[Rainbow Visions] Having seen the last Tuatara Collective production Fresh Choice, I enter the Q loft with high expectations for a remount of the 2019 play by Jason Te Mete. The intriguing ‘front room’ set – tatty brown sofas, and wall adorned with a Justin Bieber poster – makes me feel as if I’m a guest at a twenty-something’s house-party, […]
[Managed Out] Clad in a white power suit and silk blouse, The Manager (Renaye Tamati) sits on a large, white leather computer chair at a glass desk. Plucky sales employee Emma enters and, at first, The Manager’s intentions are ambiguous. Flipflopping between friendly banter and withering stares, it seems The Manager wants to be more ‘friend’ than colleague – or perhaps […]
[Healing Together, Beyond Our Problems] As I arrive into the Basement foyer and navigate past the throng of bodies to collect my tickets, I feel instantly uplifted. Surrounded by so many members the South Asian community, we are lucky to be able to gather and witness the premiere of new homegrown writing. Yet I can’t help but feel a pang […]
[No place I’d rather be] A play about the Covid-19 pandemic that was itself postponed due to the February 2021 lockdown, Godzonia‘s delayed season manages to reframe what could have been a dead-end for the production. Written by UK actor and writer Georgie Oulton, the production takes inspiration from Flares and Pitchforks – a text co-written by Oulton with fellow actor […]
[The Wheel of Fortune] How do you want to be remembered when you’re gone? This is one of the central questions in Jean Sergent’s Change Your Own Life – one which she directly asks the audience. But this show is not a didactic self-help talk – far from it. What Sergent offers up instead is a deeply personal story of […]
[This Beautiful Thing] Kicking off in Auckland and touring New Zealand for the third time since its inception in 2016, Meremere is an autobiographical multimedia dance work showcasing the inspirational life journey of Rodney Bell. Directed by Malia Johnston and created and performed as a solo by Bell himself, the audience follow his journey from leaving Aotearoa after the death […]
[Irish Blessing] This production of Faith Healer, directed by Paul Gittins, marries a masterpiece of playwriting with the mastery of three accomplished actors. I have read enough works from Irish playwrights to associate Irish drama with cloying hopelessness (looking at you Marina Carr in particular). I briefly hoped, though, that Faith Healer by Brian Friel would be an exception. I had […]
[Pulling the Plug] The play begins in the foyer. The Basement bar area has been decorated with messages – I spot a myriad of advertisements among what appear to be snippets of conversations, perhaps emails or texts. This announces the central theme of You Are [Not] Alone Here: that our communication and relationships have become fractured through technology and consumerism. […]
[The Last New Zealand War] There’s something about watching local history onstage — history so recent that some members of the audience sitting beside you were participants in the events portrayed. Written and directed by Katie Wolfe, The Haka Party Incident is a resonant piece of documentary theatre revisiting what its advertising calls “the last New Zealand war.” This describes the […]
[A Clear Message of Empowerment] Coded, the second production in two productive years from theatre-maker Erin O’Flaherty (following An Organ of Soft Tissue), is a solo show which aims to journey into female sexuality through the perspective of a malfunctioning AI bot. The production debuts at TAPAC as part of a rescheduled program within the Auckland Fringe Festival, and uses […]
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