REVIEW: Ghastly Dash Grimm: A Tale of Unease (Fractious Tash)

October 30, 2014

Grimm sparks grins [by Sharu Delilkan and Tim Booth] It was impossible to ignore the writing on the wall as we walked up the stairs to the Basement Studio. A closer look revealed the actual script that had been penned by none other than Ghastly Dash Grimm: A Tale Of Unease’s writer/director Benjamin Henson. Ben Anderson’s dramatic stage design was […]

REVIEW: Earnest (Fractious Tash and Last Tapes Theatre Company)

August 29, 2014

Earnest goes Wilde [by Sharu Delilkan and Tim Booth] It’s interesting that The Importance of Being Earnest is often performed as a ‘straight’ interpretation, which is ironic given the gay essence of the closeted homosexual playwright’s well-known work. And to be honest a key reason I was keen to see this version was its premise of a fresh innovative take […]

REVIEW: Vice (The Basement)

April 16, 2014

Perverse [by James Wenley] For the past few weeks, Jordan Mooney has been posting a series of clips promoting a range of different vices. The crazy-eyed front man has whipped himself, walked naked in the wilderness, shoved his face in a toilet bowl, and lit his hair on fire. Turns out these are child plays compared to some of the predilections […]

REVIEW: Robin Hood (Outfit Theatre Company)

December 6, 2013

Back in the Hood [by Matt Baker] Following a twelve month hiatus, The Outfit Theatre Company returns to the stage with possibly their most commercially and critically successful of enterprises; the kids’ holiday show. The ensemble nature of the company’s management has been reduced to the show’s producers; Sarah Graham and Ema Barton, seemingly in exchange for a plethora of writers; […]

REVIEW: Lord of the Flies (Auckland Theatre Company)

September 8, 2013

Boys own Apocalypse [by James Wenley] Auckland Theatre Company’s stage production makes a nod to the usual medium the Lord of the Flies story is inherited: the secondary school classroom. A bookend, invented by Director Colin McColl and his cast, sets the leads as contemporary high-school students encountering William Golding’s 1954 novel. Project artwork of various pig heads, beasts and […]

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 […]

REVIEW: Anne Boleyn (Auckland Theatre Company)

June 16, 2013

The Other Woman [by James Wenley] Boleyn comes encumbered by reputation. She’s called a great deal many things through the course of the play: “the harlot queen”, “intolerable woman”, “witch”, “the whore”. She’s arguably subject to one of history’s great hatchet jobs, the dangerous female who bewitched a King and tore England asunder. For his 2010 drama, Howard Brenton recasts […]

REVIEW: Alice (Outfit Theatre Company)

July 11, 2012

If this is a kid’s show, consider me a big one! [by James Wenley] Outfit Theatre Company have turned their devising smarts on Lewis Carol’s Alice in Wonderland story. I’ve never been to one of Outfit’s School Holiday shows, so was very curious to see how their upstart (and often dark) style would translate for children. As we enter TAPAC […]

REVIEW: Course Related Costs (Outfit Theatre Company)

May 31, 2012

Drugs are bad, mmmkay? [by James Wenley] You just know that things are going to come crashing down in Course Related Costs, the only questions are how, and how badly. The set-up is this: After the mainstay of the student drinking budget, ‘course related costs’ has dried up, Pete, Monty and AJ have installed a P lab in their flat. […]

REVIEW: Punk Rock (Outfit Theatre Company)

March 29, 2012

Teen angst on overdrive [by James Wenley] Pity the British teenager. There’s something about the British school system that has seen it spawn more than its fair share of films, television and plays eviscerating the subject. Alan Bennett’s thoughtful The History Boys, which Punk Rock has been compared to, took a fairly noble approach to student’s studying their final exam. […]

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