[Honour & Horror] Theatre can do certain tones well. Visceral dread is not usually one of them. Sister Anzac is the rare drama that manages to feel like a completely theatrical yet horrifically immersive experience. Told from the perspective of three green New Zealand Red Cross nurses and their formidable matron, Sister Anzac (written by Geoff Allen) presents the battlefields of […]
[Hold your nerve] My anxiety levels rapidly increased as it got closer to 7:15pm. Going to theatre is normally the most natural thing for me, an everyday routine. But this time I was genuinely apprehensive. Why? I knew Red Bastard was interactive. I knew that there probably would be some abuse thrown out at us, considering the title character is based […]
[Comic Communion] It’s the first time the Irish brothers Famous Seamus and Seantastic, the Lords of Strut, have performed in New Zealand. We apparently look like an audience that have no idea what to expect. We really don’t. They have no idea either. We are warned by a Sean, playing a priest, that this isn’t the type of show to […]
[Brave Faces] How do you approach an important subject such as domestic violence in a theatrically engaging manner without exploiting it? The most obvious thing would be to present it as truthfully as possible. But there’s a tendency for storytellers to take on causes that aren’t their own and attempt to suggest they know better. For the privileged to impose […]
Love not given lightly [by James Wenley] Watching Daffodils is like watching a little miracle come into bloom. Praise has already been high for this remarkable debut show from Bullet Heart Club, but allow me to add my voice too: this is an incredibly special theatre experience of a kind that almost never comes along. I go to the theatre again […]
And they play guitar too [by James Wenley] They begin with a bold conviction: “Love will break your heart”. It’s an idea – and lyric –that Midsummer repeatedly returns to, as the play’s lovers wistfully sing the phrase over their own spare guitar accompaniment. At the first this seems awfully unsentimental, but there’s something awfully romanticised about this idea too, […]
Frivolity and a few Cheeks [by James Wenley] Lily Loca has created a streamlined version of her Vaudeville Cabaret experience especially for the Auckland Fringe. Vivacious Vaudeville is my first time I’ve seen one of her shows (there have been five previous) so going in I was officially, as Loca put it, one of the ‘virgins’. As a Vaudeville there is no […]
Money CAN buy love [by Sharu Delilkan] Be warned that the cast of Love and Money don’t only bear all physically, they bear their souls through this intimate emotional journey. This clever piece of theatre is slickly peppered with cirque-theatre that’s the hallmark of The Dust Palace. Having seen Venus Is at Q Loft over a year ago, I was […]
No dud [by Matt Baker] Young writers are frequently reminded to write what they know, and Nuclear Family is a great example of why that is. There is no indication as to which degree this show, written by Venezuelan born veteran writer Desiree Gezentsvey, is autobiographical, which in turn raises the question of how much art should imitate life and […]
The Fame Monster [by James Wenley] There’s commentary within this show about the difference between celebrity and stardom. Celebrity is flash in the pan stuff. Stardom is enduring. You counted. People remember. Movie femme fatale Veronica Lake has the ingredients for stardom – a troubled back-story, ambition, a face that lights up the screens. She was very much a screen […]
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