The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of Fallout: The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, and Lysistrata.

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

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The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of Fallout: The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, and Lysistrata.

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

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THE BEST POSSIBLE ALBUM PARTY THAT ANYBODY HAS EVER BEEN TO: More than just hilarious stereotype humour and virtuoso musical parody
The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
- reviewed by Nik Smythe

Childhood bffs-cum-hip-hop divas Donna Rose (Frith Horan in a close fitting short leopard-print dress and glam heels) and Karla (Kate McGill in a blue Adidas tracksuit and gold hi-top chucks) have just flown into Auckland on Jetstar First Class, to promote their debut album KRYSTOPIA.

They are flanked by a handful of sassy young dancers ...

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WINGS: Absorbingly dark
BATS Theatre, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
- reviewed by John Smythe

The great strength of Jess Sayer’s script, rich in character and contemporary dialogue, is that she throws up questions and makes us wait for answers, building tension in the process which allows for bursts of comic release as the whys and wherefores are drip-fed to great dramatic effect.

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LYSISTRATA: A freewheeling, anarchic Lysistrata goes on far too long
BATS Theatre, The Dome, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

Purists and Classicists beware. This Bacchanal Lysistrata is a freewheeling adaptation of Aristophanes' famous comedy. It uses a rambling audience warm-up session, "a speech that has nothing to do with anything", Broadway-like dance numbers (fast becoming a Bacchanal trademark), a plethora of topical references, and plugs for their first Christmas show.

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SALUTE - REMEMBERING WORLD WAR: LET’S REMEMBER, BUT NOT REPEAT
St James Theatre, Wellington
- reviewed by Chris Jannides

In the logic of programming - which, in tonight’s performance amounts to curtain-raiser (Andrew Simmons), homage to the ancestor (Jiri Kylian), light relief (Johan Kobborg) and climax (Neil Ieremia) - Simmons’ piece, Dear Horizon, is rightly at the start. Its balletic style signals the company’s allegiance and home territory. It introduces the theme of the evening in a respectful and moving tone. The choreography and the music, by Gareth Farr, are beautifully aligned. A woman next to me (I love getting feedback from strangers during a performance), remarks that the music makes her want to burst into tears. ‘It is so mournful’, she tells me, ‘there is so little redemption in it’. The only thing that I and my neighbour query is the set by Tracy Grant Lord. A gigantic tornado of stuff upstage centre looks like a deranged Christmas stocking from hell! My neighbour notices that one of the dancers accidentally bumps into it. If nothing else, it is definitely unmistakable and appropriate in what it represents and depicts of the fearful chaos of the battlefield.

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SALUTE - REMEMBERING WORLD WAR: Reminders of war and death
St James Theatre, Wellington
- reviewed by Jan Bolwell

It is a joy to once again experience Jiri Kylian’s masterwork Soldier’s Mass, first performed by the RNZB in 1998. Set to a score by Bohuslav Martinu for a male choir, its context is the Second rather than the First World War. That matters not a jot, for this brilliant piece of choreography makes universal statements about war and ‘the pity of war’. The men dance as a choir, surging through the space in formations that constantly dissolve and then reintegrate. They sink into the ground into prayer positions, rise and lift each other, and then push upstage, often with their backs to the audience, always with a sense of internal and external motion that cannot be stilled.

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FALLOUT: THE SINKING OF THE RAINBOW WARRIOR: Deserves a more thorough investigation
The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
- reviewed by Matt Baker

On the international stage New Zealand is a young country with a comparatively less violent history than the birth lands of its colonial forefathers, but violence is violence, and even the smallest act can reverberate across the globe. The death of Fernando Pereira, son, husband, father, may not have directly affected the lives of those outside his Dunbar number, but the cause of it was an unquestionable blow to the nation.

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FALLOUT: THE SINKING OF THE RAINBOW WARRIOR: Is this the right way to remember …?
The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
- reviewed by James Wenley

One of the most affecting moments comes at the beginning. Kerry Warika steps out of the darkness to describe the day her people saw two suns, and the “year we all got sick.” Warika represents one of the 300 Marshall islanders evacuated by the Rainbow Warrior from Rongelap Atoll prior to the ship docking in Auckland.

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SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER THE MUSICAL: An entertaining night out
Queenstown Memorial Hall, Queenstown
- reviewed by Tanya Surrey

The show tells the story of Tony Manero, an Italian American living with his family in Brooklyn in 1976. He spends his weekends at the local discotheque revelling in the admiration he gets from the crowd for his dancing.

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THE MENAGERIE MAY 2015: Diverse and eclectic
Fringe Bar, 26 Allen St, Wellington
- reviewed by Thomas Aitken

At the end of every month Wellington’s Fringe Bar becomes a singing, dancing and laughing hot house of good old fashioned burlesque. The Menagerie is masterminded by Rachel Rogue who brings together a freakishly eclectic mix of talented performers for a truly unique and raunchy variety show.

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SALUTE - REMEMBERING WORLD WAR: Powerful and moving show
St James Theatre, Wellington
- reviewed by Ann Hunt

Salute. Remembering World War 1, is a true collaboration between the Royal New Zealand Ballet and the New Zealand Army Band. (The Army Band, which accompanies three of the four choreographies, is stunning and is vigorously conducted by Captain Graham Hickman.

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SALUTE - REMEMBERING WORLD WAR: War and its effects placed centre stage
St James Theatre, Wellington
- reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant

The Soldiers Mass by Jiri Kylian and made for twelve men premiered at Nederlands Dans Theatre in 1980. Kylian's own Czech nationality and his response to events that changed the path of Europe and plunged the western world into a time of war and conflict is as relevant and powerful in today's world where politics still dominate and egos still command decisions that affect the lives of all of us. The music by Bohuslav Martinu drives battalions of bodies forward in unison phrasing that breaks and re-forms and relentlessly moves them to their doom. Unexpected vocabulary erupts from the ranks, and exhaustion, camaraderie and dependency in the worst situation we can imagine is strongly evoked. They are not allowed to rest, and we are not allowed to rest, and all the anguish of lost boys and sons and fathers and the futility of warfare washes in waves over the stage.

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LYSISTRATA: A savage, explosively entertaining whip-crack of a play
BATS Theatre, The Dome, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
- reviewed by Jonathan Kingston-Smith

Aristophanes’ Lysistrata is a play of sexual politics in the most direct sense. At a spritely 2426 years old, it is couched in the structure and techniques of Greek Old Comedy, although it demonstrates a shift away from rigid observation of those guidelines. Ultimately its goal is to expose the populace to scathing political and social statements cloaked beneath a veneer of absurdity.

So it is unsurprising that The Bacchanals, those vigilante thespians, have taken Lysistrata and dragged it – quivering and moaning – into a contemporary climate where the prime minister views the lives of 143 troops as an acceptable down-payment for admission to ‘the club’.

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CHEKHOV GONE WILDE: Flashes of glory, sadness, silliness and great humanity
Garnet Station Cafe, 85 Garnet Rd, Westmere, Auckland
- reviewed by Lexie Matheson

Each scene stands alone and makes excellent theatre while collectively they paint a picture of the blissful damage done by Cupid, that chubby wee boy with the bow. Graham subtly reminds us that Cupid is from the Latin ‘cupido’ meaning not just romantic love but desire as well and there’s achingly, painfully, plenty of that too.

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THE RITE OF SPRING (2013): Exhausting,charming, intelligent dance batlles
BATS Theatre, The Propeller Stage, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
- reviewed by Jillian Davey

It’s not until mid-way through, when the dancers take a quick break to change the clothes they’ve sweated through and have a few gulps of water that I realise how easily I’ve slipped into my university days. I put away my pen and paper for a while to enjoy the performative aspect of the evening. As Lee and Martins switch corners, it dawns that it’s a game; a marathon, a sporting event and a spectacle that should be enjoyed by the spectators, not recorded.

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FALLOUT: THE SINKING OF THE RAINBOW WARRIOR: Vivid reminder of terrorism in NZ
The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
- reviewed by Janet McAllister

It's worth being reminded, by this semi-fictionalised oral history, how unbelievably insolent and sordid "Underwatergate" was. As Bronwyn Elsmore's straight-talking, wonderfully-illustrated show outlines clearly and simply, the killer-agents of a supposedly friendly nation carried out state terrorism in downtown Auckland. They didn't even bother to hide their tracks, and they mostly got away with it.

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FALLOUT: THE SINKING OF THE RAINBOW WARRIOR: Fresh telling a timely reminder
The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
- reviewed by Kathryn van Beek

That was thirty years ago now, and many New Zealanders weren’t yet born when the ship went down. But the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior is too important an event to forget – so how do you bring it to life for the people who didn’t experience it first-hand?

Writer Bronwyn Elsmore’s new play is the answer to that question. It pulls you into the events by following four people whose lives were changed by the Rainbow Warrior in different ways.

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CHRIS PARKER - NO MORE DANCING IN THE GOOD ROOM: Intimately fabulous
The Basement Studio, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
- reviewed by Adam Naughton

[APOLOGY: This review somehow did not get published when it was submitted on 6 May. Here it is now. – ED]

Growing up as kids we become familiar with spaces in the house e.g. the space to sit at the table and eat properly, the outside space to run around and do crazy stuff (like break windows and tackle each other), the space for reading and sleeping … and the space with valuable stuff in it where you should be careful and sensible.

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

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