A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including: Titus, The Kick, Gravity Hotel, and Short + Sweet Dance Week 1, 2013.

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: Titus, The Kick, Gravity Hotel, and Short + Sweet Dance Week 1, 2013.

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

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Q Theatre Loft, 305 Queen St, Auckland - TITUS: Vital, immediate and provocative
- reviewed by Norelle Scott

The setting is apocalyptic, a dystopian world that in its universality, is both ancient and contemporary. This production owes much to the ‘in yer face’ theatre of Sarah Kane and Mark Ravenhill, but in its ruthless cruelty and its visceral dissection of human nature seen through relentless driving causality of power, lust, greed, duplicity and misguided revenge, it is pure Shakespeare.

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Q Theatre Loft, 305 Queen St, Auckland - TITUS: We’re all going to hell
- reviewed by Matt Baker

Presented as the telling of the Titus myth through the perspective of a pack of post-apocalyptic lost boys, director Ben Henson has once again created a visual feast of a production. Titus Andronicus is one of Shakespeare’s most highly criticised works, written by a young playwright in an attempt to keep up with the bloody writings of his contemporaries, but with time, a suitable setting, a comradely cast, and a highly stylised director, the play can achieve a value that both confronts and combats its criticisms. This is mainly due to the fact that it could not be accepted in the ‘civilised’ Victorian age, whereas on opening night of Fractious Tash’s production, some of the audience laughed as Lavinia was brought in post assault.

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Studio 77, VUW, Wellington - THE KICK: Stand-out ensemble work
- reviewed by Charlotte Simmonds

In 2002 in Potzlow, a German village with not quite 600 inhabitants, the sixteen year old Marinus Schöberl was murdered by three other youths with whom he had spent the evening drinking. Prior to being killed, he had been subjected to beatings and humiliation to which at least three adults had been witness across the course of the night. Although there were several people in the village who knew what had happened to Schöberl, his body was not found and no official investigation was begun until several months had passed.

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The Basement, Auckland - GRAVITY HOTEL: Mass Appeal
- reviewed by Matt Baker

The less said about Gravity Hotel, the better. I say this, not in regards to the incredibly high quality of the work, but of its journey, as it is one that simply must be experienced as opposed to explained. Very rarely does an audience remain seated post show in huddled discussion about the events they’ve just witnessed, but such was the case on the opening night of this unparalleled production.

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Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, The Edge, Auckland - SHORT + SWEET DANCE WEEK 1, 2013: Serious, savvy, reflective, funny and scary
- reviewed by Dr Linda Ashley

Risk taking, arguably an important feature of new dance works, is present in some of the twelve works more than others. Nevertheless, the thematic range and overall performance quality on display makes for an enjoyable evening of dance that could appeal to many.

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ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland - LANGUAGE OF LIVING - NORTH ISLAND TOUR: Gripped by Robb's animal magic
- reviewed by Bernadette Rae

When Ursula Robb, New Zealand dancer turned global star, takes the stage in her stunning solo Faune, set to Debussy's most famous Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune, the everyday world stops and there is only this nascent little creature in its woodland grove, somewhere else

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The Basement, Auckland - GRAVITY HOTEL: An exceptional piece of theatre which will travel the world
- reviewed by Johnny Givins

Sally Stockwell triumphantly roars into the theatre with a new vision, creative imagination and live music. Gravity Hotel is an extraordinary piece of theatre. It combines the traditions of clown, cabaret, and musical in a surreal landscape of the heart of a woman at peril.

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BATS - Out Of Site - Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - COALTOWN BLUES: Entertainingly insightful and timely revival
- reviewed by John Smythe

Nearly 30 years after its premiere, performer Chris Green and director Lindsey Rusling allow Wellington audiences to at last separate the content of the play, Coaltown Blues, from the playwright /performer, Mervyn Thompson, despite its autobiographical roots in his West Coast childhood.

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BATS - Out Of Site - Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - MY KITCHEN KILLS: Script needs a little more cooking time
- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

Knowing your subject matter is an essential ingredient of any successful playwright. And after many years working in restaurants, Tza Drake certainly has amassed enough material for his play My Kitchen Kills.

However, what is not so evident is his ability as a playwright to then turn this into a cohesive and properly structured piece of dramatic theatre.

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Circa Two, Wellington - AFTER JULIET: Perpetuating the cycles – or not
- reviewed by John Smythe

As Sharman McDonald sees it in her sequel play, After Juliet, Rosaline was playing hard to get but really did love him. And now that the tragedy has transpired, she is the one who is mooning about, over the loss of Romeo and also because of her unresolved bitterness towards Juliet, who was more beautiful, richer, always got what she wanted, and stole her secret love then let him die…

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Q, 305 Queen St, Auckland - FOOTNOTE FORTE SERIES 2013 - WE HAVE BEEN THERE: Review: We Have been There
- reviewed by Bernadette Rae

The work evolves though various combinations of duos and trios, sometimes happening together, sometimes with some of the dancers taking time out at the sides of the undressed stage.

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The Classic, Auckland - TYRAN PARKE IN A LIGHT IN THE DARK: Sensationally good cabaret
- reviewed by Jan Maree

He is quick to tell us he loves musical theatre; he 'came out' as a musical theatre fan during Sydney's Musical Theatre Festival last year. I have to laugh as he bluntly says, "In the entertainment industry it is pretty cool to hate musical theatre."

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ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland - LANGUAGE OF LIVING - NORTH ISLAND TOUR: A showcase of contemporary dance styles
- reviewed by Jenny Stevenson

Although it is an exploration of space performed largely in profile, De Keersmaeker’s work Prélude à L'après-midi d'un Faune, created in conjunction with Mark Lorimer, is clearly expressed differently to the New Zealand works. Referencing Nijinsky’s iconic choreography of L'après-midi d'un Faune, to Debussy’s music, it harnesses the raw, laconic energy of the original and turns it on its head by having a female perform the intimate dance of thwarted desire. Robb’s strength and mercurial directional changes invest the work with a charged and vigorous dynamic, vesting every nuance of the movement with meaning and layering the whole with an understated femininity.

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Whitireia Performance Centre, 25-27 Vivian Street, Wellington - SATVIKA - FORMS OF THE FORMLESS: Mutable and marvellous
- reviewed by Jennifer Shennan

Movements of the dance may be beguilingly slow, then trippingly swift, and the grounded sense of balance needed to deliver these adjacently is one of the most admirable aspects of the art that Kinra introduces as “giving form to the formless.” The rigours of training lead to the freedom of performance, and that is picked up kinaesthetically by an attentive audience. We each have a body. This is one of the ways in which it can be moved

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The Civic – THE EDGE, Auckland - THE ILLUSIONISTS: WITNESS THE IMPOSSIBLE: Cheesy old tricks get bold new twist
- reviewed by Janet McAllister

One big, slick, cheesy magic show promised; one big, slick, cheesy magic show delivered. If you think you'll like The Illusionists by the look of the advertising, you will. They know what they're doing, and they do it well.

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The Civic – THE EDGE, Auckland - THE ILLUSIONISTS: WITNESS THE IMPOSSIBLE: The Avengers of Magic
- reviewed by James Wenley

Magic is back? Believe it. By mixing Vegas spectacle with the romanticism of the turn of the 20th Century magic show and packaging it with an ultra-modern sensibility and pizzazz, The Illusionists is a heart-thumping feast for the eyes and trip for the mind – of a type that many Aucklanders (myself included) have never experienced before.

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The Civic – THE EDGE, Auckland - THE ILLUSIONISTS: WITNESS THE IMPOSSIBLE: Dazzling. Amazing. Breath-taking.
- reviewed by Adey Ramsel

I’m in a quandary with this review. After years in Cabaret and Variety myself I’m ‘in the know’ about this genre and how it works. I’m also semi ‘in the know’ as to ‘magic tricks’ and how they work. One can never ‘un-know’, and it does spoil an experience like this somewhat, while allowing me to express two viewpoints.

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

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