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: Ithaca (The Dust Palace)

December 2, 2015

Against the Aristotelian odds [by Matt Baker] Less of a re-imagining or reinterpretation of Homer’s The Odyssey, and more of a performance piece inspired by the source material, Ithaca by Thomas Sainsbury and The Dust Palace is a true spectacle in the dramatic sense of the word. With a monopoly on home-grown cirque theatre, it would be easy for the company to […]

REVIEW: The Book of Everything (Auckland Arts Festival)

March 16, 2015

Missing Pages [by Matt Baker] When the book that inspires a play has been called a modern classic, when the play itself has been self-attributed with “…beautiful, magical, surprising, touching, terrifying, joyous, inspiring, funny, and ultimately uplifting…”, and when the premiere was critically acclaimed as a “hilarious, honest, and beautifully rendered play”, there is a lot to which any other production must […]

REVIEW: Wanted Thoughts (Auckland Fringe)

February 26, 2015

Left Wanting [by Guest Reviewer Lauren Owens] Mike Loder was dealing out the comedy this Tuesday at his late-night show, Wanted Thoughts.  Not many people dared to brave the 9pm start, but those who did were committed to laugh. The enticing title, Wanted Thoughts, was a warning of what was to come as Mike delivered his insights on the changing world […]

REVIEW: Caterpillars (Auckland Fringe)

February 20, 2015

Comedy Metamorphosis [by Guest Reviewer Tim George] Caterpillars is a story with two tales. On one level, it is meant to be an imaginative, artistic, and yes, somewhat pretentious art piece evoking the life cycle of a butterfly through a combination of puppetry and music. On another level it is the story of how two hapless puppeteers can completely screw it […]

REVIEW: Sin (Outfit Theatre Company)

July 14, 2014

Seven Deadly Narrative Sins  [by James Wenley] In a secular society, what does it mean to sin? When you are encouraged to take whatever you want, who decides mortal morality? If there’s no-one there to judge you, who is there to stop you? In Outfit Theatre Company’s devised show around the seven deadly sins, what is striking is that religion […]

REVIEW: Marcel Lucont Is (NZ International Comedy Festival 2014)

May 15, 2014

Pourquoi not?  [by James Wenley] 7pm. The Q theatre foyer was packed to bursting with comedy festival patrons. And the Rangitira theate doors remained closed. Was notorious French comedian Marcel Lucont have a diva tantrum? Where the lighting gels the wrong shade of rouge? Had a – horror of horrors – Australian wine been delivered to his dressing ground? Was […]

Looking Back: 2013 – A Theatrical Year in Review

December 28, 2013

Auckland Participates [by James Wenley] This past year I have partied with underage drinkers, appeared on the 6pm news, ran for my life from snarling zombies, and, for an all too brief moment, locked eyes with a sensuous Lucy Lawless. If there’s one big trend that has come out of Auckland’s 2013 theatrical year, it’s got to be the year of […]

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: Idiots of Ants Model Citizens (Comedy Festival)

May 3, 2013

Boys from Britain triumph again [by James Wenley] British sketch comedy quadrangle Idiots of Ants were my favourite acts in their Auckland debut at last year’s Comedy Festival. Amidst an amusement of stand-up comedians, Ants are a fresh and lively point of laughter-filled difference. Sketch as a form seems to be viewed as a bit antiquated today – it had […]

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