SCENE BY JAMES: 2023 – A Theatrical Year in Review [Part 2: The Shows]

December 30, 2023

This year’s commentary is split into two parts. CLICK HERE for 2023 – A Theatrical Year in Review [Part 1 – The Issues]. Theatre Scenes’ recent annual Year in Reviews have focussed on big sector issues, broadening our focus beyond the theatre performed on our stages. But it is always a relief to turn the attention back to the shows, […]

REVIEW: The First Prime-Time Asian Sitcom (Silo Theatre)

November 8, 2022

[More than white-hot rage] The First Prime-Time Asian Sitcom is a New Zealand premiere and screenwriter Nahyeon Lee’s (Kainga) theatre debut, billed as a ‘genre-messing’ black comedy. Pre-show marketing denotes a play which interrogates the sitcom writing process and considers the evolution from the TV writers’ room and onto the screen, where characters and narratives are often modified and sanitised […]

REVIEW: The Writer (Silo Theatre)

September 5, 2022

[Questioning Reality] The Writer by Ella Hickson is a play full of provocation. It asks questions it cannot answer. It challenges the dominant modes of theatre (and society) while still existing within them. What are we to take away from that? The back side of some set pieces sit on the stage. We can see right into the wings, where […]

REVIEW: seven methods of killing kylie jenner (Silo Theatre)

June 9, 2022

When entering the Basement’s main stage, the first thing I note is that the theatre space is laid out in traverse – with audience members facing each other, all fully masked. This leads my Pākehā companions to comment on whether the reactions of the people opposite will be a welcome, or unwelcome, distraction. Given the subject matter – and as […]

REVIEW: Break Bread (Silo Theatre)

December 2, 2021

[Knead to See it] I will take a basic understanding of the condition of theatre in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland as a given in discussing Silo Theatre’s enrapturing latest offering Break Bread.  (If you are not aware of the difficulties posed by the on-going lockdowns and now by the fast approaching traffic-light system to the theatre community in Aotearoa I suggest […]

REVIEW: Every Brilliant Thing (Silo Theatre)

November 9, 2020

Performing Mental Health I often dislike how the topic of mental health is dealt with in a lot of film, literature or theatre. I feel it is contrived and sensationalised and completely misunderstood. However, Every Brilliant Thing is one of the very few shows I have seen that maintains a respectful and empathetic discourse around mental health. It celebrates life […]

REVIEW: Upu (Silo Theatre)

March 7, 2020

[Bridging the Space Between] Silo Theatre and Auckland Arts Festival present Upu, a remounted production of Oceanic poetry, brought alive by Māori and Pasifika performers.  An empty thrust stage – boxed in on three sides by the audience – juts out with angular raised platforms. A handful of theatre-goers sit with their backs against the central unit, eyes wide in […]

SCENE BY JAMES: 2019 – A Theatrical Year in Review

December 30, 2019

[What could we do with sustainable practice?] The challenges of making a living out of the performing and screen arts are well known to the industry, but there is something about seeing the facts in black and white that throws the problem into stark relief. I’m talking about research commissioned by Creative New Zealand and NZ on Air released in […]

REVIEW: My Heart Goes Thadak Thadak (Silo Theatre)

November 26, 2019

A Giggleful Expedition to mid-1970s Bombay Inspired by the decade of disco in the city where dreams come true, My Heart Goes Thadak Thadak is a sweeping tribute to the power of fusion in what was to become the world’s largest film industry. Set in 1975 on a film set, the play reveals a tense amalgamation between the Hollywood Western […]

REVIEW: The Blind Date Project (Silo Theatre)

August 30, 2019

[Swipe Right and Swipe Right Again] Improvisational theatre, ephemeral at best, becomes completely sui generis when you have a new guest performer each night; add in a hearty amount of alcohol, constant cellphone use, and some karaoke and you have The Blind Date Project, a wildly unique hour of entertainment. Natalie Medlock returns as Anna after a previous sell out […]

1 2 3