REVIEW: Chick Habit (Basement Theatre)

October 27, 2023

[Punctum’s punk-infused offering packs a punch] When entering Basement Theatre’s main stage, the first thing I notice is the set design by Minsoh Choi, as the back wall of the stage has been painted a bright, baby pink. Given the show’s punk aesthetic, it’s a bold and fairly bad-ass move and I’m silently impressed after estimating the cost for a […]

REVIEW: (m)Orpheus (NZO)

October 15, 2023

This collaboration between NZ Opera and Black Grace offers an intimate staging of Gluck’s 1769 opera Orpheus and Eurydice. The combination of Gareth Farr’s refined re-orchestration and Neil Ieremia’s guidance as both director and choreographer produces a largely accessible and compelling reimagining of the tragic Greek myth. The most striking changes in Farr’s re-orchestration is that the harpsichord and timpani […]

REVIEW: Dance Nation (Court Theatre)

October 14, 2023

Director Alison Walls’ version of Dance Nation by American playwright Clare Barron is the strongest work staged at the Court Theatre this season. Much of this rests on Barron’s script, which is a work of interiority in sharp focus. Headed by their stereotypically authoritarian dance teacher, a group of pre-adolescent tweens compete to win a dance competition. Over the course […]

REVIEW: How to Throw a Chinese Funeral

October 12, 2023

Kenangan Wangi (Sweet Reminiscence) Alamak!  It’s such a treat to hear authentic Manglish at The Basement Theatre. For the uninitiated, Manglish is the ‘rojak’ (fruit salad) combination of English-Malay-Cantonese-Hokkien-Hindi-Tamil words that typically pepper everyday Malaysian conversations.  And How to Throw a Chinese Funeral’s dialogue epitomises this Malaysian vernacular down to its core.  The play captures a familiar slice of Malaysian […]

REVIEW: Club Waack (Prowl Productions)

September 14, 2023

[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 […]

REVIEW: Boom Shankar (Matchbox 2023)

September 14, 2023

Boom Shankar is a delightfully silly and immensely creative piece, which explores and subverts ideas around love and death. The play follows Shankar Shinde, an overconfident and arrogant bomb defusal expert, and Murray Murray, an overworked but conscientious bureaucrat in heaven. Writers and performers, Bala Murali Shingade and Aman Bajaj, must be commended for creating and embodying such complex and […]

REVIEW: I Want To Be Happy (Herald Theatre)

September 8, 2023

I Want To Be Happy is a deeply human and often surreal exploration of love, loss, and the individuality of happiness. The play follows Binka, a guinea pig in a testing facility, who is wonderfully realised and commandingly portrayed by Jennifer Ludlam. Paul is the laboratory technician assigned to look after Binka, whose portrayal is a masterclass in subtlety by […]

REVIEW: Moe Miti (Red Leap Theatre)

August 30, 2023

[Dream Sleep] Moe Miti, presented by Red Leap Theatre, beautifully conjures a liminal space – not quite real, not quite unreal – and explores within it the complex relationship one has to one’s past and identity. It manages to tell a nuanced and unique story about intergenerational trauma with very little narrative. It is at once specific and universal. Director […]

REVIEW: Things That Matter (Auckland Theatre Company)

August 16, 2023

Things that Matter provides a sobering account of the alarming state of our healthcare system, fed by an unhealthy food industry and ongoing poverty that has tragically impacted marginalised communities such as South Auckland. Although based on Dr David Galler’s best-selling memoir Things That Matter: Stories of Life & Death, written three decades ago, award-winning playwright Gary Henderson adeptly brings […]

REVIEW: Losing Face (Matchbox 2023)

August 16, 2023

Nathan Joe’s latest play, Losing Face, successfully blends elements of sci-fi and holiday movies into a forceful and captivating study of the human heart. The project was originally developed under the title Flesh off the Boat as part of Playmarket’s Asian Ink Clinic in 2013 and the revisiting proves rewarding.  We meet Mark (Andrew Ford) on Christmas Eve as he […]

1 2 3 4 5 137