[Overstuffed] Despite sharing a similarly large cast, Prayas Theatre have done a 180 for their latest show, going from the epic novelistic scale of Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance to the more personal marital comedy of Tanika Gupta’s Love N Stuff. The play charts the tumultuous relationship between middle aged Indian couple Bindi (Sudeepta Vyas) and Mansoor (Mustaq Missouri). When […]
[Generation Movement] Less than a week after The Spinoff wrote this response to a North & South article on millennials, award-winning choreographic director Natalie Maria Clark presents Everything Anyone Ever Wanted, her fifth show in four years under the collective Black Sheep Productions and one of the strongest pieces of performance, let alone dance, to advocate for Generation Y. Its […]
[Master Showmen] As soon as the man in white face paint screamed ‘lock ze doors!’, I knew we were in for something interesting. La Vie Dans Une Marionette is a delightful confection of humour and surprising pathos. Making a return visit to The Basement as part of their Matariki season, White Face Dance Crew tell the story of a lonely pianist (Tama Jarman) and the […]
[Stealing the Show] One good reason to appreciate Indian Ink is that they are an established theatre company that take genuine risks in their work while cohesively maintaining a focus towards the longevity of their art. This is by no means a simple or easy achievement. To refrain from resting on artistic laurels requires exploration into new and sometimes unsuccessful territory, which can […]
[Medea Mediated] Jasper (Quinn Bevan) and Leon (Aedan Burmester) are the children of Greek hero Jason (of the Argonauts fame) and the witch Medea (played by Bronwyn Bradley). As the action begins, the couple’s marriage has broken up over Jason’s infidelity and the boys have been locked in their room while their parents thrash it out. While their parents battle […]
[Has the Flute lost its Magic?] Having sat through almost three hours of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, including a 20-minute interval (which is pretty normal for an evening at the opera), I couldn’t help wondering why I felt so utterly and truly disappointed as we filed out of the theatre. With a title like The Magic Flute which undoubtedly conjures fantasy and […]
[Vision Boards A go-go] Three friends (Chris Parker, Hayley Sproull and Leon Wadham) are lost on a windy heath. After finding each other, they declare their mutual devotion and vow to return on the anniversary of their ordeal to celebrate their enduring bond. And that about does it for plot. When I first heard the title ‘Milky Bits’, I was […]
[Bloody Marvellous] We departed That Bloody Woman‘s opening night feeling proud, informed and uplifted by the musical portrayal of this ‘her-storical’ story. The face of Kate Sheppard that gazes somewhat benevolently from our $10 note belies a passion, a person and a struggle that we think we know, but don’t. By communicating directly with the audience, the show makes us […]
[Drink the Kool-aid] The best theatre is full of surprises. Not cheap or outlandish plot twists, but the organic sort of surprises that feel like the missing pieces of a puzzle. The sort of surprises that leave audiences smiling in awe. Andrew Gunn’s Potato Stamp Megalomaniac digs these out in spades. Andrew tells us to think of the show as a revolution […]
[Sham-a-lot] Jess Sayer is a prolific writer who has won numerous awards including last year’s Bruce Mason Playwriting Award. As the company (We Three Productions) state, her work has been described as ‘razor-sharp’, ‘brave’, ‘absorbingly dark’ and ‘not for the faint-hearted’. So naturally we were expecting a dark story to unfold before our eyes. Nothing could be further from the truth. The charm […]
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