Realism at it’s whitest [by Matt Baker] What better time for such a show to be performed in the wake of proposed flag reform referenda. Advertised as spoken word meets theatre, writer and performer Jess Holly Bates has successfully amalgamated the components of poetic monologue and theatrical presentation in the inaugural homegrown production of her one-woman show. Monologue, however, may be […]
Less silk, more crunch [by Matt Baker] Jess Sayer has inarguably established a firm and justified reputation for herself as one of the leading New Zealand playwrights of her generation, so, when a play like Crunchy Silk comes along, I am torn between what is ultimately a good play with potential, and the feeling that Sayer has not packed her usual […]
They also came and conquered [by Matt Baker] Completing the New Zealand tour of their award-winning fringe show, writers and performers Justine Campbell and Sarah Hamilton have brought a unique play based on fundamental storytelling to Auckland’s Basement Theatre. The disconsolation of extinction and the mystery of its validity is a major part of the interest in the Tasmanian Tiger, and […]
Scot problems [by Matt Baker] Shakespeare wrote for an aural audience; he doesn’t show, he tells. Accordingly, an actor’s vocal articulation is as an integral element of their performance as much as their understanding of the text. Fortunately, I know Macbeth as a text. I say fortunately, because had I not, I doubt I would have understood much of what […]
Unanimous decision [by Matt Baker] The inciting incident that rings the bell in Simon Ward’s play is, unfortunately in today’s society, by no means a fanciful subject matter. However, the lesser reported, and unaccounted, consequences are a source of great dramatic material. A court-appointed psychological evaluation for an assault charge is an inevitably sure-fire situation, and Ward has written a […]
A fish out of water [by Matt Baker] Having seen the original production of Zooquatic earlier in the year as part of the Short+Sweet Auckland Theatre Festival, I was excited to see in which direction this full-length adaptation would be taken and how much further the parody of the content would be pushed. Absurdist in its comedic style and melodramatic […]
Enough said? [by Matt Baker] While I wholly appreciate writer/creator Miranda Harcourt’s personal sentiment that “The poetry of the way real people speak has always been [her] favourite form”, I cannot help but reflect on exactly how it is that verbatim theatre has the ability to make the impact that it can. Recently, I was confronted with the contention that […]
Delicious [by Matt Baker] Once again The Basement proves its integrality to the Auckland theatre industry by picking up where ATC left off and presenting their first season of Young & Hungry, a programme in which performers and operators under the age of 25 are mentored by established writers, directors, producers, designers, operators, and stage managers. Dragonlore by Nic Sampson and Atlas/Mountains/Dead Butterflies by Joseph […]
Flight over fancy [by Matt Baker] I was disappointed to hear that Dianna Fuemana’s play Birds lost funding halfway through rehearsals. I wasn’t surprised, as it wasn’t the only negative funding news I had heard yesterday (am I right?), but to reiterate, I was disappointed. New Zealand is a melting pot of Asian and Pacific culture, and, as Black Faggot and Goodbye My Feleni confirmed earlier […]
One way of passing time [by Matt Baker] Less a play and more a series of vignettes, the fourth production by Playfight, written and performed by co-founders Shoshana McCallum and Donna Brookbanks, is a self-proclaimed thought provoking commentary on the human condition in the naughties. Said commentary is broken, however, between the nine aforementioned vignettes, and consequently offers little insight […]
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