The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of The Good Soul of Szechuan, Jezebel of Jazz: Songs and Stories With Anita O’day, and No Man's Land.

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

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The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of The Good Soul of Szechuan, Jezebel of Jazz: Songs and Stories With Anita O’day, and No Man's Land.

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

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JEZEBEL OF JAZZ: SONGS AND STORIES WITH ANITA O’DAY: Jazz jezebel brought to life
Old St John's, Nelson
- reviewed by Gail Tresidder

Like so many of her jazz world contemporaries, Anita O'Day lived a big-dipper life of horrendous lows and too many highs. Unusually, she beat her demons and sang on, eventually dying in her late eighties.

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AN UNSEASONABLE FALL OF SNOW: Simplicity belies complexity and vice versa
The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
- reviewed by Nik Smythe

This one-act mystery play by celebrated Kiwi playwright Gary Henderson, written in 1998, is an intriguing psychological study of the innermost private depths of the human condition, as mysteries often are. Precisely ‘what is this mystery?’ is the initial overriding mystery: a defensive young man is being interrogated by an officious investigator about a serious incident the previous night. But why?

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ALBERT BLACK JUKEBOX KILLER: Infectious commitment and energy
The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
- reviewed by Johnny Givins

Albert Black tells of a young Belfast boy who survives the WWII Blitz and death of his father to become, at 19, a ‘10 Pound Pom’ immigrant to NZ. Importantly Albert Black is a Bodgie; just the sight of him enflames the conservative NZ society. Albert tells his story directly to the audience. He is charming, naughty, with Irish lilt and sparkling eye.

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NO MAN'S LAND: Deepening storylines in polished production
Shed 1, Corban Estate Arts Centre, Auckland
- reviewed by Bronwyn Elsmore

An onion field in West Auckland is hardly the place to go on a chilly winter night. Neither is the venue for this play, I’ve been there before, and it’s pretty much that: a shed. But I’m hoping the story is warming and worth leaving the comfort of home for.

It has the necessary ingredients to make it so: the playwright Suli Moa has proved himself with two earlier plays (Kingdom of Lote, and A Heart’s Path), and the cast and Director are all well trained in Toi Whaakari New Zealand Drama School.

As it turns out, my hopes are not only met, but exceeded.

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CONSTELLATIONS: Glimpses of other universes
Circa Two, Wellington
- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

The plot is both simple and complex. It starts at an ordinary barbecue where Marianne meets Roland. He is an apiarist and she a quantum physicist. The meeting abruptly ends there but it also continues as we are given glimpses of some of the other scenarios that can occur in the infinite possibilities of existence in a parallel universe.

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BILL MASSEY’S TOURISTS: Personal family story shares experience of bloody war
Whitireia Performance Centre, 25-27 Vivian Street, Wellington
- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

“If you can survive Passchendale, you can survive anything,” says Jan Bolwell’s grandfather in her third and most poignant solo play about her family. Though part fiction and part family stories, it conveys with a compelling simplicity what it was like for a 20 year-old New Zealander to be thrown into the maelstrom of bloody war.

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THE GOOD SOUL OF SZECHUAN: Funny, outrageous, unpleasant at times yet very moving
Q Theatre, Rangatira, Auckland
- reviewed by Lexie Matheson

It’s only with the appearance of Malcolm’s alter-ego Shui Ta that we realise just what a fabulous transformational actor Malcolm is. The characters are poles apart and it’s hard to believe that they’re created by the same actor, often in almost the same breath. This production is so incredibly good – ATC’s best for yonks – that to say Malcolm’s performance alone is worth the ticket price is to minimise the whole but there, I’ve said it anyway and I’m happy to stand by it.

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THE GOOD SOUL OF SZECHUAN: An angel, a drug lord, a star
Q Theatre, Rangatira, Auckland
- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

The Good Soul of Szechuan presents a thoroughly contemporary take on the age-old question of whether there is enough goodness remaining within humanity to justify our continued existence.

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CONSTELLATIONS: Variations on a relationship
Circa Two, Wellington
- reviewed by John Smythe

Initially it seems he’s tossing around different options for how a relationship might start when Marianne and Roland meet at a barbecue, and the actors – Erin Banks and Richard Dey, in this Rachael Lenart-directed production at Circa Theatre – are testing the options for him. But of course the variations are

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JEZEBEL OF JAZZ: SONGS AND STORIES WITH ANITA O’DAY: Much more than our money’s worth
Old St John's, Nelson
- reviewed by Ruth Allison

Liz Kirkman brings American Jazz singer of the ’50s Anita O’Day to life with a full repertoire of fifteen songs and a narrative told through an imagined conversation mainly with her mother. The spirit and vulnerability of O’Day is captured in the constant battle O’Day had with her mother and the father she never really knew but mostly with her producers over her wish to sing her own way. She may have been known as the Jezebel of Jazz but she was also the queen of improvisation.

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FALL AND RECOVERY: Sheryl Robinson's legacy celebrated in style
Hagley Open Stage, Christchurch
- reviewed by Sheree Bright

Thisperformance of Fall and Recovery celebrated her legacy and raised funds for the Sheryl Robinson Memorial Scholarship which is awarded every year towards tertiary study to a current or former member of the Hagley Dance Company. The evening featured works from Rebound Dance Company, Hagley Theatre Company, Hagley Dance Company, graduates and professional dancers.

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ACHE: Comedy made unique by honesty
Court Theatre Pub Charity Studio, Christchurch
- reviewed by Georgina Stylianou

A trendy wedding. Summer. Night. The smoker’s balcony. Words are projected onto the stage’s simple, brilliant set. It’s all you need to know. The rest is every romantic movie you’ve ever seen smashed together with the pithy dialogue of real life.

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AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE: Entertainingly potent and poignant
Hannah Playhouse (previously Downstage), Wellington
- reviewed by John Smythe

Ignorance, naiveté and an engaging inquisitiveness are the keynotes for the start of An Awfully Big Adventure, devised and developed over nearly three years through “a huge collaborative effort from many artists … guided by [director] Leo Gene Peters,” according to Capital E National Theatre for Children’s Creative Producer Stephen Blackburn.

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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM: Delicious wavering between delicate illusion and rude reality
Globe Theatre, Dunedin
- reviewed by Terry MacTavish

The Globe’s tribe of eager young actors is set to enchant a new generation with this wildly enthusiastic production of Shakespeare’s completely perfect comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The overflowing auditorium is buzzing with the friends who have flocked to see them, theatrical and totally non-theatrical types, inspired by the lively Facebook page which has tantalised with such delights as ‘prequels’ – from aspirational audition tapes, to a back-story for Helena and Hermia charmingly filmed in the Botanic Gardens.

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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM: 'Midsummer' folly antidote to winter
Globe Theatre, Dunedin
- reviewed by Barbara Frame

A Midsummer Night's Dream is always fun, and the Globe's production of many people's favourite Shakespeare play is no exception.

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KISS THE FISH: Warmed by Indian sun, vitality and imagination
Forum North, Whangarei
- reviewed by David Stevens

If my mood is somewhat winter grumpy, that changes within minutes of Kiss the Fish starting. Happily, the theatre is full and I soon have a great big smile on my face (initially charmed by a group of chattering monkeys), and I do not stop smiling for one second of the next two and a half hours.

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MAMIL: MIDDLE AGED MAN IN LYCRA: Pearl, peccadillo or just too pervy?
Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland LIVE, Auckland
- reviewed by Vanessa Byrnes

At nearly two hours long, Mark Hadlow is to be congratulated for this massive solo feat. He cycles, he sings opera, and he nimbly jumps between ten characters including Tom Jones, an Indian dairy owner and a South African property developer. So let me state up front that Hadlow’s talent and drive is unquestionable, as is the production quality of this show.

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LET’S GO DUTCH: Playful showmanship
Fringe Bar, 26 Allen St, Wellington
- reviewed by Deborah Eve Rea

In Let’s Go Dutch, Alkemade performs a mixture of slight of hand, card tricks and close-up illusion among others. The show is divided into segments marked by a recorded voice, which asks questions to Alkemade about his life and experiences. Alkemade answers with some storytelling to the audience and a magic trick to conclude his response.

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BILL MASSEY’S TOURISTS: A profoundly insightful and mutually personal shared experience
Whitireia Performance Centre, 25-27 Vivian Street, Wellington
- reviewed by John Smythe

Amid the plethora of plays, television dramas and films produced to commemorate the centenary of World War One – the so-called ‘Great War’; ‘The war to end all wars’ – Jan Bolwell’s Bill Massey’s Tourists stands out as a very personal work that distils to its essence so-called humanity’s endless struggle with itself, in the pursuit of … what?

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SISTER ANZAC: Remarkable ‘herstory’
Torpedo Bay Navy Museum, 64 King Edward Parade, Devonport, Auckland
- reviewed by Johnny Givins

A unique window on our history opens up with Geoff Allen’s Sister ANZAC. It tells the story of the remarkable women who were the NZ nurses at Anzac Cove in WW1. However it also provides dramatic, human and emotionally satisfying characters that become living history.

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

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