REVIEW: Mr Red Light (Nightsong Productions)

September 3, 2019

[Mr Red Light has got the Green Light] ‘When you’re an ant, you still have a small identity of your own…a tiny molecule of identity…. Everything is part of everything… we are no more than specs of energy in the giant passing of time’ – Ant in Mr Red Light Mr Red Light is a new, heart-warming, funny and philosophical […]

REVIEW: Te Po (Auckland Arts Festival)

March 12, 2016

[Being and Nothingness] There’s something exciting about a play that starts off behind a curtain. Not only is it delightfully old-fashioned, but it also fills the audience with anticipation of what’s to come. Expectations are raised and you can bet we’re expecting to be wowed. So when the curtain is finally pulled back and we see Bruce Mason’s study, I’m […]

REVIEW: The Ladykillers (Auckland Theatre Company)

February 17, 2015

Actus reus [by Matt Baker] “To be frivolous about frivolous matters, that’s merely boring. To be frivolous about something that’s in some way deadly serious, that’s true comedy.” So said Alexander Mackendrick, who directed the 1955 film upon which Graham Linehan’s 2011 stage adaptation is based. Farce requires dangerIt requires an expertly balanced combination of drama and comedy played at both extremes. While […]

REVIEW: Midnight in Moscow (Auckland Theatre Company)

April 24, 2013

Reds in your Head [by James Wenley] Since his stage debut in 1974, New Zealand playwright Dean Parker, who last year was awarded the inaugural Playmarket award for making a a significant artistic contribution to theatre in New Zealand, has been a consistent voice from the left worldview.  His last work staged in Auckland was The Hollow Men in 2008, the […]

REVIEW: Awatea (Auckland Theatre Company)

July 22, 2012

Awatea Shines Brightly [by Sharu Delilkan] You knew the writing was on the wall the minute you walked into the theatre. I’m of course referring to the beautifully chalked letters that ‘panoramically’ filled the backdrop of the entire stage. So dramatic, intriguing and utterly effective was this device that you could not help reading some of the letters while the […]

REVIEW: Well Hung

February 13, 2011

Auckland Theatre Company give the police a good bollocking It is one of New Zealand’s most enduring unsolved crimes. The year is 1970. The place is Pukekawa, small town NZ. The bodies of husband and wife Harvey and Jeanette Crew are found in the Waikato River. The murder weapon is established as a .22 rifle. Local Farmer Arthur Allan Thomas […]