REVIEW: Break Bread (Silo Theatre)

December 2, 2021

[Knead to See it] I will take a basic understanding of the condition of theatre in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland as a given in discussing Silo Theatre’s enrapturing latest offering Break Bread.  (If you are not aware of the difficulties posed by the on-going lockdowns and now by the fast approaching traffic-light system to the theatre community in Aotearoa I suggest […]

REVIEW: OurGala 2020 (Auckland Pride)

February 4, 2020

[Inclusive we are and inclusionary we will be] It is a delight to attend Auckland’s Pride Gala, marking the opening of the festival in its eighth edition, and offering a glimpse into the marvels on offer in this year’s programme. Our effusive host, Hugo Grrrl, welcomes a packed audience to the scheduled treats.  The headlines declare “a bigger, brighter and […]

REVIEW: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Auckland Theatre Company)

September 17, 2019

[Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Funny] A chime is heard and backstage is onstage. The curtain has revealed an actors’ waiting room. Three plywood walls, a roll of green screen, a ladder leading nowhere, and a healthy scattering of exit signs, ominously glowing without their promised exits. Scaffolding is visible and there is a lighting bar lying across the back […]

REVIEW: Yorick! (Binge Culture)

June 19, 2018

[Dance of Death] Neither an overly-intellectual deconstruction of Hamlet (a la Heiner Muller’s Hamletmachine) or an alternative take on the play (a la Thomas Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead), Binge Culture’s Yorick! merely uses Shakespeare’s canonical text as a launching pad for their whimsical and absurd exploration of mortality. And mortality, being the wide-reaching topic it is, is a […]

REVIEW: Maggot (The Basement)

November 8, 2017

[Lice Girls] Appropriately named The Scungebags, the clowning trio of Angela Fouhy, Freya Finch, and Elle Wootton have created a wonderfully weird piece of theatre. Framed as a boundary-pushing sketch show created by a British pop trio, The Baby Girls, Maggot is immediately odd and resists easy categorisation. Performing distinct archetypes (deadpan, sexy, enthusiastic) with more than a few shades […]