[This is not Romeo] Romeo & Juliet is a tragedy. An early twenties (arguably late teens) knave and a 13 year old girl become infatuated with each other, and in less than a working week six people including themselves are dead. While that may come across as an amusingly black read at first, it belies the tragedy by which these […]
[This is Julia] Julia Croft’s one-woman show If There’s Not Dancing at the Revolution, I’m Not Coming was not only one of my favourite two shows from 2015, but also one of the best pieces of theatre I have ever witnessed. Seeing the show for a second time, I found that while I maintained a superficial recognition of the original, […]
[Like a Mallet to the Face] Polo is a dangerous sport. When one considers the combination of horses and mallets, it’s easy to see how strains and sprains, muscular and ligament tears, fractures and dislocations, concussions, and even death can result. I suffered a concussion once – not from polo, mind you – and while I count my blessings that […]
[Make V-Day Count] Two years after its premiere in 1996, The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler resulted in the launch of V-Day (February 14), a global movement aimed at ending violence against women. This month is Auckland Pride Festival, and this week, all around the world, The Vagina Monologues have opened. Comprised predominantly of third year students and graduates from […]
[More to Tell] One week after Australia Day, Auckland audiences are introduced to Ian Michael, a proud Noongar actor and recipient of the Melbourne Fringe Best Emerging Indigenous Artist award; an accolade achieved for the very show She Said Theatre has brought to Basement Theatre. It is the story of four men, each affected, by some degree or another, by […]
Needed Mour [by Matt Baker] New Zealand’s first full-length Sri Lankan play. A sell-out season before opening night. It’s an exciting premise to the beginning of a new branch of New Zealand-Asian theatre. Upon entering The Basement, the audience is greeted with Karnan Saba’s soundscape, both captivating and subtle, with all the originality and instant identity of a John Williams’ score, […]
Download Incomplete – Error Occurred [by Matt Baker] There is a fine line between playwrights providing what is necessary outside of dialogue for practitioners to convey the meaning of their story, and prescribing the text because they cannot see it any other way. On one hand, theatrical theories, conventions, and practices can shift dramatically over the years, leading to limited explorative opportunities […]
Refurbished for the 21st Century [by Matt Baker] Henrik Ibsen may have been aware of the controversy that A Doll’s House would raise when he wrote it, but he certainly didn’t intend the specificity of it to be projected onto its female lead. Regardless, adaptations have continued to miss the collective relevance to its central character’s journey, reappropriating it with connotations […]
Horseplay [by Matt Baker] You can’t keep a man from great literature, and you can’t keep a crowd from great comedy. Dressed to the nines and ready for a crowd, Jamie Bowen, Nick Gibb, and Rhys Mathewson are as cavalier in every sense of the word as modern day Auckland can allow them to be. Their irreverence, however, is never uncouth. […]
Dead funny [by Matt Baker] It’s a subject most of us have thought about at some point, albeit not necessarily to the degree to which Rose Matafeo has. Funeral playlists are usually the first things people think of, and it’s no different for Matafeo’s comedy festival show Finally Dead, in which she hosts her own funeral. It’s a great premise and […]
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