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  • Dance Reviews

    REVIEW: Undercurrent (Footnote New Zealand Dance)

    [Fog Clearing] 2020 marks Footnote New Zealand Dance’s 35th anniversary; a remarkable achievement for the small Wellington contemporary dance company. As this tumultuous year draws to a close, Footnote has enjoyed the ability to perform [...]
  • Theatre Reviews

    REVIEW: Fresh Choice (Tuatara Collective)

    [Sweet As] This show marks the debut return to The Basement Theatre for many of the audience members, including both of us. Watching a great observational commentary on the whole Covid-19 situation is both refreshing [...]
  • Highlights

    REVIEW: Every Brilliant Thing (Silo Theatre)

    Performing Mental Health I often dislike how the topic of mental health is dealt with in a lot of film, literature or theatre. I feel it is contrived and sensationalised and completely misunderstood. However, Every [...]
  • Cabaret

    REVIEW: Dragon’s Divas Den (Auckland Live)

    Get the Look Hosted by Lady Trenyce Bhone (Daniel Williams) and Ms Lady B (Bryony Skillington), Dragon’s Divas Den is a fun, slightly chaotic show featuring some great performers and game guests.  Based in the [...]
In the Spotlight

REVIEW: Every Brilliant Thing (Silo Theatre)

by Jennifer Cheuk in Highlights

Performing Mental Health I often dislike how the topic of mental health is dealt with in a lot of film, literature or theatre. I feel it is contrived and sensationalised and completely misunderstood. However, Every Brilliant Thing is one of the very few shows I have seen that maintains a respectful and empathetic discourse around mental health. It celebrates life whilst also understanding the complexities of mental health. There was not one moment where I felt the realities of depression and suicide were disregarded. I loved Every Brilliant Thing because it was real. It is full of life and love [...]

REVIEW: Le Basement XXXmas Cabaret (Basement Theatre)

November 23, 2020
[Who’s Stuffing Your Stocking This Christmas?] It’s a Christmas miracle, and the one the world (or Aotearoa) needed. This year there is extra emotion in the festivities that are the Basement’s Annual Christmas Show. We have much to celebrate and be thankful for. Sitting in a room pressed up against happy, drunken, theatre goers feels positively illegal and the excitement […]

REVIEW: Undercurrent (Footnote New Zealand Dance)

November 15, 2020
[Fog Clearing] 2020 marks Footnote New Zealand Dance’s 35th anniversary; a remarkable achievement for the small Wellington contemporary dance company. As this tumultuous year draws to a close, Footnote has enjoyed the ability to perform and tour its final season of the year, Undercurrent, throughout Aotearoa. The company can also celebrate their move out of the small Cuba Street Tarrant […]

REVIEW: Fresh Choice (Tuatara Collective)

November 11, 2020
[Sweet As] This show marks the debut return to The Basement Theatre for many of the audience members, including both of us. Watching a great observational commentary on the whole Covid-19 situation is both refreshing and cathartic. Beautifully written through the eyes of four potentially downtrodden supermarket ‘essential’ workers during lockdown, Jason Te Mete’s Fresh Choice touches on a multitude […]

REVIEW: Every Brilliant Thing (Silo Theatre)

November 9, 2020
Performing Mental Health I often dislike how the topic of mental health is dealt with in a lot of film, literature or theatre. I feel it is contrived and sensationalised and completely misunderstood. However, Every Brilliant Thing is one of the very few shows I have seen that maintains a respectful and empathetic discourse around mental health. It celebrates life […]

REVIEW: Dragon’s Divas Den (Auckland Live)

November 8, 2020
Get the Look Hosted by Lady Trenyce Bhone (Daniel Williams) and Ms Lady B (Bryony Skillington), Dragon’s Divas Den is a fun, slightly chaotic show featuring some great performers and game guests.  Based in the Civic’s Wintergarden, the show is presented on a stage draped in vivid red. It is a simple strong visual that fits the aesthetics of the […]

REVIEW: Fake News (The Actors’ Program)

November 6, 2020
‘Actors have it easy..?’ As the world waits with bated breath for the 2020 US election results, the Actors’ Program premieres Fake News at the Basement. Politically speaking, it is a long, arduous day in which Donald Trump – who uses the phrase ‘fake news’ with alarming regularity – declares he is President before votes have been counted. The night […]

REVIEW: The Sleeping Beauty (Royal New Zealand Ballet)

November 2, 2020
[An Awakening] The privilege of attending a large-scale live performance of both music and dance in 2020 is not lost on me, nor, I suspect, on the majority of the audience on the opening night of The Sleeping Beauty in Wellington. Royal New Zealand Ballet, while in a better position to weather this storm than most artists in Aotearoa, has […]

REVIEW: Paradise or the Impermanence of Ice Cream (Indian Ink)

October 27, 2020
[Enjoy a Scoop of Life] As audience members pack the rows of the TAPAC theatre, I take my seat beside a group of strangers for the first time in months. There’s an edginess to the atmosphere – a flurry of discussions around the recent Covid cases in managed isolation – and I flinch as the woman next to me coughs […]

REVIEW: Our Modern Earth (Is A F*cking Mess) (Basement Theatre)

October 21, 2020
[Our Current Moment] Intense, explosive and beautiful. Our Modern Earth (Is A F*cking Mess), created by Amber Liberté and performed by an ensemble cast of 13, is another chaos-fuelled response to the climate crisis in the Basement’s main space. A fusion of dance, theatre and art installation, it immediately announces itself as an experimental work. Not least because the experience […]

REVIEW: Mary Poppins (The Civic)

October 18, 2020
[Spit-Spot On] In a time where attending a live theatrical show is undoubtedly a luxury, we all filed into The Civic with an overwhelming feeling of gratitude to live in this bubble. The show began with songs that were immediately familiar to most of us.  We caught ourselves mouthing the lyrics to the songs but very soon stopped to avoid […]

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