Theatre XMAS Madness!! A Criminal Christmas & A Krazy Kristmas
These shows won't last, buy your ticket today! [by James Wenley]
Christmas: Its coming to get you!
Turns out Xmas is a lot like the Rugby World Cup, whether you’re into it or not, you simply can’t avoid it – its everywhere. Xmas trees and tinsels have sprouted up everywhere. All I want for Christmas is you is on repeat. A GIANT Xmas Tree bauble has landed in Aotea Square, narrowly missing the Occupy Auckland protestors.
And now even our theatres aren’t safe. A recent tradition in Auckland has been the annual Xmas show at The Basement (The Reindeer Monologues, Christ Almighty!, Toys), where a conveyer belt of different ‘weren’t-you-on-the-tele-once’ actors perform each night.
While there’s no end-of-year Basement show this time round, others have arrived with sleigh bells on to take its place.
This week, two alliterated xmas shows have been going antler to antler. At the Herald Theatre is Outfit Theatre Company’s wicked farce A Criminal Christmas, and Upstairs at the Basement is Thomas Sainsbury’s series of Xmas shorts, A Krazy Kristmas.
A CRIMINAL CHRISTMAS
Outfit Theatre Company have topped off a cracker of a year (which included The Sex Show, Boys' Life and Love After Dark) with A Criminal Christmas, in partnership with STAMP at The EDGE. While The EDGE affords the company with the Herald Theatre and their best production values so far, what wins the season is the edgy and reckless ensemble feel that makes their work unique.
REVIEW: Death by Cheerleader
Slick, sick and sexy [by James Wenley]
Stay away from these Cheer Blacks
Amy Waller, Claire Van Beek and Julia Hyde are a talented and triumphant trifecta. Starring as the Cheer Blacks in their play Death by Cheerleader, they deliver a 10/10 performance not only showcases some great acting and comedic flair, but some high energy and impressive cheerleading routines, restricted only by the height of the Basement.
When the preshow music has Rihanna’s ‘Rude Boy’ rocking loudly through the Basement, you know you are in for a good time.
The second of the ‘Rugby’ orientated plays on at The Basement this week (we at TheatreScenes promise to stop mentioning the Rugby soon!), Death by Cheerleader follows a dysfunctional cheerleading team who win the chance to cheer for the All Blacks in the 2015 Rugby World Cup in Dubai (nicely sidestepping any need for reality) after the mysterious death of the other three place getting cheer teams.
Amy Waller, a real life cheerleader for Sky City and NZ Breakers, must have had great fun skewering her sport. These cheerleaders are sick, twisted, deluded and very, very good looking – a dangerous combination. If anything, the play proves that the IRB should stay well away from cheerleading, and people should stay away from cheerleaders in general.