A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including: Porcelain Punch Travelling Medicine Show, Footnote Forte Series 2013 - We Have Been There, Le Tonu. The Decision, and  Re:Perform by the Yellow Men.

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: Porcelain Punch Travelling Medicine Show, Footnote Forte Series 2013 - We Have Been There, Le Tonu. The Decision, and  Re:Perform by the Yellow Men.

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

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Q, 305 Queen St, Auckland - FOOTNOTE FORTE SERIES 2013 - WE HAVE BEEN THERE: Curiously sombre, yet utterly compelling
- reviewed by Jenny Stevenson

The structure of the work establishes firstly the individuality of each dancer and then follows their gravitational connection through groupings and partnering. Manu and Levi perform a duet of interweaving arms in which the complex folding of their bodies creates multiple patterns of tangled limbs so that neither body is distinguishable. The dancers cluster together and then disperse to reform anew, their bodies joining to flail and toss in uneasy groupings that speak of disquiet and discomfort. The work ends as each dancer resumes their individual quest with a sense of inevitability and an infinite, continuing momentum.

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - LE TONU. THE DECISION.: Intimate portrayal
- reviewed by Frances Morton

Clocking in at 45 minutes, Le Tonu – The Decision is a short play but it is by no means slight. With just a bare stage, three actors, one chair and a basic story it traverses deep themes facing Auckland’s Polynesian diaspora touching on modern Samoan history, cultural identity, the trauma of the Dawn Raids and intergenerational tension. And it does all this without getting bogged down, because at its heart, Le Tonu is a tender family tale.

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Blue Oyster Art Project Space, Dunedin - RE:PERFORM BY THE YELLOW MEN: Hysterically amusing performed critiques
- reviewed by Jonathan W. Marshall

The performance thus becomes bookended with two other items. The document thus becomes a score for the new piece. Again, this has interesting resonances for the history of performance art, since many early historic works looked at the relation between a set of instructions (“Duck whistle in a bowl of water for as long as breath holds --- but not past 5 minutes 25 seconds,” John Cage; versus the “performance” of that score (in the example given, does one blow hard, soft, a melody, could one maybe even exchange a duck whistle for a kazoo and still perform “this” composition?). Yellow Men’s take on the score is at least as playful as the predecessors they reference.

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Q Theatre Loft, 305 Queen St, Auckland - MOKO IN REHEARSAL - ATAMIRA DANCE COMPANY: Dance that exemplifies the living face
- reviewed by Barbara Snook

From the moment the dancers first came on stage there was an explosive energy in the space. There was a beauty in their articulate movement and a full-bodied freshness and honesty in their expressive movement. Dance exceprts were presented in sections interspersed with talk, discussion and images, the overall experience remained quite powerful.

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Court Theatre, Bernard Street, Addington, Christchurch - THE WOMEN: Sharp insights delivered with energy and sparkle
- reviewed by Emily Spink

The Court Theatre’s all-female comedy, The Women, offers an energetic and witty take on marriage, friendship and high-society fashion. Nine actresses, playing an astonishing range of characters who are at times wise and shallow and often despicable, keep the opening-night audience in high spirits throughout ...

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Circa Two, Wellington - MIKE AND VIRGINIA: Entertaining mix of subjective engagement and objective appreciation
- reviewed by John Smythe

It begins and ends with a lift – well, in a lift – and a lift (in spirits) is what we expect from a rom-com, even when it is as ostensibly anti-romantic as Mike and Virginia.

Virginia, a newly-appointed university Film Studies lecturer specialising in romantic comedies, is the first to say rom-coms are, by their very nature, ludicrous. Yet, like audiences at magic shows, we get sucked in time and again …

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Court Theatre, Bernard Street, Addington, Christchurch - THE WOMEN: Quality female actors exercise their ample talents
- reviewed by Erin Harrington

The set-up is simple: wealthy wife and mother Mary discovers – through the machinations of her fair-weather friend Sylvia – that her husband has been having an affair with a beautiful but predatory girl who works behind the perfume counter at Saks. The story follows Mary as she tries to reconcile this affair with her values and ambitions, and as she and her friends laugh, bitch, gossip and chain-smoke their way through New York high society.

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St Martin's Hall, Northumberland St, North East Valley, Dunedin - VALLEY TALES: Facing floods with Good Seeds, Deadheads, dancing and Daisy
- reviewed by Terry MacTavish

My worst fears of the dread consequences of Global Warming are realised, as Dunedin’s North East Valley faces the prospect of catastrophic floods! Fortunately this is one of our most close-knit and supportive communities: they coped with the same disaster when the Water of Leith flooded in1929 (really!), and will face it bravely together this time.

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Theatre Royal, Nelson - AN EVENING WITH JOE BENNETT - FISH LIKE A DRINK AND OTHER STORIES: A pot-pourri of experiences and insights
- reviewed by Gail Tresidder

In a loud voice, interspersed with swear words that seem completely fatuous as he acts out stories of his life, this clever man spends the first half of his show hectoring his listeners, or at least that is how it feels. This is a shame as some of the audience leave within the first ten minutes, many more at the interval, and consequently they miss the best part: a softer different Joe Bennett.

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DOMINION ROAD, Auckland - DOMINION ROAD STORIES: Hidden minnow should have been highlight
- reviewed by Janet McAllister

Dominion Rd at Balmoral – with its Warehouse, old cinema and no-nonsense Asian eateries – is a little bit shabby and lots of fun. It's like a reprobate auntie, played by Yvette Parsons, hiding her gin with her mah jong tiles.

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Maidment, Auckland - LEO: Charming
- reviewed by Frances Morton

Every so often something happens in live theatre that flips your expectations and allows a crack of magic into real life. Leodoes this with stylish simplicity. It takes place on two levels simultaneously: Leo (actor Tobias Wegner) lies casually on the floor of a bare three-walled room.

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The Civic – THE EDGE, Auckland - BABEL (WORDS) BY EASTMAN VZW: Exhilarating
- reviewed by Simon Wilson

In the beginning there were no words, and people communicated in signs that allowed them to say everything we can say today. Of course, there were misunderstandings, so over time a single gesture – hand out, palm up – developed to signify what became a vital concept: forgive me.

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Otago Boys High School, Dunedin - BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE: An admirable venture
- reviewed by Terry MacTavish

Ye canna lay claim to the proud name o’ MacTavish wi’oot your heart stirrin’ at the skirl o’ the pipes!* And the pipers are here in full splendour outside the stunning Victorian Gothic castle that is Otago Boys High School. It is the perfect, appropriate venue for one of the most fascinating enterprises of the Fringe.

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Fortune Theatre Studio, Dunedin - PORCELAIN PUNCH TRAVELLING MEDICINE SHOW: A polished little gem
- reviewed by Terry MacTavish

The Porcelain Punch Miracle Cure works its magic. The sheer enchantment of this apparently quaintly old-fashioned show, which in fact is extremely polished and sophisticated, will restore your joy in life. Every moment is a delight, and every performer a star. This talented troupe brings back the glory days of vaudeville.

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The Civic – THE EDGE, Auckland - BABEL (WORDS) BY EASTMAN VZW: A paean to diversity
- reviewed by Jenny Stevenson

Babel (Words) is so much more than a dance with words – it is also partly an art-installation with a constantly moving landscape of shifting geometrical shapes constructed out of light metal tubing and designed by British sculptor Antony Gormley (who also created the sets for Cherkaoui’s work Sutra performed in Wellington in 2010). The enormous box-like structures which are manipulated by the dancers both contain and frame the performers in space – delineating the parameters or creating mobile vehicles through which the dancers deftly scramble. At one point they are inserted one within another to create a towering structure that references the Biblical Tower of Babel.

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Globe Theatre, Palmerston North - A PLAY ABOUT SPACE: High energy, rapid-fire, pop-culture melange
- reviewed by Jonathan W. Marshall

It is however the staging itself which is the real attraction. Aside from our killer desk-lamps, Harvey spends much of the play wrangling a series of power-boards scattered about the stage, turning on and off some of the cheapest but most effective theatrical lighting one is likely to see. Props and items are thrown about with gay abandon, and no effect is too cheesy to be employed.

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Globe Theatre, Dunedin - THE LAST TANIWHA: Potential yet to be realised
- reviewed by Kimberley Buchan

The play has three intertwining plots which could easily become chaotic and confusing but Chris Molloy’s script has structured it in such a way that each story complements and enhances the the other. Each loop back through the three different time periods reveals something that has a sometimes devastating impact on the rest.

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BATS, Wellington - ELIXIR: Be puzzled, amazed, entertained …
- reviewed by John Smythe

Robert Haley ends his show, Elixir, with a request for everyone to be circumspect in describing it on social media, etc, so that people can experiences the same surprises we just did. Fair enough.

So. Yep. It’s good. Go.

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Town Hall, Wellington - SKY DANCER: Sky Dancer soars in powerful multimedia work
- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

If ever there was a production that encapsulates every aspect of performance art then Sky Dancer is it.

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Maidment, Auckland - LEO: Organisers save one of the gems for last
- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

Now entering its final week, the AK Festival has been an outstanding success and for those who have been slow on the uptake the programmers have kept some of the best for last.

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Community Gallery, 20 Princes St, Dunedin - FOR YOUR FUTURE GUIDANCE: Deadpan humour and understated irony
- reviewed by Kimberley Buchan

In keeping with the style, this is not a performance to be passively viewed. In many cases the audience do more work than the performers. A timeline of events is collaboratively pieced together. The awkward role play is given a lift with some wry performances from the audience members.

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Former Education Board /AH Reed /Skinners Building, 33 Jetty St, Dunedin - BREAK IN: Strong start but drifts into mish-mash
- reviewed by Terry MacTavish

The company has chosen a fantastic venue I’ve never seen before: the historic, decaying but beautiful building that once housed Reed Publishing. A perfect setting for Break In, it is transformed to the seedy Vulva Underground bar, with all the tacky faded splendour of a bordello: fringed lamp shades and velvet drapes; a narcoleptic in tails sagging over the old piano.

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

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