and reality to all that goes around him. This is a play that sees our successful stand up comedian hit the mark as an actor.

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Hannah Playhouse (previously Downstage), Wellington - BLACK FAGGOT: Light touch belies profound truths

- reviewed by John Smythe

The idea that we need sophisticated technology to create events that could only happen in live theatre (as per Robert Lepage) is blown out of the proverbial water by Black Faggot.

Performing the potently authentic vignettes ... two extremely talented Samoan actors ... in ‘basic black’, stimulate our imaginations, compel our empathy, challenge our value systems, raise our collective consciousness and entertain us hugely on a bare ‘black box’ stage.

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Hannah Playhouse (previously Downstage), Wellington - BLACK FAGGOT: Serious moments glimpsed through the hilarity
- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

It is not surprising that Multinesia's production Black Faggot by Victor Rodger is the late-night show at the Hannah Playhouse.

This high energy, outrageously in your face and no- holds-barred show is a series of monologues and duologues canvassing all aspects of gay life.

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The Moorings, 31 Glenbervie Tce, Wellington - BLOODLINES: Impressive ambition and talent
- reviewed by James McKinnon

In terms of its sheer density of talent, this is the most impressive performance I have seen at the Fringe. Each of the eight performers in Red Scare Collective’s new musical, Bloodlines, holds down an acting role and plays at least one instrument in the orchestra, and all of them, plus all of us, are somehow wedged into the faded majesty of the ballroom at the Moorings...

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - MO & JESS KILL SUSIE: Absolutely believable

- reviewed by Kate Ward-Smythe

Graphic and shocking in tone, dialogue, content and delivery, Gary Henderson’s Mo & Jess Kill Susie has lost none of its relevance and intensity. This Theatre of Love production comes 18 years after it premiered in 1996. It is set in a dirty room, where two disaffected angry women are holding a female police officer they have kidnapped as their hostage.

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Gryphon, Wellington - FAMOUS SHARRON: THE FAME GAME: Fantastic host, fab Famettes, luck with guests, brilliant music plus lycra

- reviewed by Lucy O'Connor

A show like this only pulls through with enthusiastic improvisers, a bit of luck with who is chosen to participate and a fantastic host. Tonight, it all comes together. I must also mention the keyboard player who manages to play brilliantly and unashamedly all evening in a tuxedo made entirely of lycra. No mean feat for most of us. The keyboard or the lycra sure, but both? Amazing.

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BATS Theatre (Out Of Site), Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - THE "I" TEST: The place where we attempt to figure it out
- reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant

It is interesting to consider what holds these people together and why they are drawn to each other? There is consistent reaching towards one corner and a gem of a duet towards the end. Certainly worth seeing at Bats in the Fringe.

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Camellia Lawn, Gate 2, Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton - IN EXTREMIS: Undeniable passionate love

- reviewed by Jan Maree

From the very first lines of the play I am enthralled.

Not only am I a big fan of any argument involving religion and logic but I am an even bigger fan of a touchingly tragic love story. Here we have both, made all the richer by the fact that this all really happened!

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BATS Theatre (Out Of Site), Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - JEZEBEL OF JAZZ: SONGS AND STORIES WITH ANITA O’DAY: Kirkman is mesmerising
- reviewed by Michael Wray

No doubt this is a necessity of the one hour format used by Bats and the Fringe shows it hosts. Ideally, I’d like to see this work expanded into a fuller length and given a more traditional cabaret setting to embrace the world it presents. It deserves a larger chunk of your evening.

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Lakeside Court, Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton - THE CAROUSEL: Solid silliness and light entertainment

- reviewed by Jan Maree

Another beautiful night in the gardens and a modest group has assembled for another of the HGAF’s free shows. This one is the 2013 winner of Best Production at the New Zealand Theatrefest Competition. We are welcomed and informed of the play’s various accolades and that it is ‘irreal’ (meaning that it is not real).

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Puppies, cnr Tory & Vivian Streets, Wellington - SURI VS SHILOH: Refreshing satire delivered with energy, humour and moments of truth

- reviewed by Maryanne Cathro

It’s the future. Shiloh Jolie-Pitt and Suri Cruise are now young women, grown up in the spotlight of their parents’ and their own celebrity. What does that do to a person?

Susannah Smith-Roy (Suri) and Phoebe Borwick (Shiloh) entertain us with their take on the scenario. They are bonded by their shared experiences, in an exclusive club with so few members and so many fans, the two lost girls do yoga together, and come up with ideas that, well, get them into trouble.

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The Beach, Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton - ODYSSEY: “One of the most exciting theatre pieces I have had the privilege to see”

- reviewed by Jan Maree

It is hardly a new concept: Gods and mortals, heroes and heroines, LOVE, much struggle, plenty of weeping and wailing and a good old fashioned happy ending. So how does a group of young people (most of whom look too young to have read Homer’s recount) get so aptly inside a story? So much so that they deliver what I can only call a master stroke of genius.

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The Beach, Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton - ODYSSEY: Gets the emotion of our desire to reach our goals across
- reviewed by Ross MacLeod

I’ll admit that this production took me a little time to ease into. It opens with a nicely creative bit of audience herding facilitated by characters than were an odd mix of very focussed and very casual. With a lot going on it became clear that there were certain parts I wasn’t going to hear clearly and that it didn’t matter whether I did.

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Wellington CBD, Wellington - FESTIVAL SUBTLEMOBS: Festival town: at the NZ International Arts Festival opening weekend
- reviewed by Simon Wilson

Wellington sure knows how to put on an arts festival. Streets thronged with people, banners and posters, a bright, engaging eagerness everywhere you look, and yes, a wind so blustery it blows your face out of shape.

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Circa One, Wellington - PASEFIKA: Baudelaire discovers Polynesian identity

- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

The word 'flamboyant' kept cropping up in my mind as I was watching the characters in the first scene of Pasefika prance, dance, pose, and strut their way about the stage. The language too is flamboyant and rapidly spoken.

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Circa Two, Wellington - MISS BRONTE: Perceptive, intelligent, fiery, romantic and poignant

- reviewed by John Smythe

Having declared Jane Austen is Dead in 2008 and again last year, Mel Dodge has now exhumed Charlotte Bronte for our theatrical pleasure. The text of her thoroughly researched and cleverly structured play, Miss Brontë, is 75 percent Brontë, the rest is imagined, and it’s all brought together in her a richly layered solo performance, directed with flair by Lyndee-Jane Rutherford.

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Circa Two, Wellington - MISS BRONTE: Powerful performance, skilfully directed

- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

Charlotte's letters, poems and novels, as well those of her sisters, and comments by her critics have been judiciously filleted and used to illuminate the events of their lives, and to expose Charlotte's heartbreaking emotional life, of which we are given a bitter-sweet and unusual coda as we leave the theatre.

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Italian Renaissance Garden, Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton - ANEW: Intensely atmospheric - the world transformed - anew

- reviewed by Debbie Bright

The Italian Renaissance Garden at Hamilton Gardens: pathways, pools, terraces, porticos, tiny piazzas, balconies, pergolas, stairways, pavilions, formal gardens, perspective, order. The audience members are led through and into a series of spaces in the garden to pause and watch segments of dance from a series of vantage points. I find myself peering through trees and garden features, and glimpsing, observing, witnessing, women living and focused in the world of an Italian Renaissance Garden. Yet, these women are not static visions of acceptance and contentment with what is, in an ancient yet timeless space. They reach out and explore the beauty of what might be, what they know to be true; they consider anew.

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Hannah Playhouse (previously Downstage), Wellington - BULLET CATCH: More than meets the eye at this magic show
- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

The first show of this year's New Zealand Festival at Downstage*, Bullet Catch, is probably going to be the most dramatic of the festival. It is also one of the few shows that will have the audience sitting on the edges of their seats, literally.

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Globe Theatre, Dunedin - JOURNEY’S END: Fine production of important play
- reviewed by Barbara Frame

The trenches, we have always been told, were hell. This view is upheld by R.C. Sherriff's Journey's End, set in France in 1918 and one of the most important plays, ever, about war and what it does to people.

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Coxhead Flat, Hamilton - THE THREE MUSKETEERS: Pantomime for grownups
- reviewed by Mark Houlahan

Full marks to Body in Space then for performing with such panache at the unamusing hour of eleven on a Saturday morning, in front of an undeservedly small crowd. We did our best to sing along as required. They are well worth going to see.

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Circa One, Wellington - PASEFIKA: A highly stimulating imaging

- reviewed by John Smythe

What fun to be immersed in this wonderfully playful imagining of something that could well have happened but didn’t. Yet now that playwright Stuart Hoar, director Susan Wilson and a stellar team of designers, actors and artisans have brought it alive, the well-wrought mythology becomes a vividly remembered reality. That’s how ‘history’ happens.

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St James Theatre, Wellington - DECA DANCE - BATSHEVA DANCE COMPANY: powerful, engaging commentary on the human condition
- reviewed by Francesca Horsley

It is this skill of taking simple movement and gesture as building blocks to mount a compelling human dialogue that gives Batsheva Dance Company its power. Deca Dance, choreographed by Ohad Naharin, is an outstanding composite programme of excerpts from works performed in recent years.

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St James Theatre, Wellington - DECA DANCE - BATSHEVA DANCE COMPANY: Superb dance company

- reviewed by Ann Hunt

Artistic director/ choreographer Ohad Naharin takes contemporary dance to a whole new level. His choreography is astonishingly varied and inventive. The dancers soar, contract, roll, flick, shake, all with split-second timing in ways rarely seen before.

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Mexico: 74 Constable St, Newtown, Wellington - WELCOME HOME: Aerial fun runs late

- reviewed by Deborah Eve Rea

If you’d like to see someone perform aerial yoga on a bicycle suspended between two trees in a backyard cacti garden in Newtown, this is the show for you.

We are told to have our phones on the loudest setting – “just don’t answer it” – which is intriguing. We are then led to the most incredible secret garden full of giant cacti.

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Hannah Playhouse (previously Downstage), Wellington - BULLET CATCH: Entertaining, thoughtful, unique

- reviewed by Lori Leigh

A bullet-catch is the notorious, deadly feat of magic wherein the performer catches a marked bullet between his teeth. The first, and arguably the biggest, challenge of such a trick in this show becomes who will fire the gun in a one-man show at the one man.

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St James Theatre, Wellington - DECA DANCE - BATSHEVA DANCE COMPANY: Batsheva triumph with superb dancing
- reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant

Persecution, manipulation, supplication, temptation, exuberance and always throughout the desperation of the need for communication in the world of human experience. Strong visceral command of every nuance of movement, and high tensile bodies that are totally at their owners beck and call use unison and gesture to take us through an episodic series of universal stories.

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Gryphon, Wellington - SUDDENLY SHAKESPEARE: No method in this madness

- reviewed by John Smythe

Those with well app-pointed i-phones / smart phones / i-pads / tablets find Suddenly Shakespeare’s edited version of the play on line, others (like me) are given phones by the team, and we select our allotted roles. All scenes are listed, only those who enter or exit get that information and only our own speeches show up with a few words of cue. Fortunately a ‘prompt’ is on hand with the entire text to help out if anyone (like me) inadvertently taps something that makes it all vanish.

So here we go, sight-reading Shakespeare according to no credible precedent whatsoever.

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Globe Theatre, Dunedin - JOURNEY’S END: Compelling, suspense-filled, deeply moving
- reviewed by Terry MacTavish

This classic play ... is set in an officers’ dugout on the Western Front, while the soldiers wait in nerve-racking suspense for the final great German offensive of 1918.

It is shockingly authentic, written by a soldier who survived the carnage, having volunteered in 1914 when he too was just eighteen, though as a Grammar School pupil, young Robert wasn’t accepted for officer training until the first cohort of Public School boys had been killed.

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Victorian Garden Conservatory, Hamilton gardens, Hamilton - ANDY CLAY’S BOOK OF LOVE: The mysteries and madness of the human condition

- reviewed by Gail Pittaway

Andy Clay is an Auckland based stand-up comedian who takes on relationships, the stock routine of comedy, and presents them in a new way, as host of a panel of experts. By the end of the show it’s clear none of the experts has a clue and neither does Andy but then neither does the audience yet we all go out feeling better about our collective ignorance after a good old laugh.

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BATS Theatre (Out Of Site), Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - BUSKTED: Pompous and self-indulgent with boring song selection

- reviewed by Hannah August

I wanted to like Green’s show. I genuinely do think that making a decision to support yourself through performance after decades in a salaried job is courageous and laudable. But courage doesn’t merit the price of a Fringe ticket. Courage merits whatever someone chooses to put into your hat on Cuba Mall, based on how much they liked your song, your voice – how generous or miserly or inebriated they feel as they walk past.

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Arty Bees Bookshop, 106 Manners Street, Wellington - THE BOOKBINDER: Absorbing tale of boy apprentice in a bind

- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

In a small room in Arty Bees Bookshop, which is not surprisingly overflowing with books and which seats only fifteen people, is a workbench at which a bearded bookbinder is working diligently at his craft. Behind him is a phonograph with a large metal horn playing some music. The bookbinder welcomes us into his world and then starts to tell a story.

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Opera House, Wellington - NEEDLES AND OPIUM: Absorbing stories and theatrical magic

- reviewed by John Smythe

The set is actually half a box: two walls at right-angles and a floor, although each plane takes turns to be the floor or a wall as the structure – and the intersecting stories contained within – turn mesmerizingly on a hidden mechanism. Doors, windows, hatchways, trapdoors, beds and small furnishings appear and disappear, as back-projections – often extremely realistic, sometimes sublimely abstract – paint the planes to relocate the action. An invisible team of nine operate the show backstage.

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Opera House, Wellington - NEEDLES AND OPIUM: Hi-tech production delivers the goods
- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

If anyone is going to push the boundaries of a theatrical experience it is Canadian Robert Lepage and his theatre troupe Ex Machina. And the standing ovation and continuous applause on the opening night of his show Needles and Opium was certainly testament to that.

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Chinoiserie Garden, Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton - MIX & MATCH: Pure entertainment from experts

- reviewed by Gail Pittaway

The three pieces are fun, too and it’s entertaining and enlightening being part of the casting process and reflecting on how it might have changed had we cast one or two other actors for each one. Overall we are pretty pleased with our choices and the final version we’re given.

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Whitireia Performance Centre, 25-27 Vivian Street, Wellington - THE DREAMER: Incredible physical theatre and puppetry but the narrative is largely unclear

- reviewed by Deborah Eve Rea

Jasmine Shadbolt’s design again shines this New Zealand Fringe season. Her set includes a mobile bed which transforms to float over the sea, and a stunning animal mobile with hanging stars. I assume that she is also responsible for the beautiful puppets, including a breath-taking tiger that slinks through the space like a Chinese dragon, and man-sized dragon shadow puppets.

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BATS Theatre (Out Of Site), Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - DEMIGOD HALF-HUMAN: Another view of Eden

- reviewed by Jillian Davey

I hope this new artist ... continues to hone her craft. She obviously has strong ideas, a great eye for the visual, and an innate knowledge of theatre and spectacle. Go see the first in, what will hopefully be, Shani Dickins’ long career of great imagery-driven choreography.

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Bar Medusa, 154 Vivian Street, Wellington - EXPLODE ON CONTACT: Honest proclamations of love and anarchy

- reviewed by Deborah Eve Rea

At 19, Stokes has reached that stage of life when one’s eyes become open to all of the atrocities, madness and unfairness of the world. He believes “there’s a place in the system for angry young men to say ‘this is bollocks’.” His writing features themes of a world dream, young love, lust and empathy. His churnings are genuine though and I don’t doubt that he would save the world (and the girl) if the opportunity half presented itself.

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128 Abel Smith St, Wellington - MIS{S} CONCEPTION: MIS{S} CONCEPTION

- reviewed by John Smythe

It is the time between taking precautions and its being too late that this Theatre-in-Education style play is about. Having learned how Cervical Mucus may be monitored to indicate Peak Day in your fertility cycle, we are invited to share the experience of Chloe Walker (Rosaleen Moxey) over 3 years, from age 25 to 28.

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Gryphon, Wellington - RED NOSE REVERIE: Highly likeable actors but a travesty of clown
- reviewed by James McKinnon

Whether as a snapshot of history, an unearthing of a lost art, or an exploration of universal themes, the story of the Jandaschewskys has much potential for further development, and Red Nose Reverie feels like it is part of a process in discovering how to exploit the Jandaschewskys’ theatrical potential.

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BATS Out Of Site - return season, Wellington - EUTHERMIA / HYPERPYREXIA: Futuristic play grounded in very human emotions
- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

It is somewhere in the desert where the sun never sets. The environment is claustrophobic and sterile looking, emphasised by the green panels around the walls. As the orderlies move from rotation to rotation, the tension builds and the intrigue increases as we try and work out who these people are and what their purpose here is.

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - VELCRO CITY: Stuck on you

- reviewed by James Wenley

Eli Matthewson and Hamish Parkinson are endearing performers, and also rather talented doodlers.

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - THEY SAW A THYLACINE: They also came and conquered
- reviewed by Matt Baker

Completing the New Zealand tour of their award-winning fringe show, writers and performers Justine Campbell and Sarah Hamilton have brought a unique play based on fundamental storytelling to Auckland’s Basement Theatre.

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Gryphon, Wellington - STRANGER: An eyebrow filled fantastasm of success
- reviewed by E- Lysaah

If you missed Geraldine Quinn in Stranger, then you missed an outstanding performance from a comedic siren. I haven’t seen facial expressions like that since Tim Curry in Rocky Horror Picture Show. Her eyebrows alone gave you every emotion and word of song

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A cosy, secret location, Wellington - GOD-BELLY: Delving into the spiritual #2
- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

Two stories run in parallel. The first is that of a medical nun Catherine who becomes overly zealous in her quest for spiritual enlightenment taking penance to the extreme. The other is Jude a young school girl whose quest for perfection also takes her to extremes.

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Marquee by The Carter Observatory, Wellington - MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THE ASTRAL LIGHT: Delving into the spiritual #1
- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

Regarding herself as a spiritualist and somewhat of a proponent of the occult, Blavatsky became interested in the physical and non-physical aspects of the known and unknown Universe through what she called “the Hidden Masters” from which the Society was formed.

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Fringe Bar, 26 Allen St, Wellington - NOTHING TO BE DONE: Wry and sharp

- reviewed by Deborah Eve Rea

Luwita Hana Randhawa is an up-and-comer (and award-winner) in the Malaysian comic scene. She has been developing her comedy skills in her home country and in New York. For the Fringe Festival, she returns to Wellington which was her home for three years while studying at Victoria University.

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Our Place - via email, Wellington - DINNER WITH IZZY & SIMON: Memorably experiential

- reviewed by John Smythe

We graduate to the dining table, which is strangely configured (I won’t say how), and partake of a very pleasant pasta meal followed by an equally simple but lovely desert. The undercurrent of conflict between Izzy and Simon, which may or may not have something to do with at least one of us, makes us more circumspect than we otherwise might have been but fortunately they have strategies for getting us talking and even debating topic of the day.

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Cavern Club, 22 Allen St, Wellington - DE SADE: A brave work: clever, layered, sneaks up on you

- reviewed by Maraea Rakuraku

To my surprise I find myself enjoying de Sade but as it progresses I don’t know why it’s surprising, because it’s good. It’s clever, layered and it sneaks up on you. There’s something about Sparrow’s ability to remain in character, keep up the repartee, and physically move throughout the show that maintains interest.

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Italian Renaissance Garden, Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton - MISS FLETCHER SINGS THE BLUES: An excruciating delight

- reviewed by Gail Pittaway

Hayley Sproull as Miss Fletcher confesses modestly that she knows nothing about geography but as she is the music teacher and someone who has explored much that life offers, she can give a life class, using music. She goes ahead to sing several numbers about important life elements such as puberty and moustaches, using only an electric piano as her support and some simple, catchy light changes thrown in.

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Arty Bees Bookshop, 106 Manners Street, Wellington - THE BOOKBINDER: Whimsical theatrical artefact

- reviewed by John Smythe

Gruff yet genial, he sets out the qualifications for the job (some surprises here), introduces us to the tools of the trade and asserts the bookbinder’s cardinal rules: “Don’t get lost in the book you’re repairing”, “Never cut corners” (except, of course, when you literally do) and, “Never do anything that cannot be undone”. Thus the foundations are set for a cautionary tale that allows for redemption.

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TAPAC Theatre, Western Springs, Auckland - SONGS FOR GUY: Capturing our hearts with truth, honesty and a big dose of love

- reviewed by Johnny Givins

It is an excellent cabaret show. It takes “those silly love songs” and tweaks them so they more accurately reflect gay experiences. The “girl who can’t say no” (from Annie Get Your Gun) becomes “I’m just a boy who can’t say no”; “Someone to watch over me” has evolved into one man’s cry from the heart for a man to love.

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Fringe Bar, 26 Allen St, Wellington - I’M JUST HERE FOR THE FOOD: Incredibly emotionally engaging

- reviewed by Deborah Eve Rea

Scott is utterly engaging. Both physically and vocally, he moves through mania to the domestic to stillness in a way that is perfectly pitched to the space.

Scott’s writing is astute and his comic timing keen.

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

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