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    REVIEW: Work Do (Basement Theatre)

    [Merry XXXmas] December, 1997. Princess Diana is dead. The Spice Girls are four months away from going Geri-less. The employees of travel agency Go Away gather for their end-of-year party, unaware that the proverbial is [...]
  • Silo

    REVIEW: Here Lies Love (Silo Theatre)

    [All that Glitters is not Gold] If you’re after a fun and entertaining end-of-year night out, Silo Theatre’s production of Here Lies Love is perfect. It is based on David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s concept album [...]
  • Theatre Reviews

    REVIEW: Movers (Basement Theatre)

    [Sentimental Packaging] When aspiring Samoan comedian Tai (Sepelini Mua’au) gets a job at a local moving company, he has to juggle the generational and racial divide between himself and the two older white men who [...]
In the Spotlight

REVIEW: City of 100 Lovers (SkyCity Theatre)

by James Wenley in Highlights

[100% Bland] When Phil Goff assumed the mayoralty in 2016, he put the kibosh on a $500,000 branding exercise which had proposed using ‘The Place Desired by Many’ as a slogan for Auckland. An English translation of Tāmaki Makaurau, the phrase was the centrepiece of a rebrand developed by ATEED (Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development) to tell an ‘Auckland story’ that could be marketed to a global audience. The council-controlled organisation was criticised for wasting ratepayer’s money, and the idea quickly fizzled when Goff and the new Council chose not to back it. While a footnote in our history, [...]

REVIEW: Work Do (Basement Theatre)

December 3, 2018
[Merry XXXmas] December, 1997. Princess Diana is dead. The Spice Girls are four months away from going Geri-less. The employees of travel agency Go Away gather for their end-of-year party, unaware that the proverbial is about to hit the fan: the company’s finances are a mess, and boss Linda (Jodie Rimmer) is going to have to close it down. With […]

REVIEW: My Name is Rachel Corrie (Shape Shift and Embers Collective)

December 3, 2018
[Looking Inward for Outward Action] “My name is Rachel Corrie”, states the energetic, impassioned, idealistic, empathetic, effervescent and blisteringly awake woman on Garnet Station’s Tiny Theatre stage. Character and actor alike are bright stars who collide to ensure we will not forget Rachel. Phoebe Borwick is a tour de force as the solo performer in the title role of Shape […]

REVIEW: Shortland Street – The Musical (Auckland Theatre Company)

December 1, 2018
[Make No Bones About It] The question of whether the result of Shortland Street the television series can be considered successful need only be measured by one fact: 26 years. But with new mediums come new risks. For every The Lion King and The Producers stage musical adaptation there is a Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and The Fly. Fortunately, Shortland […]

REVIEW: Here Lies Love (Silo Theatre)

November 30, 2018
[All that Glitters is not Gold] If you’re after a fun and entertaining end-of-year night out, Silo Theatre’s production of Here Lies Love is perfect. It is based on David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s concept album Here Lies Love, about the life of the former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos. The performances from the five divas – Villette Dasha, Colleen Davis, […]

REVIEW: Movers (Basement Theatre)

November 25, 2018
[Sentimental Packaging] When aspiring Samoan comedian Tai (Sepelini Mua’au) gets a job at a local moving company, he has to juggle the generational and racial divide between himself and the two older white men who run the business, Oscar (Lloyd Scott) and Bruce (John Landreth). If Oscar is relatively unassuming and harmless, Bruce embodies a more casual racism, often masquerading […]

REVIEW: Jacinda (The Actors’ Program)

November 20, 2018
[Angels in Aotearoa] Programming a grad show for any acting program is tricky business, balancing the needs of roles required and finding a suitable showcase, all while crafting a satisfying narrative. In choosing to commission a brand new work by Auckland playwright Sam Brooks, rounding off a knockout year in collaboration with director Sam Snedden (Twenty Eight Millimetres and Burn […]

REVIEW: Monster Mash (Dynamotion)

November 19, 2018
[It’s a Mash] Co-created by Lara Liew and Tom Sainsbury, Dynamotion’s forte is taking b-movie genres and turning them into quasi-musicals with actors doing performing choreography. It’s a great idea, and they have mined it for a series of fun parodies, taking in everything from old-school exploitation horror movies, 60s Bondmania and Terminator 2. Dynamotion’s latest finds them tackling classic […]

REVIEW: Bad Mood (Basement Theatre)

November 8, 2018
[Collage of Womanhood] As artist in residence for the Basement this year, Bad Mood is Tallulah Holly-Massey’s third and final work following Mammoth and Tender is the Night.  I had watched Mammoth earlier during the year, and was excited to see how Holly-Massey’s final work would play out.  Performed by four distinguished dancers — Kelly Nash, Nancy Wijohn, Zahra Killeen-Chance […]

REVIEW: Such Stuff as Dreams (Basement Theatre)

November 8, 2018
[Half asleep] Presented by Dusty Room Productions, Such Stuff as Dreams, by Camilla Walker, advertises itself as a love story between Claire, a “wanderlusting waitress”, and Alfie, a busker with schizophrenia, played by Catherine Yates and Tyler Wilson Kokiri respectively. Mental health is a common theme in New Zealand theatre, and such theatrical representations require not only a deft hand, but […]

REVIEW: The Nutcracker (RNZB)

November 2, 2018
[More Seasoning] The quintessential Christmas ballet, The Nutcracker, is so beloved by companies and audiences that it is an annual event in some parts of the world. Since the Royal New Zealand Ballet has not staged The Nutcracker since former Artistic Director Gary Harris’ 2010 production, New Zealand audiences are overdue for this festive delight. In an odd twist of […]

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For reviews of theatre playing elsewhere in New Zealand, go to Theatreview.org.nz 

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