[Mana Whenua] Chekhov’s final play finds itself uprooted from both its Russian origins and its familiar place within the Western theatrical canon in ATC’s latest production of The Cherry Orchard. It has been replanted, by several strokes of genius, in 1970’s Aotearoa – a New Zealand experiencing the death of the old new world, and the birth of a recogniseable […]
[Working Title] Mrs Warren’s Profession was way ahead of his time – written by George Bernard Shaw in 1893, it was initially banned for the stage, and didn’t debut until nine years later. In Auckland Theatre Company’s production, a stellar cast (headlined by Jennifer Ward-Lealand) and talented creatives (led by Director Eleanor Bishop, known for deconstructing classic dramatic texts) promised […]
[All-Stars] Is the original Shrek (2001) film the ideal model of romance for our times? That’s the theory espoused by Murdoch Keane in Tender, the first of three plays in ATC’s Here & Now Festival playing until Monday. Shrek doesn’t go out looking for love. As an Ogre, it’s not something he ever thought he’d find, never thought he’d be […]
[Fowl Play] Stories don’t get much simpler than this: Mama, a lonely housewife, befriends a stray chicken. That’s it. Simple, yes, but it’s with this understated simplicity that D.F. Mamea’s Still Life with Chickens catches you off-guard. Maybe it’s John Parker’s idyllic backyard set or Goretti Chadwick’s warm and generous performance or Helen Fuller’s puppet chicken (puppeteered by Hannz Fa’avae-Jackson). […]
[Mountain-eerie] Written by Maurice Gee in 1979, the story of Under the Mountain takes many of back to our childhood bookworm days, our imaginations set ablaze by children’s adventure stories such as The Famous Five, Where the Wild Things Are, The Adventures of Tintin, and Swallows and Amazons. The plot is a truly Kiwi story, inspired by the land and […]
[Theatre by the Numbers] 150,000 Aucklanders can’t be wrong, right? These are the approximate combined totals of audiences who flocked to the Pop-up Globe and Pleasuredome: The Musical in 2017. Compare that with the record-breaking 130,000 who went to Adele’s Auckland concerts this year. And that’s not even including the Globe’s jump across the Tasman, where their productions are still […]
[Togs, Togs, Drama] Red Speedo is Benjamin Henson’s mainbill directorial debut with Auckland Theatre Company after a series of successful endeavours across New Zealand. Henson as made a name for himself as a director with shows such as AUSA’s As You Like It, Last Tapes Company’s Valerie, and his most recent Auckland work The Effect as part of Q Theatre’s […]
[The Rebirth of the Theatre] Of the many great responses from liberal tweeters commenting on the backlash to Jodie Whittaker’s casting as the thirteenth Doctor, my favourite was from playwright Dan Rebellato: EXT. PLAYHOUSE. 1660. AUDIENCE MEMBER runs from theatre. PASSER-BY: What ails you sir? MEMBER: ’Sblood, they have a WOMAN playing DESDEMONA. — Dan Rebellato (@DanRebellato) July 16, 2017 […]
[Running on Empty] Everyone in When Sun and Moon Collide are running from something, haunted by the spectres of their pasts. Briar Grace-Smith’s contemporary classic takes these figurative and metaphorical ghosts and brings them to the fore, tying them into a tangled mess of poetry made flesh. It’s a shame then that the aspirations and images evoked in the text aren’t […]
[Mozart Lives] Peter Shaffer’s award-winning play Amadeus is not new to either stage or screen, having first been performed in 1979 and later adapted into a film in 1984. Don’t expect a period drama in Auckland Theatre Company’s production; Director Oliver Driver gives the play a new life, adding a modern contemporary twist when resurrecting Mozart’s music. It’s essentially a […]
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