A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including: Canterbury Tales, Another Dead Fag, Rewena, and Con.

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: Canterbury Tales, Another Dead Fag, Rewena, and Con.

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

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The Basement Studio, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - ANOTHER DEAD FAG: A stimulating gem of a show

- reviewed by Johnny Givins

Writers are the heart of good theatre. In his latest play, Another Dead Fag, Sam Brooks is developing into a talented writer with an ear for the rhythms of life and a finely tuned sensibility to the issues of his generation.

Gay teen suicide is the issue Sam Brooks is confronting here. Assisted by a talented cast and clever production, this show captures a unique view of an issue crying out for understanding and our intervention.

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Baycourt X-Space, Tauranga - REWENA: Inspired theatre
- reviewed by Nyree Sherlock

this is not a restaurant, and definitely NOT one of those Reality TV food-shows! Quite the contrary …

This is Maggie’s home and she is going to show us how to make rewena, often known as Maori paraoa /potato-bread; her rules are simple: be respectful of my home; my time; my knowledge – and turn your cell phones off! (although our protagonist may be accused of double standards regarding this subject, as the hilarious plot unfolds).

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Circa Two, Wellington - CON: Thrill of the game key trick to Con

- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

The competitive deviousness of the con artists in Gavin McGibbon’s first major play makes it clear that it is not the money that inspires them to do what they do so effortlessly.

It’s the thrill of the game of being someone else, of manipulating the gullible and the greedy, of seeing how far the deceits and lies can be stretched.

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Christchurch City Centre, Christchurch - CANTERBURY TALES: Pilgrimage achieves the miracle of wonder
- reviewed by Lindsay Clark

In spite of its extraordinarily complex composition, the theatrical appeal and inspiration of this mobile production is always to the fore. Limited to one performance after impossibly high winds created worse than hazardous conditions for the performers, the carnival procession nevertheless establishes a high point in public memory and in the way many of us feel about our city.

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The Forge at The Court Theatre, Christchurch - POSTAL: Flawed but funny Postal a pleaser
- reviewed by Alan Scott

Postal is a very funny play in both senses of the word. The audience was often in stitches at the antics of the characters and the frequently amusing lines.

Yet, there were odd things going on. The setting is a Post Shop, but there is never a customer to be seen. The supervisor constantly addresses the audience without there being a lot of theatrical sense in this.

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Baycourt X-Space, Tauranga - SQUIDBOY: Crafty construction and a rare charisma
- reviewed by Gin Mabey

Last night, Trygve Wakenshaw from Theatre Beating, performed his award-winning show Squid Boy to a full house, in Baycourt’s Exhibition Space. Apart from one sleepy man in the front row, the whole audience was captivated.

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FRESH Gallery Otara, Shop 5/46 Fairmall. Otara Town Centre, Auckland - MY LIFE, MY STORY, MY SOUTH AUCKLAND: Affirming, funny, rich and courageous
- reviewed by Lexie Matheson

There are words for what Molloy has done - motivating, bonding, facilitating – but no word really scratches the surface of this achievement and the amount of love and commitment that has got them all to where they end up.

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Baycourt Theatre, Tauranga - GIFTED: A rich and resonating theatrical experience
- reviewed by Nyree Sherlock

Fortune Theatre’s Gifted is Patrick Evans’ own adaptation of his acclaimed novel of the same name. Set in writer Frank Sargeson’s humble beach-side abode in mid 1950s Takapuna, it recreates 16 extraordinary months where the Father of the Nation’s literary oasis is fractured by the unexpected arrival of fledgling-writer Janet Frame.

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TV3 Crystal Palace, Tauranga - THE WORDS AND MUSIC OF JACQUES BREL: An extraordinary experience
- reviewed by Nyree Sherlock

All expectations were fulfilled as I became entranced by the collective and individual performances of the cast, along with the exquisite harmonies, and beautiful arrangements delivered by the four excellent backing musicians.

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Q, 305 Queen St, Auckland - TUTUS ON TOUR (2013): Medley of works
- reviewed by Felicity Molloy with Emma Kemp

Touring dance around the country is important. Tutus on Tour is as much for the dancers to bust out of the eternal black boxes of rehearsal spaces, the ballet studio and maybe even the theatres, to be real people. As in the words of NZ Ballet company founder, Poul Gnatt, ballet “should truly belong to everyone”. In many ways Tutus on Tour succeeds as an introduction to the splendour and power of ballet to transport an audience out of the day to day, to ask questions about its relevance to today, and it sits well as a delicately poised rendering of a different version of culture and history, through the empathic eyes and dancing bodies of artists.

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Founders Heritage Park, Nelson - DIE ROTEN PUNKTE: SUPERMUSICIAN: In your face entertainment
- reviewed by Janet Whittington

the show is an entertaining array of cabaret, comedy, stand-up and psychological counselling sessions. They even play music in between the entertainment. The crowd favourite is the sing along to the Irish chorus of Astrid’s drinking song. Both siblings spat with each other and flirt with different members of the audience. Otto entertains the audience by getting confused about the boundaries around sexual attraction with his sister.

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Mangere Arts Centre, Auckland - WHERE IS HOME?: Interconnecting, interactive, immersive
- reviewed by Margi Vaz Martin

Powerful words penetrate the environment, “I am believed in… safe to dream and hope” and the speaker moves off into a dance motif that flies with these beliefs. The floor lighting captures entries and exits as dancers walk off and on stage pausing to interact and intersect in pairs, one movement provoking another. Individual genealogies are spoken one after another as dancers seek “endless love, comfort, safety… a place I am me”.

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Unitec Theatre, Entry 1, Carrington Rd, Mt Albert, Auckland - BALM IN GILEAD: Clearly defined personalities whose disparate stories connect
- reviewed by Shirin Brown

Overlapping dialogue, simultaneous scenes, breaking the fourth wall and frozen action draw attention to the separation of audience and stage. At other times the thorough characterisation and the stories pull us into the action.

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Circa Two, Wellington - CON: Comical CONtemplation of the CONcept of absolution
- reviewed by Charlotte Simmonds

Without wanting to divulge too much of the story, I will simply say again that McGibbon has a wonderful sense for plot as an art and a craft. (One would hope so, since he has just submitted his PhD thesis in scriptwriting.)

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Baycourt X-Space, Tauranga - CONSTANTINOPLE: Serious silliness delivered with a goofy humility
- reviewed by Gin Mabey

The show really shines when the jokes go further and further into ‘cringe’ territory, where an all-or-nothing approach seems to have been taken. There are ghosts, a tie-asp and a fruity bomb... These boys know how to find a good pun.

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Suter Theatre, Nelson - BEAUTIFUL LOSERS: Biting the Apple

- reviewed by Lotus Hattersley

It all starts with a beat, a jazz beat, a typewriter, the heartbeat of the Beat generation.

The Big Apple 1948, Jack Kerouac – with greased back hair and a white singlet – manically types on a clothing-strewn stage. Neal Cassady enters after noisy off-stage sexual exploits and, with the bite of an apple, the wheels start to turn.

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The Forge at The Court Theatre, Christchurch - POSTAL: Hamming things up in the interests of raising a laugh
- reviewed by Lindsay Clark

Some people, it must be said at the outset, enjoyed this play and applauded cheerfully. There was even spontaneous applause as telephone sex had its climactic moments. I was not able to see the play, the direction or the playing so positively.

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Founders Theatre, Hamilton - TUTUS ON TOUR (2013): It’s mad, it’s crazy!
- reviewed by Debbie Bright

The two distinct halves of the programme provide a very satisfying and entertaining banquet. The adaptability and practicality of the production's stage setting is indicated to the arriving audience by means of the open stage (no Act Drop) and a single visible spotlight which sheds a pool of yellow light on the stage floor. Yet, the easy mobility of the set should not fool the viewer into supposing that they will not see the professionalism, skill and virtuosity for which the RNZB is known both nationally and internationally.

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Baycourt X-Space, Tauranga - THE PIANIST: A performer to behold
- reviewed by Gin Mabey

Award winning actor Tom Monckton delivers his new contemporary circus piece with such precision, energy and comic talent it’s almost not enough to just watch him; I sit leaning forward in my seat, trying to soak up more.

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Theatre Royal, Nelson - LIVE AT SIX: Instant news, belly-laugh humour and well-aimed satire

- reviewed by Melanie Stewart

Video footage caught by the audience is used by both stations as we are encouraged to put our material and comments on Facebook and Twitter. Images captured by their roving cameraman are also used as the stations' respective editors, Sam (Eli Kent) and Fraser (Barnaby Fredric), work tirelessly on their computers to finish the footage for the night’s news.

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BATS - Out Of Site - Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - THE WITCHING HOURS: Off-beat, quirky, surrealist sci-fi blend
- reviewed by Charlotte Simmonds

When Uther Dean becomes a (more) famous director, screenwriter, megamillions-making novel series author ... I’ll be able to say, “Yep, I was at the live recording of one of the very first ever Witching Hours as the current incarnation was formerly known back in 2013.”

Because his writing is really, really good. Even when he’s trying to be quick, cheap and disposable.

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Solo Salon, Nelson - SALON: Intruding on an intensely private episode
- reviewed by Joanna Divett

The bright revealing lights that always make me squirm in hair salons are on full blare and I can see other members of the audience in the mirrors. We are at times only centimetres from the actors. This is naked theatre.

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Q Theatre Loft, 305 Queen St, Auckland - MIDSUMMER: Truly, Madly, Summerly
- reviewed by Vanessa Byrnes

I love a good two-hander. You know, the theatrical kind. They invite the audience to be the third character, and there is the complicit understanding that real connection is the central currency between two actors.

In this ‘play with songs’, Silo has chosen a sterling text to bring us, the audience, into the picture.

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The Granary Festival Cafe, Nelson - CONSTANTINOPLE: Crazy, zany and off the wall slapstick

- reviewed by Gail Tresidder

These two lovely idiots have been compared to the Monty Python Circus lovely idiots. Yes, their seemingly spontaneous craziness, actually very slickly timed, is similar. One also recalls the delicious Frankie Howard in the BBC telly series Up Pompeii. Maybe it is the togas but this daft-as-a-brush pair with their silly gags are of the same ilk.

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Ombrellos, 10 Clarendon Street, Dunedin North - JAMES NOKISE IN SO–SO GANGSTA: You come away smarter and a little wiser
- reviewed by Patrick Davies

Starting with colonisation by not just one sort of peoples, he moves us through to expand the idea of gangs from countries to ideas to sports and the results of those for our small nation. His narrative gently (and not so gently) opens our eyes to the widening of that definition of gang ...

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Canterbury Univerisy Press, Online - REBELLIOUS MIRRORS: COMMUNITY-BASED THEATRE IN AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND: Gems aplenty to be mined

- reviewed by John Smythe

Maunder’s active engagement in a range of community-based initiatives over some decades, his close associations with other practitioners, and his formalised study of the topic by way of his PhD thesis (completed in 2011) has now led to Rebellious Mirrors, an important and valuable book which any performing arts student or practitioner should read, not only to appraise the evolution of this multi-facetted genre in Aotearoa but also to appreciate the socio-political history it inevitably embodies. It also fulfils Maunder’s objective of creating “a resource and advocacy tool for those in the field.”

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Corban Estate Arts Centre, Henderson, Auckland - A NIGHT OF INTERACTING: A humbling and joyous riot of love
- reviewed by Lexie Matheson

The three core values of InterACT are inclusivity and participation, engagement and the creation of a quality product. These goals are achieved through workshops and classes in drama and film involving people with disabilities in disciplines they might otherwise never have considered and offering them an opportunity to show their wares in performance.

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Otahuhu College Studio, Auckland - HOME, LAND AND SEA: Enormous potential in remarkable production

- reviewed by Dr Linda Ashley

Home, Land & Sea provides a bittersweet rendition of the dancers’ stories about own their lives in urban south Auckland through poetry, song, acting and dance. The show is in the early stages of development and this run has been produced from ten afternoon workshops most of which were held at Otahuhu College where LIMA also worked with the students. It has enormous potential.

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Suter Theatre, Nelson - TALKING OF KATHERINE MANSFIELD: An absolute pleasure

- reviewed by Anna Bate

Catherine Downes, the creator and performer of Talking of Katherine Mansfield, assuredly took to the Suter Theatre stage last night to share this poignant work with a Nelson Arts Festival audience.

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St James Theatre, Wellington - TUTUS ON TOUR (2013): Smorgasbord of short extracts
- reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant

Prokoviev's music for Peter and the Wolf sees Orchestra Wellington take the musical reins in a new concept and choreography by Catherine Eddy and Brendan Bradshaw. Design by Robin Rawstorne sets us in a children's bedroom where Peter - beautifully danced by Kohei Iwamoto - takes us on his fantasy journey to catch the wolf. Fun touches are the toy soldiers of Peter's game reappearing as the Hunters in delightful canon and military movements, and a very energetic duck (Bronte Kelly) ruffling its feathers from the safety of the pond. Te Radar relishes narrating with some appropriate new zild-isms added in, and has a very effective onstage presence as he tells the story. Accessible and a little predictable this is never the less an entertaining and quirky rendition of a perennial favourite.

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - A MODEL WOMAN: Complex and fascinating story set in 20s has contemporary feel
- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

A New Zealand play about a pair of Danish artists living in Paris in the 1920s testifies to an emerging global sensibility amongst local writers who do not feel the need to proclaim their Kiwi identity.

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TV3 Crystal Palace, Tauranga - KNEE DEEP: Thrilling, beautiful and emotive
- reviewed by Gin Mabey

The four performers of Knee Deep, the breath-taking piece by Australian company Casus, take their audience in the palm of their hands from the second they step on stage – and not a word is uttered. An hour flies by with no lag nor lull.

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Baycourt Theatre, Tauranga - THE BRAVE: A show for everyone
- reviewed by Gin Mabey

The silhouette of eight young men walking forward with heads held high, chests open and ready to gift their stories to their audience, is a sight neither quickly nor willingly forgotten. This moment comes after a dazzlingly energetic, choreographed sequence of the actors pacing across the stage, catching and avoiding each other with the playfulness and athleticism of players on a field.

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - A MODEL WOMAN: The Artist's Muse

- reviewed by James Wenley

For artists Einar and Gerda Wegener, 1920s bohemian Paris represents “exciting times”. War is over, cinema is changing the world, and in these enlightened times there is the sense that you can be whoever you want.

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Musgrove Studio, Maidment Theatre, Auckland - WOMAN: A COLLECTION OF ABSURDIST MONOLOGUES: Engaging, impressive, enriching marathon
- reviewed by Nik Smythe

This collection of (mostly) one-person monologues is the culmination of what must have been a mammoth process that began with a call for playwrights to submit absurdist monologues with a central character called ‘Woman’. The seventeen plays are reasonably eclectic in content and attitude, yet share the common thread as imposed upon them by the project’s outline.

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Suter Theatre, Nelson - SQUIDBOY: Squidboy has heart, it's fine-tuned art

- reviewed by Anna Bate

The narrative emerges as surprisingly classical in what is an otherwise unconventional theatrical experience. This interweaving of traditions and the experimental is captivating and seeps through many aspects of the work. This perhaps broadens its appeal and is a reason for its great success both nationally and internationally.

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - A MODEL WOMAN: Disappointingly less than it could be

- reviewed by Johnny Givins

A Model Woman has all the ingredients of a ‘fabulous’ story. It is Paris in the 20s, the greatest city in the world that breathed fire and life into the culture of the 20th century. It was a time after WW1 when many thought things had changed and anything was possible.

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Theatre Royal, Nelson - GIFTED: Breathes life into a loved and respected duo

- reviewed by Gail Tresidder

Birds fly high and free and although Frank Sargeson and Janet Frame had their difficulties, overwhelming at times, like the birds that are a feature of this excellent play, they both soared above the ordinary and were brave and steadfast in their passion for writing.

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TSB Bank Mainstage, Nelson - THE RAP GUIDE TO EVOLUTION: ‘Artificial selection’ theory flawed
- reviewed by Laura Wells

The show starts off painfully, I am cringing inside (and maybe on the outside) at this balding middle-aged white guy rapping about Darwinian evolution, looking a lot like my fourth form science teacher who would try to be ‘cool’ with science. Baba Brinkman is the epitome of un-cool; what popular culture would refer to as a ‘try-hard’. There is only one way out of this situation that I can see, and then BAM, he does it all in one uber-long rapping sentence.

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

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