Tying laces before loose ends [by Matt Baker] Not unlike last year, The Basement’s second season of Young & Hungry provides an excellent dichotomy of comedy and tragedy with its 2014 offerings, Second Afterlife by Ralph McCubbin-Howell and Uncle Minotaur by Dan Bain, respectively. Unlike last year, however, there is a strong similarity in the thematic style of each play. […]
Clarity in chaos [by Matt Baker] You’d be hard pressed to find someone who can’t relate to some degree with the premise of Hubbub. Whether you’re an advocate or only ever use it as a last resort, we’ve all been, at one time or another, in the socially confronting circumstance that is public transport. Hubbub, an all-female devised piece, is […]
Rough Mutt [by Matt Baker] Dog “has been through a number of development phases”, however, while playwright Ben Hutchison states that this production understood what he “was aiming to achieve”, the result seems ironically underdeveloped. The play starts off promisingly, with a strong balance of both verbal and physical humour, setting a well-pitched comedic tone in regards to the context, […]
Sometimes, not always [by Matt Baker] Michelanne Forster has a penchant for dramatising historical New Zealand murders, from the highly acclaimed Daughters of Heaven, based on the infamous Parker/Hulme murder, to the shooting of John Saunders by Senga Whittingham in My Heart is Bathed in Blood. In her programme notes for Always My Sister, Forster writes that “What interested [her] about the story […]
Flaunting it [by Matt Baker] Comedian Joseph Moore is not a billionaire, but that hasn’t prevented him from living as close as he can to a ‘New Zealand famous’ lifestyle. From his school days to his Twitter feed, Moore explores not only his want of fame, but also his attempts for people to like him in the process. The second part […]
Wanks Highly [By James Wenley] If you can work up the courage to ask “Do you want to come to Conversations with my Penis?”, you might just be rewarded with a night of feel good action. Sorry. For a comedy play that bills itself as a “touching two-hander”, it’s hard not to also join in the innuendo fun. The laughs […]
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 […]
It should’ve listened [by Matt Baker] Thirteen writers were given the poem ‘Bluebird’ by Charles Bukowski, and asked to write a scene based on what it meant to them. It’s a straight-forward premise, and one that primes an audience for an insightful night of theatre. However, while such inspiration affords writers the opportunity to produce successful works, such as Gary Henderson’s […]
Realism at it’s whitest [by Matt Baker] What better time for such a show to be performed in the wake of proposed flag reform referenda. Advertised as spoken word meets theatre, writer and performer Jess Holly Bates has successfully amalgamated the components of poetic monologue and theatrical presentation in the inaugural homegrown production of her one-woman show. Monologue, however, may be […]
Infectious [by James Wenley] The comic creation of Renee Lyons, Soo-Young first appeared in her brilliant show Nick: An Accidental Hero, a hospital orderly who narrated the show. It was an oddball choice about for a solo show about a man with locked-in syndrome, but she was an irrepressible and upbeat antidote in a story of adversity. Following up Nick, which […]
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