One Man, Two Guvnors, Lots of Laughs [by James Wenley] I’m not sure who laughed the most: the audience’s belly laughs competed with Owain Arthur’s gleefully mad bray as he delighted in his mischief-making as journeyman and modern day harlequin Francis Henshall, bagman to two Guvnors. One Man, Two Guvnors is a theatrical blockbuster from The National Theatre, writer Richard […]
And I Was Like: Whatever [by Matt Baker] In his programme notes, writer and director Sam Brooks puts forth the question, ‘What happens when you take one of the fundamental pillars of relationships, the words, out of the equation?’ He summarises by saying that ‘when it gets from the stage to your faces, maybe you’ll get your answer.’ If there is […]
America Calling [by Matt Baker] 22 years on, Jon Pheloung returns to perform the self-proclaimed sort of sequel to his one-man show, One Man Guy. This, of course, raises the question of what, if anything, has changed. Having not seen the original production, I couldn’t say, but there is certainly a distinct feeling of the show not only taking place, but […]
Love Saturation [by James Wenley] The sentiment is expressed by one character within Rhinoceros in Love that all love stories are the same. Certainly in mainstream western media we are constantly fed the boy-meets-girl-boy-eventually-wins-girl narrative. It was invigorating then to discover in Rhinoceros in Love a love story quite unlike any other I had ever seen. The visual spectacle, including […]
Too clever by Alice [by James Wenley] The thinking goes: everyone has a story to tell, everyone has a potential theatre show in them. When Irish Theatre maker Amy Conroy oversaw a kiss between two 60-something women snatched in the aisle of Tescos, she thought she had stumbled upon a story worth telling, and the theatre show she had been […]
Pacific Side Story [by James Wenley] The chance taken on Kila Kokonut’s Krew The Factory – “New Zealand’s first Pacific Musical” – should prove the biggest statement of this year’s Auckland Arts Festival. Dedicated to the parents and grandparents of the creatives and cast who moved to New Zealand from the islands, The Factory began as a modest workshop production […]
It’s a short journey [by Matt Baker] With the Sky Tower prominent in their backdrop, the rear windows of St Kevin’s Arcade next to Alleluya are an appropriate performance space for this apocalyptic piece set in a central Auckland flat. Written and directed by, and starring Lucia Farron-Diamantis, Lewis Gregory, and Lana Mackintosh, collectively known as Three Queens, the writing […]
Choose your Own Adventure [by James Wenley] Planning your Fringe schedule is akin to the choose-your-own-adventure stories in childhood. There are different venues, several shows are on at the same time, and you (or at least I) agonise over which path to take. Unfortunately in the Fringe choose-your-own-adventure, you can’t go back to the start and begin it all again: […]
Home, Gorge and Clouds [by James Wenley] Auckland Fringe is almost out the door (but Auckland Arts Festival opens today!). With a backlog of reviews still to write, and to stop you missing out, here are the top three unmissable Fringe shows this week with the Theatre Scenes seal of awesomeness. PICK ONE The show? Home / The Hilarious Comedy […]
Game of Thrones [by James Wenley] When I consider King Lear I think of the high grand tragedy, the demands of the title role and the master actors who have played him, and I conjure the harrowing image of the old man against the storm on the heath. It was pleasing to be reminded that the play begins (where it […]
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