REVIEW: Dance like a Butterfly Dream Boy (New Performance Festival)

February 23, 2012

Testosterone Overload [by James Wenley] The roof of the Aotea Centre has to be one of the coolest places in Auckland to do a show. Overlooked by the large old  Council building, imbued with the colour of street lights, and soundtracked with street noise, sirens and the odd sound of a seagull, it has the type of atmosphere that you […]

REVIEW: Be | Longing: A Verbatim Play (New Performance Festival)

February 23, 2012

Stories from the Source [by James Wenley] New Zealand, famously, is a land of immigrants. Waves of migration over the country’s history have created a rich fabric of cultures, as well as perhaps an uncertain ‘kiwi’ cultural identity. What is it about New Zealand that makes it unique, and what is this discovery like for new arrivals? How do they […]

REVIEW: Invisible Atom (New Performance Festival)

February 22, 2012

Indivisible Atom – Invisible Man [by Sharu Delilkan] His name is Atom as in the bomb, not Adam as in Eve, something Anthony Black pointed out right from the start. He stood on a black platform, which looked a bit like a pedestal and was a great metaphor for a man at his apex. What does it mean to be […]

REVIEW: Call Cutta in a Box (New Performance Festival)

February 20, 2012

Pick up the Phone [by James Wenley] The best advice I can give those who are going to Call Cutta in a Box is this: Go with your defences down, an inquisitive mind, and an open heart. The consensus does seem to be that the less you know going into Call Cutta the better. So for those don’t want to […]

REVIEW: 2 Dimensional Life of Her (New Performance Festival)

February 19, 2012

New Performance, New Dimensions [by James Wenley] Well the New Performance Festival has sprung up within the little-seen bowels of the Aotea Centre. A pop-up (and very cool) festival club is the gateway to a host of shows that, at the very least, will leave you plenty to talk about after. And it was 2 Dimensional Life of Her that […]

REVIEW: Ghosting Part 2 – Cabaret (New Performance Festival)

February 18, 2012

A Ghost in the Machine [by Sharu Delilkan] True to form Sean Curham‘s work at the New Performance Festival, Ghosting Part 2 – Cabaret, is nothing short of unexpected. The minute we walked down into the bowels of Aotea Centre we are greeted by Curham’s set, which felt more like we’d walked in on someone in rehearsal. And as people […]

REVIEW: Music and Me

February 15, 2012

Music, Me and Mayhem! [by Sharu Delilkan] It was like going to visit an old friend turning up at Mangere Arts Centre for my first review of the year. For Valentine’s Day evening, Victoria Schmidt’s brand new work Music and Me was an interesting choice, to say the least. Particularly since it was billed as telling the harsh realities of […]

REVIEW: The Motor Camp (Auckland Theatre Company)

February 12, 2012

Bringing back the cultural cringe [by James Wenley] Like many kiwis, I joined the yearly summer exodus from the cities, and went camping over New Years. The miserable rain-drenched ‘summer’ of 2012 had little to write home about of course, but it did provide me with one memorable experience: the family holiday train-wreck. Not my own, thank goodness. Evidently, the […]

REVIEW: Bathing with Elephants and other Exotic Reveries

January 27, 2012

An astounding Journey into the unknown [by James Wenley] The Civic Main stage is dark, waiting for its first performance of the year. But the building is alive. The show is Bathing with Elephants and other exotic reveries, with much for the inteprid audience member to encounter. Bathing with Elephants is a collaboration between Vitamin S, Co-Lab and STAMP at […]

REVIEW: Confessions of a Struggling Thespian

January 18, 2012

Embracing the Musical Theatre cliché [by James Wenley] The story and tribulations of the performer – whether it is singer, dancer or actor are an over-familiar cliché: Auditions, rejections, the pluck from obscurity, fame, selling out, rise and fall. Struggle. A Chorus Line, the beloved 1975 Broadway Musical is a definitive going over of these themes. Based on taped sessions […]

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