A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including: Square Eye Pair, Party With the Aunties, Too Solo Show, and Kaha: Short Works and Tumutumu.
 
See more recent reviews at theatreview.org, the NZ Performing Arts Review & Directory.

A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including: Square Eye Pair, Party With the Aunties, Too Solo Show, and Kaha: Short Works and Tumutumu.
 
See more recent reviews at theatreview.org, the NZ Performing Arts Review & Directory.

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Basement Theatre, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - SQUARE EYE PAIR: Geeks' Eye for the Straight Guy
- reviewed by Sharu Delilkan

If you’re not fans of The Big Bang Theory or Paul, the sci-fi geek film from Simon Pegg then you are bound to love Square Eye Pair precisely because it is the same.

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Function Room, Denbigh Hotel, Feilding - PARTY WITH THE AUNTIES: Clever characterisations keep this party moving

- reviewed by Richard Mays

Thanks to TV3’s The GC, we all now know that ‘aunties’ is ‘Mozzie-speak’ for girlfriends. But not in this impressive live acoustic rock ‘n roll based romp, it isn’t. These aunties are the traditional real deal – Aunty Maria and Aunty Kahu. And the party they’re throwing is to celebrate Angus, cherished husband of Maria, finally reaching “the residential speed limit”.

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The Basement, Auckland - TOO SOLO SHOW: [No budget] brilliance, parody and perplexity
- reviewed by Val Smith

The alignment of Anna Bate & Zahra Killeen-Chance for this project sees a development in the local performance community where independent artists are working together in different ways to make possible the production of performance events in a low to no budget condition. ....

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Q, Rangatira, Auckland - KAHA: SHORT WORKS: Review: Kaha Short Works for Matariki

- reviewed by Raewyn Whyte

A rich sampling mix of eight short works collectively titled KAHA earned a standing ovation for Atamira Dance Company on opening night at Q, marking the first day of Matariki 2012 in fine style, and also celebrating the company's 11th year. The programme offers an array of works, from the purely cultural to the seriously contemporary, and in between a mix of excerpts from repertoire and new commissions.

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Allen Hall Theatre, Dunedin - TUMUTUMU: A powerful fusion of a masterful combination of indigenous material and international forms
- reviewed by Jonathan W. Marshall

Bryant’s approach has something in common with butoh dancer Min Tanaka’s idea of “dancing the place.” Bryant’s projected dances in particular sometimes act to replace the live body to repeat the choreography, but here acted out within a stream or across a series of uneven, roughly textured rocks and boulders. Bryant’s low, spider-like frame seems to caress these edifices, yet it is not a simple celebration of land and site. The person dancing this body never seems fully in control of her own motivations. Like the Maori warrior whose spirit bursts forth in pukana, this is the body as a nexus between that outside the individual and that within, where possession (including something of its more terrifying and frankly non-human potential) seems hinted at. Bryant is captured, spun and exploded, even as she rolls these powers and forces back through one arm, across the chest, and around into the ground again.

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ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland - LENNY HENRY: CRADLE TO RAVE: Faultless showmanship keeps audience immensely amused
- reviewed by Stephen Austin

Lenny Henry, by now, is a household name to anybody who keeps even mildly up-to-date on their popular comedians. We’ve seen him play countless roles in myriad personas, from chefs to (more recently) Shakespearean twins. Although he has played a few musically inclined characters in his TV shows (Delbert Wilkins, anyone?), what has been little known for a long time is that before he started down the path he is now on, he had high aspirations to actually be a musician, but ...

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Playhouse, Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts, Hamilton - ON THE UPSIDE-DOWN OF THE WORLD: A splendid evocation
- reviewed by Gail Pittaway

It’s no wonder that the organizers of FUEL theatre festival chose this show to open the season of New Zealand Theatre. It’s an opportunity to see not only a wonderful solo performance but also a piece of our own history told brilliantly.

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Dance Studio, Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts, Hamilton - DROWNING IN VERONICA LAKE: Sham glam triumph
- reviewed by Gail Pittaway

She was a blonde bombshell, a model, an actress, an aviatrix and even sang soft sleepy numbers in her films, although the first confession the screen idol makes in this fine piece of solo acting, is that she was never allowed to do her own singing.

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Founders Theatre, Hamilton - OLIVER!: Seamless assault on the senses brings contagious joy
- reviewed by Gail Pittaway

What a great lot of right choices were made in the creation of the latest offering from Hamilton Operatic Society, both in the selection of this particular show as well as in the team who delivered such a high energy, compelling spectacle.

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Court Theatre, Bernard Street, Addington, Christchurch - THE MOTOR CAMP: No dull moments

- reviewed by Lindsay Clark

Comedy writing for and about New Zealanders has established Dave Armstrong as a favourite for stage and screen. His ability to find laughter in our cultural confusion and social embarrassments is astute and unerring. When this well-honed talent has the target of ill-matched neighbours, managing the forced intimacy of adjoining sites in a motor camp, expectations run high ...

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Meteor Theatre, Hamilton - RICHARD MEROS SALUTES THE SOUTHERN MAN: A verbal roller coaster ride and a visual download
- reviewed by Richard Howard

Cleverly adapted from the 2008 Richard Meros book of the same name by the vital and charming Mr Arthur Meek and his cohort director Geoff Pinfield, this one man power point performance is engaging, witty and intelligent. It is also great fun.

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Circa Two, Wellington - SUNSET ROAD: Tale of family rift has roots in reality

- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

Developed from the accounts of her family migrating to NZ from the Cook Islands, Miria George’s Sunset Road, currently playing at Circa Two, weaves both reality and symbolism through the stories.

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Q, Rangatira, Auckland - KAHA: SHORT WORKS: Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa : Let us keep close together, not far apart.
- reviewed by Tia Reihana-Morunga

Seven stars of Matariki, seven artists on stage including artistic director Moss Patterson, who provided for the audience warm and welcoming kaupapa korero between the choreographic works. I was thankful for this, as the programme lacked ability to share the mana that comes from hearing the narratives attached to some of these choreographic pieces. For example, Haka ‘Wairangi’ is, as choreographer Moss Patterson explained, a haka taught to him by his kuia when he was a tama tane to give him connection and strength to whenua and whanau... It all begins with a spotlight, a cluster of dancers as one moves slowly towards us and lays down a stone, pounamu, an anchor to guide the waka of movement that is about to set sail within the somewhat formal setting of the Q Theatre.. The sound of taonga puoro, the wairua of the purerehua, the mihi of the rangitira, was an appropriate opening to connect dancers with the space, each other, wairua, tupuna and audience as they moved within set formations that employed variations of canon, gesture and relationships.

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BATS, Wellington - TRY THIS: Garnering the real?

- reviewed by Greer Robertson

There is a glimmer of hope in a solo performance which possesses another kind of dance integrity, balance, grace, fluidity and commitment coupled with a sense of being alive. Surely this is the reaction of any of the senses? This solo is beautifully demonstrated by Isabelle Nelson.

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Circa Two, Wellington - SUNSET ROAD: Insightful, delightful and powerful drama

- reviewed by John Smythe

It’s 1975 and a little piece of Atiu – also known as Enuamanu: land of birds – in the Cook Islands has been roosting in Rotorua for 20 years. As a variation on their mythical ancestor Mariri Toa, who flew to Hawaiiki to get good things for his people and bring them back, a family from the village of Areora has flown their coop to share in ‘The New Zealand Dream’ so the children can be educated and fly even more freely into a wide world of opportunity.

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Rangi Ruru Girls School, Merivale Lane, Christchurch - MUNTED: A uniquely pure theatre experience
- reviewed by Robert Gilbert

I was confronted with quite a bit of anxiety in the days, hours, and minutes leading up to the opening of this production, stemming from the realisation that I just might have to re-visit feelings and emotions that I had neatly tucked away in an attempt to function in post-quake Christchurch. Am I ready for this? Is Christchurch ready?

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

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