Abstain [by Matt Baker] Contrary to its premise, Like A Virgin does not so much uncover the conversations, secrets, and revelations of people’s first experiences, as it does half-heartedly pontificate on these matters without exploring them alongside its audience. What little narrative exists lacks natural development, with the numerous scenes piling up instead of amounting to anything substantial. Any attempt at […]
Jesus Lives! [by Matt Baker] Jesus Christ Superstar is a deceptively difficult musical. What seems at first a song-list with the appropriate momentum to a presumptuously well-known plot can also be exposed as an inadequate foothold for character journeys and development. Thankfully, director Oliver Driver has handled this difficulty with excellent casting decisions. Conceptually, the most important thing interpreting the Superstar […]
Give them another [by Matt Baker] The Hobson Street Theatre Company has something significant on their hands: real people with real stories. Founded four and a half years ago, it began as an activity on offer at the mission, eventually developing into a legitimate theatre company, and its company is legitimately developing. The central conflict for drama is there, a classic […]
Tying laces before loose ends [by Matt Baker] Not unlike last year, The Basement’s second season of Young & Hungry provides an excellent dichotomy of comedy and tragedy with its 2014 offerings, Second Afterlife by Ralph McCubbin-Howell and Uncle Minotaur by Dan Bain, respectively. Unlike last year, however, there is a strong similarity in the thematic style of each play. […]
And us [by Matt Baker] Tuesday 16th September 2014: a day like no other. For one, it was the only opportunity to see that evening’s performance by Barnie Duncan. While this is always true of the transient pleasure of all theatre, it is reinforced in …him, as that day’s newspaper held the cryptic key to this ingenious, ever-evolving theatrical experience. I […]
Ça Va [by Matt Baker] Other than its professed Hitchcockian style and some season-orientated pensive posters, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Silo’s production of Amy Herzog’s Belleville other than a psychological relationship thriller. Hitchcock, however, was the undisputed master of suspense. Red herrings are not MacGuffins, and where Hitchcock would show, Herzog tells. There are, of course, moments […]
Eight out of tannin [by Matt Baker] If you’ve ever wondered what The Basement greenroom looks like, or the stories its walls could tell, Wine Lips is the answer. From the authentic show posters featured on Bex Isemonger’s set and Amber Molloy’s inventive lighting design, both of which thankfully make full use of the greenroom mirror, to the stalwart ease […]
Rough Mutt [by Matt Baker] Dog “has been through a number of development phases”, however, while playwright Ben Hutchison states that this production understood what he “was aiming to achieve”, the result seems ironically underdeveloped. The play starts off promisingly, with a strong balance of both verbal and physical humour, setting a well-pitched comedic tone in regards to the context, […]
[by Matt Baker] In the first half of this year, I saw two plays that had one ticket price: adult – $25.00. It was the maximum ticket price that the venue in which these shows were performed allows, due to their want of maintaining the cost of theatre to their patrons at a reasonable amount, and $25.00 is perfectly reasonable […]
Once was Enough [by Matt Baker] The fact that the temporary capture of Chunuk Bair was the only success for the Allies in the Gallipoli Campaign at the expense of hundreds of men’s lives is a perfect example of the futility of war. It is a landmark in New Zealand history and requires little reminding: lest we forget, indeed. The […]
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