REVIEW: Medusa (Q Matchbox)

October 27, 2018

[Reclaiming Female Rage] Smashing all my preconceptions of what theatre and the mythological story of Medusa are about, co-creators Nisha Madhan, Julia Croft, and Virginia Frankovich have created an aural, visceral and mind-blowing ‘out-of-this-world’ theatrical experience.  There were no snakes in this production, no monstrous females, no men being turned into stone — but there was a lot of female […]

REVIEW: The Plastic Orgasm (Auckland Fringe)

March 8, 2018

[Radical Failure] The term ‘radical failure’ is used during the centrepiece of The Plastic Orgasm, a paganistic ritual that blows up the show, releasing a primal scream of questions and confusions onto the stage. The act of failure implies an attempt has been made. You can’t fail without trying. You can’t succeed without risking failure. So, to call The Plastic […]

REVIEW: If There’s Not Dancing at the Revolution, I’m Not Coming

February 25, 2016

[This is Julia] Julia Croft’s one-woman show If There’s Not Dancing at the Revolution, I’m Not Coming was not only one of my favourite two shows from 2015, but also one of the best pieces of theatre I have ever witnessed. Seeing the show for a second time, I found that while I maintained a superficial recognition of the original, […]

REVIEW: The Next Big Thing Festival 2015 (Auckland Theatre Company)

July 22, 2015

Inky, Pinky, Go! [by James Wenley] The girl on the program cover is all wrong. With her exuberant expression and red sparkly jelly party hat, it suggests kids playing dress ups. Next Big Thing is anything but. Maybe it works as an image for their adult subscribers:  come and see what those kooky kids are up to. But as an image […]

REVIEW: Vice (The Basement)

April 16, 2014

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 […]

REVIEW: Black Confetti (Auckland Theatre Company)

July 7, 2012

Shivering and Shaking; The Glittery Black [by Rosabel Tan] Siggy (Kip Chapman) is the quintessential drifter. He’s spent the past seven years “finding his niche” – that is, working his way through every stage one paper offered by the Faculty of Arts – and he’d happily continue this search, only The Dean (Adam Gardiner) is now threatening to kick him […]

PREVIEW: Black Confetti (Auckland Theatre Company)

June 26, 2012

Siggy Tardust! [by Sharu Delilkan] When Kip Chapman saw Black Confetti at Auckland Theatre Company’s The Next Stage programme last year, he knew instantly he had to be involved. “I approached Philippa [Campbell] as soon as the reading was over because I thought it was an amazing script that reminded me of Odysseus going into the underworld. I was even […]

REVIEW: The Turn of the Screw (Auckland Fringe)

March 9, 2011

Hauntingly Effective  [by James Wenley] With so much of the Fringe being comedy orientated, it was very refreshing to take a walk on the Gothic side late on Monday night. Benjamin Henson intelligently adapts and directs this unsettling stage version of Henry James’ 1897 novella The Turn of the Screw. A white gowned governess (Philippa Johnson) is charged with looking […]