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: Camino Real (The Actors’ Program)

November 7, 2013

Acting on the Camino Real [by James Wenley] At the Camino Real, to borrow from The Eagles, you can check in any time you like, but you can never leave. To mark the public debut of the second crop of actors from the industry-geared The Actors’ Program, Benjamin Henson directs them in arguably Tennessee Williams’ most experimental and misunderstood work: […]

REVIEW: An Awkward Family Christmas (Outfit Theatre Company)

November 23, 2012

The title tells you all [by James Wenley] The ‘awkward’ brand of humour is one well known to audiences. Popularised in modern times by the Ricky Gervais School of comedy, it employs cringe, painful pauses, and a whiff of nastiness to sell its humour. Thomas Sainsbury has long done his own successful spin on the genre, and is a great […]

PREVIEW: Everything Benjamin Henson said about ‘Everything She Ever Said to Me’

April 13, 2012

No rape, pillage or murder here: Just some good old-fashioned human drama. And some nudity. [by Rosabel Tan] It’s a stifling afternoon and the palms in St Kevin’s Arcade hang limply in the thick air, but Benjamin Henson appears unaffected by the heat. Hunched over a table scattered with notebooks and scripts and an empty cup of coffee, he doesn’t […]

REVIEW: Punk Rock (Outfit Theatre Company)

March 29, 2012

Teen angst on overdrive [by James Wenley] Pity the British teenager. There’s something about the British school system that has seen it spawn more than its fair share of films, television and plays eviscerating the subject. Alan Bennett’s thoughtful The History Boys, which Punk Rock has been compared to, took a fairly noble approach to student’s studying their final exam. […]

REVIEW: Death by Cheerleader

September 16, 2011

Slick, sick and sexy [by James Wenley] Amy Waller, Claire Van Beek and Julia Hyde are a talented and triumphant trifecta. Starring as the Cheer Blacks in their play Death by Cheerleader, they deliver a 10/10 performance not only showcases some great acting and comedic flair, but some high energy and impressive cheerleading routines, restricted only by the height of […]

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 […]

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