REVIEW: Bunny (Basement Theatre)

June 18, 2021

[A Comedic and Musical Meditation on Grief] The doors to the stage open and I am greeted with this immense sense of liveliness. Barnie Duncan, our sole performer, is playing a bass guitar, ushering us in with music and smiles as though he knows each of us personally. Above him is an LED sign reading, “haere mai” and “welcome”. Something […]

REVIEW: …him (Theatre Beating)

September 17, 2014

And us  [by Matt Baker] Tuesday 16th September 2014: a day like no other. For one, it was the only opportunity to see that evening’s performance by Barnie Duncan. While this is always true of the transient pleasure of all theatre, it is reinforced in …him, as that day’s newspaper held the cryptic key to this ingenious, ever-evolving theatrical experience. I […]

REVIEW: Ollie is a Martian (Theatre Beating)

June 4, 2014

Out of this world  [by Andrew Parker] Ollie is a Martian. Or to go into a little more detail, he’s a man in a nifty blue track-suit with hair like Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future and who sounds like Jemaine Clement on helium. Also he’s from Mars, represented by a red ball with a heart on it. He’s […]

REVIEW: Paniora! (ATC)

March 23, 2014

Magnificent Maori Matadors [by Sharu Delilkan] The ‘Len Brown Sux’ protesters outside The Maidment Theatre provided a rather obscure start to the evening. Fortunately everyone seemed more pre-occupied with the opening night of Auckland Theatre Company’s Paniora! to care. Within the lobby though it was so refreshing to see more ‘Browns’ than just Len. Often many ATC shows tend to attract […]

REVIEW: Constantinople (Basement Return Season)

April 5, 2013

Grape fun [by Matt Baker] Constantinople has a rich and impressive history, a history that is manhandled to fit the mold for Trygve Wakenshaw and Barnie Duncan’s show of the same name. Though some of the facts are true, the majority of the storyline is warped to accommodate a series of bizarre scenes including a horse and his physiotherapist, Rod […]

REVIEW: Constantinople (Comedy Festival)

May 14, 2012

An Experience Not to be Missed (And If You Did, It’s Too Late, Shame on You) [by Rosabel Tan] Crowded at the bottom of the stairs to the Wintergarden are a chorus of ladies (and a few men) in togas. As we descend, one of them kisses us on the cheek, another offers us grapes, and yet another points us […]

REVIEW: Constantinople (Auckland Fringe)

March 3, 2011

Toga Party. Constantinople is a famous city founded by the Emperor Constantine in 330BC, but had its name changed to Istanbul in 1930. Actor Barnie Duncan (Outrageous Fortune) liked its name better the first time. He uses the city as a name for his ‘soloish’ play and a very lose framework to experiment with some absurd gags, and to play some […]