REVIEW: Luncheon (I’d like to thank productions)

May 21, 2014

And the Oscar goes to…  [by James Wenley] For a play that deals with the fickleness of fame, the most telling feature that of the five actresses gathered for luncheon to mark their nominations in the 1958 best supporting actress race, none of the them are well-known today. Certainly, reading the characters names down the program, none of them were […]

REVIEWS: NZ International Comedy Festival 2014: Final Week

May 15, 2014

Tim Batt / Guy Montgomery / James Roque  [by Matt Baker] Tim Batt Saves Planet Earth  Following on from themes addressed in his solo show last year, Tim Batt’s Unified Theory, Billy T Award nominated comedian Tim Batt once again joins forces with his audience in a bid to make the world a better place. From his proposals on a new […]

REVIEW: Marcel Lucont Is (NZ International Comedy Festival 2014)

May 15, 2014

Pourquoi not?  [by James Wenley] 7pm. The Q theatre foyer was packed to bursting with comedy festival patrons. And the Rangitira theate doors remained closed. Was notorious French comedian Marcel Lucont have a diva tantrum? Where the lighting gels the wrong shade of rouge? Had a – horror of horrors – Australian wine been delivered to his dressing ground? Was […]

REVIEW: Sara Pascoe vs The Truth (NZ International Comedy Festival)

May 14, 2014

Great Content, Shame about the Delivery [by Sharu Delilkan] There’s been great buzz around the traps about Londoner Sara Pascoe and although I tried not to, I was expecting a lot from this hot, feminist, vegan, sexually frustrated comedian. As she admits from the start she’s “got it going on” and there’s certainly a shed-load of wonderful weirdness in her […]

REVIEW: John Gordillo Cheap Shots at the Defenceless (NZ International Comedy Festival)

May 13, 2014

‘Ceriously’ Cerebral Comedy [by Sharu Delilkan] It was hard not to overhear some of the great crowd comments as we filed out of The Classic following John Gordillo’s show Cheap Shots at the Defenceless – “high brow”, “excellent”, “different” and “hilarious”, to name a few. It all started with a bang and the capacity crowd hushed before the man himself […]

REVIEW: Other Desert Cities (Auckland Theatre Company)

May 12, 2014

Other American Plays [by James Wenley] The desert looking back at us is not quite the one from the popular imagination: wind turbines populate the otherwise arid landscape. Is this a symbol of progressivism and human achievement, or a blot on the natural expanse? This dessert is Palm Springs, and the centrepiece of Rachael Walker’s eye-catching stage design is a massive […]

Matt Baker on Comedy Fest Hecklers: Shut up

May 12, 2014

If you’re a heckler, you’re a terrible human being [by Matt Baker] In the first two weeks of the 2014 International Comedy Festival, I’ve been lucky enough to see fifteen shows. As a reviewer of theatre, it’s been a great, if not difficult, opportunity to expand my critical analysis of the arts. From a sell-out crowd in The Civic, to some […]

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