[Totems and Taboos] Rēka grew from the short work AUĒ that won the Risk Taker Award at Short + Sweet Dance 2017. The original was reviewed as being restricted by the ten-minute time limit, and suggesting a longer work to come. True to the original, Rēka aims to be controversial and elicit a response from its audience; programme notes describe […]
After first encountering character actor Alexander Sparrow do his Trump impersonation on very same night that Trump won the 2016 election, Tim George went to Garnet station to check out two of Sparrow’s latest shows: DJ Trump and De Sade. [Christ Trump] I’ve always wanted to be roasted by a comedian. I never thought it would be by Donald Trump. Reprising […]
[Pop-up Globe 2017 Season] At Auckland’s Pop-up Globe, Shakespeare is enjoying a 400-year-old career resurgence. Shattering any lingering perceptions that Shakespeare might be elitist or alienating, this year 80,000 people have paid paying anywhere from $1 to stand as a ‘groundling’ in the yard, to $299 for a royal room at the side of the stage. The atmosphere in the […]
[Juan Direction] The false illusion of immersive theatre is that the audience co-authors the play with the theatremakers. That without the audience the play would not be the same. But the reality is most interactive theatre experiences are as pre-determined and scripted as any conventional ones. Any sense of freedom or choice is mostly manufactured, never rising beyond a clever […]
Half Full / Half Empty [by James Wenley] So Auckland, how did we do this year? Were our generously marked up interval drinks full to the brim, or running on empty? If you’d asked me this question at the beginning of September, say between shows at Auckland Live’s decadent Cabaret season, I would have responded gloomily. Programming choices were tepid, and […]
Negative Comment [by Guest Reviewer Tim George] The line between provocation and exploitation is blurred in this multi-media examination of young woman’s spiral from depression to suicide. The Dummy combines live actors and back-projections of Facebook profiles and news footage and crams a lot of big ideas into its short running time. So many in fact that it never takes the […]
Auckland: Things are about to get Fringey [by James Wenley] Auckland Fringe 2015 is hitting our theatres and streets next week and it promises to bring a whole cavalcade of entertainment and provocation. Fringe is one of the best times to check out what’s happening in Auckland theatre. Ticket prices are low and affordable, and you can jump from venue to […]
Uncertain Futurecast [by James Wenley] The Yo Future movement has been spreading across the country. First devised in Wellington in 2011, Director Jo Randerson has worked with youth from Invercargill, Hamilton, Wairarapa and asked them provocations like “What does the world look like to you?” and “what would you fight for?” to create their past, present and Yo Future. The 14 […]
Out of the Shadows [by James Wenley] My immediate response to Shadowland is an eerie chill: disembodied clothes – two dresses and a suit – dangle from The Civic stage, giving the feeling that I’d walked in on a hanging in which the bodies had decomposed long ago. This grim reading was not something I’d expected from the “enchanting tale” […]
New Voice, Amplified [by James Wenley] Playwright Sam Brooks’ work concerns itself with identity, the mechanics of interaction, and an intense focus on what pulls people together… and apart. In the spirit of ‘get up and do it’, Brooks, a graduate of Unitec’s Writers course and winner of Playmarket’s Playwrights b4 25 Award, has produced a double bill at The Basement […]
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