REVIEW: LA SOIRÉE (Auckland Arts Festival)

March 9, 2017

[Join the Party] It is not surprising to learn that LA SOIRÉE scooped up the prestigious Olivier Award for Best Entertainment for their London season. It would be a lie if I said I was expecting amazing things from tonight’s performance, having seen a slew of passable to mediocre cabaret/circus shows in the recent past.  However it’s not often that you get […]

REVIEW: Power Ballad (Auckland Fringe)

March 9, 2017

[Language Games] Julia Croft’s If There’s Not Dancing at the Revolution, Then I’m Not Coming used feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey as the jumping off point for a riotous deconstruction of female representation in our popular media. It put those common tropes we often take for granted under a critical lens and scrutinised the hell out of them, all while […]

SCENE BY JAMES: Thank Dionysus for Auckland Fringe

March 8, 2017

[Auckland Fringe 2017: Auckland Needs You] As we head into the finals days of the 2017 Auckland Fringe, it’s weird to think that it almost didn’t happen. The Fringe has bumped along biannually since 2009, but after decoupling from Auckland Live support, its long-term survival has been precarious. After funding decisions did not go its way, late last year Fringe […]

REVIEW: Say Something Nice (Auckland Fringe)

March 8, 2017

[It’s Something] A solo show from Sam Brooks, Say Something Nice is an attempt to strike out from the pack with something different and new. The show looks and feels like a self-help seminar. You walk into a large room filled with tables – each table is big enough for two people. On each table are pads and pens. In […]

REVIEW: We May Have to Choose (Auckland Fringe)

March 4, 2017

[Choose to Listen] It is difficult to write about We May Have to Choose since there is no way you can possibly describe the effortlessly fluid experience of sitting in front of Emma Hall for just under and hour not even noticing the minutes tick by. Lack of conventional structure helps to create this feeling. But more than that, we […]

REVIEW: Tomás Ford’s Chase! (Auckland Fringe)

March 1, 2017

[Speed on Stage] A fast-moving blend of singing, ranting and waterboarding, Tomás Ford’s Chase! is like a fever dream during a drive-in movie. Framed in front of two large screens, secret agent Tomás Ford (Tomás Ford) regales the audience with the story of his chase around the globe to locate the woman he loves. Behind our psychopathic anti-hero, black and […]

REVIEW: Once There Was a Woman (Auckland Fringe)

March 1, 2017

[Into the Void] Theatre is a visual medium, I was reminded shortly after viewing Beth Kayes’ solo performance Once There Was a Woman. Its an observation more commonly applied to film, but if anything it’s more true for the stage. Theatre withholds as much as it shows, drawing magic not just from what we see, but from what is absent […]

REVIEW: As You Like It (Summer Shakespeare)

March 1, 2017

[That’s the Way I Like It] It’s refreshing to return to the Auckland University Clock Tower space for Summer Shakespeare this year. Despite the excitement of the Pop-Up Globe, there was always a level of intimacy sacrificed in the massive space. There some productions were often at the mercy of the venue, servicing the stage rather than the script. Here the […]

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