[Chairs: Sit up and take note] In a world of wheels, Molly is stuck in place. What’s worse is no one in her life seems to recognise her plight, or they think it is merely a temporary state of mind. Shows like Chairs! are the reason why the Basement is my favourite theatre in Auckland. From the outset, it has […]
[Not So Moving] Disco beats are all over today’s pop music. Flared pants are making a comeback. And the dance style of waacking is more mainstream than ever. So it seems appropriate to take a look back at 70s culture and where it really came from – that is, queer POC nightclub scenes. It’s natural that Prowl Productions, who specialise […]
Henchmen, written by Amy Wright, and directed by Mark Chayanat Whittet, is a play that takes the audience into a corporate wonderland hellscape of co-worker small-talk, ‘friendly’ upper middle management, and pretending to look busy while doing absolutely nothing. Having been highly commended by the Playwrights b425 competition, this play is an amalgamation of Megamind mixed in with the corporate […]
[Best Bitches] Carrie Rudzinski and Olivia Hall’s friendship has always been at the heart of their work. In The Bitching Hour it is front and centre, the glue that holds the show together. As soon as they enter, they launch into a poem about being bitches. It is bitching that brings them together – this fun, juicy, feminine-coded (oft degraded) […]
[Promising Pastiche] Award-winning comedian Penny Ashton has once again delved into classic texts to present their tropes in a new light. A mash-up of Shakespeare’s plays and modern-day reality TV, The Tempestuous is a funny and clever romp. Replete with cross-dressing, disguises, bawdy jokes, puns, wordplay, and musical numbers, it is an excellently written script that Shakespeare himself would be […]
[Salacious Satire] Do you want to find out where your god-shaped hole is and why Jesus is actually a lesbian? Maybe you just want a tantalisingly good night at the theatre. Presented as part of the NZ International Comedy Festival, James Penwarden’s stand-up show Them Fatale will leave you dripping wet with laughter. Like the deadly Noir seductress eluded to […]
[Basic Instincts] I put my hand up to review this show based solely on the poster: A snarling woman puking Black bile while her eyes scream bloody murder. Sold. The moment actress Acacia O’Connor was screaming at me in German while covered in black war paint and pouring wine into an imaginary glass, I think this might be my favourite […]
[Responsibility – The Musical!] Conceived and performed by Rebekah Head and Jess Brian, Unsupervised is part cabaret, part Muppets/Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood skit. The title refers to the performers’ relationship with adulthood and hence being ‘unsupervised’ in their lives. Bracketed by songs (topics include bringing down the patriarchy and a killer parody of yoof-centric sex ed presentations), Head and Brian talk about […]
[Do Toasters Dream of Electric Loaves?] A free-form look at the (dis)respectable tradition of women created by men – from Pygmalion to that creepy sexbot of Scarlett Johansson that somebody built in their parents’ basement – Future’s Eve is a lot to process. There are so many ideas and tones at work in Michelle Aitken’s one-fembot show: sentient toasters, the […]
[Rejecting a Bad Rap] “Change, shit / I guess change is good for any of us” begins Tupac’s 1996 anthem ‘I Ain’t Mad at Cha’. Tupac answers his haters – critical of his ghetto-to-celebrity journey – by turning the other cheek. Even though he keeps a glock beside his head for protection from friends turned against him, “I ain’t mad at cha”, […]
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