A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including Course Related Costs,  The Intricate Art of Actually Caring,  In Spite of Himself, and Ian Mckellen On Stage – With Shakespeare, Tolkien and You!

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

A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including Course Related Costs,  The Intricate Art of Actually Caring,  In Spite of Himself, and Ian Mckellen On Stage – With Shakespeare, Tolkien and You!

See more recent reviews at theatreview.org, the NZ Performing Arts Review & Directory.
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Basement Studio, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - COURSE RELATED COSTS: Chaos, wit, everyday dialogue, tears, laughter, shock, fear and drama flawlessly combined
- reviewed by Melisa Martin

Set in a typical student flat, three flatmates come up with a plan to cook top-grade methamphetamine for a sociopathic crime boss, for six months, for a massive cash return; as if being a student weren’t already hard enough!

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Downstage Theatre, Wellington - THE INTRICATE ART OF ACTUALLY CARING: Engaging play worth second look

- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

Like the characters in Eli Kent’s play The Intricate Art of Actually Caring, currently playing at Downstage, the play itself has been on somewhat of a journey since it first saw the light of day as part of the 2009 Fringe Festival. Then it was a little innovative and off the wall production performed in the writer’s bedroom.

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Various Schools and Community Venues, New Zealand wide - IN SPITE OF HIMSELF: Innovative and challenging work plants seeds of further enquiry
- reviewed by Sharon Matthews

The astonishing level of energy on the part of the EnsembleImpact quartet of actors —Brad McCormick, Bianca Seinafo, Nancy Kniveton and Adam Tatana — is truly remarkable in the face of Spartan performing conditions and a punishing touring schedule: 63 performances to 72 schools including eight community showings in Porirua, New Plymouth, Whangarei, Te Aroha, Kerikeri, Whangamata, Keirunga Homestead, and Papakura.

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Various venues - on tour, - IAN MCKELLEN ON STAGE – WITH SHAKESPEARE, TOLKIEN AND YOU!: A genial, waggish giant of the theatre

- reviewed by Janet McAllister

It's not unusual for the great and the glamorous to be gracious and charming, but it's rare for them to be genuinely comfortable, warm and genial when conversing with a crowd. Yet Sir Ian was all this at the weekend, and mischievously funny to boot.

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BATS, Wellington - SPACE BITCHES: A farce wearing its heart on its sleeve
- reviewed by Ryan Brown-Haysom

By the time this review reaches your grubby wee hands, the Fringe Festival – a rare opportunity to see up-and-coming talent treading the boards, producing weird, off-beat, and fabulously fun theatre – will already be over. Which is a shame, because if you didn’t see Space Bitches you missed a treat.

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LG Arts Centre, Seoul, South Korea - THE ARRIVAL: Magnificent, moving, joyous, amazing, mesmerizing
- reviewed by Michael Downey

Nearly two years ago, I left New Zealand to live and work in a new, strange country – Korea. And now here I am, attending the opening night in Seoul of a New Zealand play based on Shaun Tan’s picture story about an immigrant arriving in a strange new country. Yes, it was all starting to seem more than a little surreal.

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Playhouse, Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts, Hamilton - KAHA: SHORT WORKS: Eclectic, dynamic and at times confrontational.
- reviewed by Brenda Kidd

It is inspiring to watch patriarchs of contemporary M?ori dance, Taiaroa Royal and Jack Gray, bring their depth and experience to Atamira. The dancers individually possess strength, not only physical and this is obvious in their movement. Bianca Hyslop, in Piata, embodies the spirit of the mythical Patupairehe (fairies) who dwell in the fringe between darkness and light. A shout out to Nancy Wijohn who has quite the stage presence – it’s not surprising she started her career as an athlete.

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Downstage - return season, Wellington - THE INTRICATE ART OF ACTUALLY CARING: Beautiful, surprising and satisfying
- reviewed by Caoilinn Hughes

The Intricate Art of Actually Caring doesn’t make the prospect of actually caring seem like such an intricate art, at least for the audience. The playtext and its performance are so deeply-felt and unaffected that I found myself caring quite a lot, actually; about poetry; James K Baxter and Hone Tuwhare; about New Zealand; about road-tripping, good conversation and meaningful friendships.

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Te Whaea, Wellington - ON THE OTHER HAND - NEW ZEALAND SCHOOL OF DANCE CHOREOGRAPHIC SEASON 2012: Students own stamp allows season to shine
- reviewed by Jennifer Shennan

I am delighted to report that this year’s season, by contrast, has much more of the students’ own stamp upon it, with cohering theme that allows each new work to grow out of the previous one. Dance uses highly stylized movement yet here that is anchored into the same set of domestic objects – television, bed, cupboard, piano - that feature in various ways.

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BATS, Wellington - ASSISTED LIVING: A work in progress

- reviewed by Ewen Coleman

Devised works can be a mixed bag and while often they give the opportunity for a cast and director and sometimes writers to explore issues and themes in a collaborative way the process of getting to the final product is often more productive than the product itself.

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BATS, Wellington - ASSISTED LIVING: It’s like a present I cannot open

- reviewed by John Smythe

‘Fourth wall’ theatre is alive and, well, present in a very literal sense, at Bats. Cling film shrouds all four walls of the stage but the one we face is mercifully clear. Within its confines 20 young people … exist. Hermetically sealed, as it were.

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Te Whaea, Wellington - ON THE OTHER HAND - NEW ZEALAND SCHOOL OF DANCE CHOREOGRAPHIC SEASON 2012: A journey of talent
- reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant

The concepts annotated in the choreographic notes were ambitious and rather serious, but the dance vocabulary was high paced, angular, aggressively in the moment, at times derivative, but also compelling as a statement in this fast paced, competitive environment. Perhaps some calm and a bit of time and space to indulge a thought would give a little more contrast.

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Opera Factory, 7 Eden Street Newmarket, Auckland - ULLA’S ODYSSEY & LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR: One ambitious but poorly staged and incomprehensible; the other good natured and enjoyable
- reviewed by Samantha Chardin

Opera Factory premieres a double bill of original works by young local artists of contrasting style and varying success. It is refreshing to see new work by emerging talent rather than the usual fall back to classic fare and this production is well within Opera Factory’s mission of developing artists to their potential.

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

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