REVIEW: Medea (Silo)

June 19, 2016

[Medea Mediated] Jasper (Quinn Bevan) and Leon (Aedan Burmester) are the children of Greek hero Jason (of the Argonauts fame) and the witch Medea (played by Bronwyn Bradley). As the action begins, the couple’s marriage has broken up over Jason’s infidelity and the boys have been locked in their room while their parents thrash it out. While their parents battle […]

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 […]

SCENE BY JAMES: 2015 – A Theatrical Year in Review

December 21, 2015

Half Full / Half Empty [by James Wenley] So Auckland, how did we do this year? Were our generously marked up interval drinks full to the brim, or running on empty? If you’d asked me this question at the beginning of September, say between shows at Auckland Live’s decadent Cabaret season, I would have responded gloomily. Programming choices were tepid, and […]

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: The Blind Date Project (Silo)

November 12, 2014

Not just blind luck [by Matt Baker] In a similar vein to last year’s White Rabbit Red Rabbit, Silo Theatre presents a production that’s success banks almost entirely on each individual show. Appropriately titled, actress Natalie Medlock literally has no idea whom she is about to meet, the show more or less improvised around some narrative points and direction via text […]

REVIEW: Bellevile (Silo)

September 1, 2014

Ça Va  [by Matt Baker] Other than its professed Hitchcockian style and some season-orientated pensive posters, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Silo’s production of Amy Herzog’s Belleville other than a psychological relationship thriller. Hitchcock, however, was the undisputed master of suspense. Red herrings are not MacGuffins, and where Hitchcock would show, Herzog tells. There are, of course, moments […]

REVIEW: Sunday Roast (Silo)

June 9, 2014

Not how you remember it  [by Matt Baker] For her directorial debut as Silo’s Artistic Director, Sophie Roberts has presented both Silo and Q Theatre audiences with a theatrical flavour that will (hopefully) induce a new craving on the palate of Auckland theatregoers. That’s not to say that this production has been chosen simply for its untraditional ingredients, but anyone […]

REVIEW: Angels in America Part Two: Perestroika (Silo)

April 1, 2014

Poetry in Motion [by James Wenley] “The Great question before us is: Are we doomed? The Great question before us is: Will the Past release us? The Great question before us is: Can we Change? In Time? And we all desire that Change will come” That’s a grab quote from the start of Part Two. Alison Bruce, donning a wispy beard […]

REVIEW: Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches (Silo)

March 24, 2014

America Rediscovered [by James Wenley] It is very subtle, and depending where you are sitting, invisible. Etched onto the stage floor is one of the most famous sentences from world history: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” For his final offering as Artistic Director […]

Looking Forward: What’s on my Theatrical Radar for 2014?

January 9, 2014

Ch-ch-changes [by James Wenley] The theatrical year is starting up early, heralded by the cannon blast of 360 – A Theatre of Recollections, which takes over The Civic stage from 13 January. Audiences will have the unique opportunity to sit on the mighty stage, just big enough to fit a 360⁰ circular stage where fireworks, song, dance and a seal burst […]

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