REVIEW: Two Ladies (Auckland Theatre Company)

February 14, 2021

[Smartest in the Room] It was Lady Bird Johnson who said a first lady is “an unpaid public servant elected by one person, her husband.” Nancy Harris’s 2019 play Two Ladies puts the women in the shadows centrestage. Deliberately not-so-fictional, its titular ladies Hélène (Jennifer Ward-Lealand) and Sophia (Anna Jullienne) are transparently based on Brigitte Macron and Melania Trump; they […]

REVIEW: A Gambler’s Guide to Dying (The Basement)

June 15, 2018

[Winning Bet] Performed by John Burrows and directed by Jennifer Ward-Lealand, A Gambler’s Guide to Dying is a tribute to the powers of story-telling – to inflate, immortalise and inspire. Written by Gary McNair (who originally performed the solo himself at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival), A Gambler’s Guide to Dying tells the story of a young man and his […]

REVIEW: The Book of Everything (Silo)

February 13, 2016

[Everyone has their Reasons] After a successful run last year, and with some changes in cast (hello Stephen Lovatt, Amanda Billing, Amanda Tito and Dan Musgrove), The Book of Everything makes a welcome return to the Auckland stage. Thomas (Patrick Carroll) is a young boy growing up in post-war Holland. Struggling under the thumb of his abusive, ultra-religious father Abel (Stephen […]

REVIEW: The Choice (Rotorua Blue Baths)

January 25, 2016

[NZ’s Got Talent] The show’s tagline ’50 characters, 5 actors’ doesn’t even begin to describe the sheer magnitude of skill, talent and hilarity that the ‘TV talent show’ The Choice dishes out for us. Wickedly written, slickly performed and cleverly directed to parody the current talent show phenomenon that dominates our airwaves, The Choice is undoubtedly the funniest show I’ve seen […]

REVIEW: Lysistrata (Auckland Theatre Company)

August 4, 2015

Make love… and theatre… not war [by Matt Baker] The serendipity of coming across the fourth entry in this Cracked article today was not lost on me. Aristophanes wrote Lysistrata over 2,400 years ago and, according to the opening night audience, dick jokes are just as funny now as they were then, and if there is one person in New Zealand […]

REVIEW: Rupert (Auckland Theatre Company)

June 28, 2015

Rupert Bare [by Sharu Delilkan and Tim Booth] It’s rare that a show about someone’s life is introduced by the main character as “a show about my life” but Rupert, a biography of media moghul Rupert Murdoch breaks many of the norms of theatre as he does the fourth wall. David Williamson‘s Rupert encapsulates a multitude of genres – it’s […]

REVIEW: Deans, Ward-Lealand and Rizo at The Auckland International Cabaret Season

June 6, 2014

Music and Sequins  [by James Wenley] “Jubilation heartache and everything in between. Here are your tickets. It’s almost showtime”. My branded ticket pouch seems to hold even greater anticipation than I as I head into the Town Hall Concert Chamber for the International Cabaret Season. And I had a great deal of anticipation. With the colourful squiggles beloved my logo […]

REVIEW: Luncheon (I’d like to thank productions)

May 21, 2014

And the Oscar goes to…  [by James Wenley] For a play that deals with the fickleness of fame, the most telling feature that of the five actresses gathered for luncheon to mark their nominations in the 1958 best supporting actress race, none of the them are well-known today. Certainly, reading the characters names down the program, none of them were […]

REVIEW: Girl in Tan Boots (The Basement)

March 13, 2014

Six strong women sparkle [by Sharu Delilkan] It seemed almost like life imitating art when I arrived at the show Girl in Tan Boots with a mate who’s a red head, who loves cats and is a Westie. However I discovered later on that the lead character who was missing, Hannah the red head was lonely and single, which my […]

REVIEW: The Heretic (Auckland Theatre Company)

July 23, 2013

Pleasantly controversial [by Matt Baker] Regardless of whether one believes in it or not, climate change is undoubtedly a hot topic, and British playwright Richard Bean has clearly done his homework on the subject. While The Heretic could easily be a vehicle for playwright pontification, there is nothing terribly dogmatic in Bean’s writing, nor is the character of Dr. Diane Cassell by […]

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