REVIEW: Donna Brookbanks: You Do You Babes (NZ International Comedy Festival)

May 18, 2018

[Put Your Hands Up] Auckland seems to be teeming with strong female comedians this year. Donna Brookbanks is a prime example: not only funny, but incredibly multifaceted. Nominated for this year’s Billy T award, Brookbanks is back with her ‘sort of’ inspirational comedy show You Do You Babes. Brookbanks isn’t here to mess around; from the moment the doors open […]

REVIEW: Billy T Jams (NZ International Comedy Festival)

March 4, 2018

[Welcome to the Jam] The Billy T Jam is the amuse-bouche of the NZ International Comedy Festival. An opportunity for audiences to whet their appetite with an introduction to the year’s Billy T Award nominees. 2010 winner Rhys Mathewson, who ensures the audience has no question as to who the festivals gold sponsor is – spoiler: it’s Best Mayo – […]

REVIEW: Looking at Stuff in Clouds (The Basement)

July 31, 2017

[Not just Fluff] Like Toa Fraser’s classic two-hander Bare, Looking at Stuff in Clouds is a character study of a place through the lives of its inhabitants. Instead of Auckland City, though, we are relocated to small town New Zealand. Performed by co-writers Donna Brookbanks and Shoshana McCallum, it offers a humorous insight into our less metropolitan corners. We move […]

REVIEW: Looking At Stuff in Clouds (Playfight Productions)

September 10, 2013

One way of passing time [by Matt Baker] Less a play and more a series of vignettes, the fourth production by Playfight, written and performed by co-founders Shoshana McCallum and Donna Brookbanks, is a self-proclaimed thought provoking commentary on the human condition in the naughties. Said commentary is broken, however, between the nine aforementioned vignettes, and consequently offers little insight […]