REVIEW: Twelfth Night: A Queer Reimagining (TAPAC)

February 26, 2024

Presented as part of the Auckland Pride Festival 2024, Arden Ensemble’s Twelfth Night was variously advertised as a lesbian reinterpretation, an LGBTQIA+ retelling, and a queer reimagining. ‘Reimagining’ may best fit the bill. Director Rose Herda and her players have staged a vibrant rendition of Shakespeare’s comedy that delivers the usual laughs and shenanigans — with an unmistakably contemporary feel.  […]

REVIEW: The Clay Cart (Prayas Theatre)

December 7, 2023

Prayas Theatre Company returns to TAPAC with their production of The Clay Cart. The play opens with a meta twist; on stage the Prayas ensemble are rehearsing their own production of The Clay Cart, ready to bring this classic in Indian theatre to the New Zealand stage for the first time.  However, it’s no simple task. The cast is struggling […]

REVIEW: Idle (W Dance Company)

October 31, 2023

[Let Me Wrap My Teeth Around the World] How does one communicate the starving artist through dance alone? W Dance Company takes on this challenging feat in Idle, an original contemporary dance production exploring the effects of artistic starvation.  It’s no easy accomplishment, contemporary dance is endlessly interpretive therein lies the challenge to tell a cohesive narrative — but Idle […]

REVIEW: Yātrā (Prayas)

October 4, 2020

[Eight Journeys, Many Perspectives] Yātrā is a curation of eight play extracts from leading South Asian playwrights, delicately woven together to revitalise community spirit in the face of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic lingers in the shadows of this show – until a fortnight ago, it was yet to be confirmed whether Yātrā would go onstage to mark […]

REVIEW: The Wall (Auckland Fringe)

March 6, 2020

[The Walls That Divide Us] Billed as a ‘kaleidoscopic tale about migrant experience and reactions to migration’, The Wall is an original, devised production based on real stories that aims to open questions about identity, unconscious bias and the state of the world. Written by Mallika Krishnamurthy and directed by Daniel Fernandez from Babel Theatre, The Wall involves a large […]

REVIEW: Night of the Queer (Auckland Pride)

February 8, 2020

[A Night Without Fear] I’m in the TAPAC foyer, waiting for my male friend to arrive. The atmosphere around me is light as eclectic and alternative beauties mingle – one woman wears little more that a fishnet body-stocking and a big smile; towards the bar, the crowds part intuitively for numerous wheelchair users as they join friends. Instantly, I know […]

REVIEW: Night of the Queer (Auckland Pride)

February 10, 2019

[One Night is Not Enough] Night of the Queer is everything you’d expect in a cabaret-style theatre show and more. Having seen last year’s NOTQ, I arrive with excitement and anticipation as the super-friendly staff usher us toward our seats. A few members of the cast, dressed in beautifully fitted one-piece bodysuits, are scattered across the floor and spontaneously dancing, […]

REVIEW: Dara (Prayas Theatre)

June 17, 2018

[Tales from the Taj Mahal] “What shall I do? I know not what I am, I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor heathen, nor a Muslim.” — Dara Set during the Mughal Empire, India, 1659, Dara is Tanya Ronder’s adaptation of the original play written by Shahid Nadeem.  Based on true historic events, Dara recounts the fierce sibling rivalry and battle […]

REVIEW: Night of the Queer (Auckland Pride)

February 10, 2018

[Not Scared to be Seen] Night of the Queer is a cabaret-style production celebrating members of the LGBTQI community. Under the creative direction of James Luck and Rebekkah Schoonbeck, the production showcases a variety of talent from aerial acrobatics, the athleticism required for pole dancing, lip syncing, various dance styles and, my personal favourite, live singing. The set is simple […]

REVIEW: Schlunted (The Other People)

March 17, 2017

[Still Stunted] Musicals have notoriously long gestation periods. It takes a lot of chutzpah, then, to think that you can create (and stage) a musical from scratch in one hundred days. Or is that hubris? But that’s the challenge The Other People team (writer/director Adam Spedding, composer Brayden Jeffrey, producer Hadley Taylor) set themselves, and the result, Schlunted, was first […]

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