REVIEW: CHAIRS! (Basement)

November 17, 2023

[Chairs: Sit up and take note] In a world of wheels, Molly is stuck in place. What’s worse is no one in her life seems to recognise her plight, or they think it is merely a temporary state of mind. Shows like Chairs! are the reason why the Basement is my favourite theatre in Auckland.  From the outset, it has […]

REVIEW: The Picture of Dorian Gray (Auckland Arts Festival)

March 21, 2023

[Big Canvas] Performed by actress Eryn Jean Norvill and constructed by a hardworking crew of camera-people (Babi Bertoldi, Zoltan Jonas, Sam Steinle, Josh Vellis, Sean Waite and Simon Croker) and technicians, The Picture of Dorian Gray is an epic, ambitious multimedia adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s novel. Adapted and directed by Kip Williams, Dorian Gray is a maximalist experience – offering […]

REVIEW: Revisor (Auckland Arts Festival)

March 13, 2023

An Inspector Calls?  A farce about the paranoia of totalitarianism, Revisor is a darkly comic choreographic blend of bodies, setting, light and sound.  Created by Canadians Jonathon Young (writer) and Crystal Pite (choreography and direction), Revisor follows the titular character (performed by Gregory Lau, and voiced by Young), a minor civil servant tasked with updating a piece of legislation by […]

REVIEW: Alone (Summer at Q)

February 18, 2023

[In Space No One Can Hear the Smiths] It is a testament to the show that David Bowie is a more subject of conversation and debate, but the song that is played is not Space Oddity.  Written and directed by Luke Thornborough, Alone is a sci-fi drama about two astronauts on a return flight from a mission to a distant […]

REVIEW: North by Northwest (Auckland Theatre Company)

October 31, 2022

[Spellbound] How do you put this story on the stage? With North by Northwest, you have a property that was written for the screen by Ernest Lehman and directed by the iconic Alfred Hitchcock – there is no other source material to draw on. North By Northwest is defined by its sense of forward momentum, and its cinematic set pieces.   […]

REVIEW: RAW! ASMR (Auckland Fringe)

September 1, 2022

[Gonzo! The musical] Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) refers to specific audio-visual stimuli which cause an individual to experience a tingling sensation around the head and the back of the head.  Outside of youtube recommendations and advertisements, I have almost no experience with ASMR. That ignorance was hammered home about 0.5 seconds into the show when creator/performer Amy Atkins asked […]

REVIEW: The Best Cafe in the World (Basement Theatre)

July 22, 2022

Caffeinated Zombies  Set in the titular Best Cafe in the World after a zombie apocalypse, this story centres around cafe owner Jayden (Jehangir Homavazir), and his friends Sahil (Mo Nasir) and Gabby (Celine Dam). Jayden has big plans to make the cafe a communal space where people can relax from the nightmare outside. Trouble arises when news arrives of a […]

REVIEW: Safety in Numbers (A Slightly Isolated Dog)

July 15, 2022

[And Then There Was Fun] Directed by Leo Gene Peters, Safety in Numbers, the new production from A Slightly Isolated Dog takes the familiar framework of a locked room mystery and throws away the room.   Created and performed by Andrew Paterson, Jonathan Price, Jack Buchanan, Charlie Chignell, Jackson Collier, Tiani Taia Po’ona, Brianna Linkhorn, Eli Lockie, Tane Patterson, and Ruby […]

REVIEW: Werewolf (Binge Culture)

May 29, 2022

Created by Binge Culture (Joel Baxendale, Freya Daly Sadgrove, Oliver Devlin, Karin McCracken, and Ralph Upton), Werewolf is a spin on the old game of deception. Set inside a shelter during a werewolf outbreak, the performers (Karin McCracken, Arlo Gibson, and Joel Baxendale) play the wardens tasked with safeguarding survivors. Taking place inside the Basement’s main theatre, seats are arranged […]

REVIEW: Boom Shankar (Basement Theatre)

June 9, 2021

[Heaven & Hell walk into a bar…] In the six-ish years that I have reviewed shows at Basement Theatre, I have never found a formula for writing about them. Regardless of my opinion, it requires a completely different approach every single time. I do not like to lump different shows into categories, but one ‘genre’ I have noticed that keeps […]

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