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  • Wellington

    REVIEW: World of WearableArt Awards Show 2019

    [Contrasting Fabric] For over thirty years the World Of WearableArt Awards Show has created a platform for a unique and highly entertaining form of expression and design. It is firmly established on the Wellington calendar, [...]
  • Theatre Reviews

    TOURING: HarleQueen (Abby Howells)

    [Queens of Comedy] Abby Howells’ HarleQueen is mini-history lesson folded into personal storytelling slash standup comedy routine. After its successful original run during Wellington and Dunedin Fringe, where it swept up a few awards, it’s returned [...]
  • Theatre Reviews

    REVIEW: Reclamation (FAFSWAG)

    [Pusi Power] “Why men great till they gotta be great… Just took a DNA test and I’m 100% that bitch even when I’m crying crazy, yeah I got boy problems that’s the human in me. [...]
In the Spotlight

REVIEW: Green Day’s American Idiot: The Musical (The Civic)

by Irene Corbett in Highlights

[Still feeling the angst 15 years on] An American musical, an English cast, a Kiwi audience: can the early 2000s hit pop-punk band Green Day deliver a musical that crosses both time and culture? Drawn from the 2004 rock-opera style album American Idiot which responded to American anxiety following 9/11, the public divide over the Iraq war, and the Bush ascendancy, the musical American Idiot follows three friends Johnny [Tom Milner], Tunny [Joshua Dowen], and Will [Samuel Pope] as they attempt to escape suburbia and make it in the city. If you are completely unfamiliar with Green Day’s music or [...]

PREVIEW: Sing it to my Face (Barbarian Productions)

October 15, 2019
[Voice of an Intergeneration] Opening this week under the helm of Jo Randerson in association with Auckland Live is Sing it to My Face, a show that invites everyday people from the community from different generations to express their concerns to each other through song. After premiering at Wellington Cathedral in 2014 the show also has had immensely successful seasons […]

REVIEW: Green Day’s American Idiot: The Musical (The Civic)

October 12, 2019
[Still feeling the angst 15 years on] An American musical, an English cast, a Kiwi audience: can the early 2000s hit pop-punk band Green Day deliver a musical that crosses both time and culture? Drawn from the 2004 rock-opera style album American Idiot which responded to American anxiety following 9/11, the public divide over the Iraq war, and the Bush […]

REVIEW: World of WearableArt Awards Show 2019

October 9, 2019
[Contrasting Fabric] For over thirty years the World Of WearableArt Awards Show has created a platform for a unique and highly entertaining form of expression and design. It is firmly established on the Wellington calendar, having moved here from Nelson fifteen years ago, and enjoys support from Wellington City Council, retailers and restaurants, who cross-promote the show with street decorations, […]

TOURING: HarleQueen (Abby Howells)

October 3, 2019
[Queens of Comedy] Abby Howells’ HarleQueen is mini-history lesson folded into personal storytelling slash standup comedy routine. After its successful original run during Wellington and Dunedin Fringe, where it swept up a few awards, it’s returned in preparation for its Adelaide tour next year.  And it’s the perfect type of show to go over the pond: simple in design but containing […]

REVIEW: Reclamation (FAFSWAG)

September 27, 2019
[Pusi Power] “Why men great till they gotta be great… Just took a DNA test and I’m 100% that bitch even when I’m crying crazy, yeah I got boy problems that’s the human in me. Then I solve ’em that’s the goddess in me” Said by the most iconic, curvalicious and unapologetic queen herself: Lizzo (if you haven’t heard of […]

REVIEW: AloFA (Q Theatre)

September 24, 2019
[Family Secrets] It’s great walking into Q Theatre for the opening night of AloFA to see a more representative demographic. Q’s full house, boasting a cross section of Auckland’s growing diverse population, is a huge coup. Centre stage are two graves covered with Samoan siapo (tapa cloth), fala moe (sleeping mats), a mosquito net – complemented by the backdrop adorned […]

REVIEW: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Auckland Theatre Company)

September 17, 2019
[Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Funny] A chime is heard and backstage is onstage. The curtain has revealed an actors’ waiting room. Three plywood walls, a roll of green screen, a ladder leading nowhere, and a healthy scattering of exit signs, ominously glowing without their promised exits. Scaffolding is visible and there is a lighting bar lying across the back […]

REVIEW: I Didn’t Invite You Here to Lecture Me (Basement Theatre)

September 11, 2019
[Complete Education in 60 Minutes] What is the measurement used to gauge the success of a piece of theatre? Whether you laugh? Whether you are challenged into action? Is it measured by achieving the perfect level of audience participation, or by how skilled and flexible the actor is? Perhaps the yardstick is how many levels the script can operate on […]

TOURING: A Doll’s House (Twist Productions & Tour-Makers)

September 9, 2019
Architecture of Happiness “You must change your life” –Rainer Maria Rilke, The Archaic Torso of Apollo It’s great to be wrong sometimes.  When I reviewed Emily Perkins’ A Doll’s House (in ATC’s production) the first time around, I found fault with the play and production. It seemed to take place in a nowhere land, despite the New Zealand references. The […]

REVIEW: School of Rock: The Musical (The Civic)

September 9, 2019
[Essential Education] As we take our seats at the Civic we are immediately transported to the smoky bars of a bygone era synonymous with rock bands. The simplistic drum kit with brick wall backdrop is a clever device that instantaneously evokes that trip down memory lane. Instead of the customary ‘turn your cell phones’ announcement as the lights dim, we […]

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