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Theatreview Weekly: 28/01/2016

28 Jan 2016
The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of The Choice, Puppet Fiction and Dog & Bone.

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

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THE CHOICE: Road-trip to Rotorua!
Blue Baths, Government Gardens, Queens Drive, Rotorua
Directed by Jennifer Ward-Lealand 
Written by Darlene Mohekey and Jess Sayer 
Choreographed by Taiaroa Royal 
Presented by Blue Baths
- reviewed by Sharu Delilkan and Tim Booth

The show’s tagline ‘50 characters, 5 actors’ doesn’t even begin to describe the sheer magnitude of skill, talent and hilarity that the ‘TV talent show’ The Choice dishes out for us. 

Wickedly written, slickly performed and cleverly directed to parody the current talent show phenomenon that dominates our airwaves, The Choice is undoubtedly the funniest show I’ve seen for a long, long time.

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THE CHOICE: The entire show is absolutely ‘Choice’
Blue Baths, Government Gardens, Queens Drive, Rotorua
Directed by Jennifer Ward-Lealand 
Written by Darlene Mohekey and Jess Sayer 
Choreographed by Taiaroa Royal 
Presented by Blue Baths
- reviewed by Jill Harrington and Kaye Graham

The show is a perfect parody of the current talent shows like X-Factor and New Zealand’s Got Talent. There are 17 acts (‘entries’) and at the end of the night the audience gets to vote on their favourite.

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SCIRT WORLD BUSKERS FESTIVAL 2016
PUPPET FICTION
: An inventive, kitsch and heart-felt honouring
Le Tigre Tent – Busker Park, Christchurch
Present Company
- reviewed by Naomi van den Broek

The real delight in Puppet Fiction is when things go off book. The three players have an excellent rhythm with each other, and use these moments to provide those types of experience that we know only tonight’s audience get to see.

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DOG & BONE: Eloquent and insightful: a richly wrought weave
Soundings - Te Papa, Wellington
(Wellington 1869) 
By Helen Pearse-Otene 
Directed by Jim Moriarty 
Presented by Te Rākau Theatre in partnership with Taki Rua Productions and with support from Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangātira, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and Te Puni Kōkiri
- reviewed by John Smythe

Dogs challenge us, greet us and put us on our mettle as we enter Soundings Theatre at Te Papa. The ambivalence we experience is spot on: we are strangers encroaching on their territory but aren’t we entitled to be here? Have we not been invited and/or paid our way?

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DOG & BONE: A play of grand and operatic proportions
Soundings - Te Papa, Wellington
(Wellington 1869) 
By Helen Pearse-Otene 
Directed by Jim Moriarty 
Presented by Te Rākau Theatre in partnership with Taki Rua Productions and with support from Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangātira, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and Te Puni Kōkiri
- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

From the audience arriving to be greeted by the cast as yapping dogs around their ankles, to the final solitary moment, this play, lyrically and poetically written by Helen Pearse-Otene, is one of grand and operatic proportions.http://www.theatreview.org.nz/reviews/review.php?id=8772

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

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