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Review: RNZB Winter Season

Always a plea­sure to find myself at the St James here in Pōneke, and the Roy­al New Zealand Bal­let’s got some­thing for every­one with their trio of short bal­lets this win­ter. Sir Fred­er­ick Ash­ton’s (1904–1988) Birth­day Offer­ing is a stel­lar cel­e­bra­tion of clas­si­cal bal­let. First per­formed in 1956, with sev­en solo vari­a­tions for the women in […]

Comedy Review: Oliver Pol — Featherbrained

The only infor­ma­tion I have on Oliv­er Pol is his self-descrip­­tion as a “youngish, tall­ish stand-up come­di­an.” But it promised to be “a fun, weird hour per­formed with irre­press­ible, limb-flail­ing ener­gy,” and he absolute­ly deliv­ered. Pol’s style is a bun­dle of ner­vous and enthu­si­as­tic ener­gy. He often moves his body in odd shapes across the […]

Review: Joe Daymond’s Comedy Mixtape

The Com­e­dy Mix­tape line­up, host­ed and curat­ed by Joe Day­mond, was billed as a stand-up show­case built like a per­fect set list, come­di­ans you already rate mixed with ris­ing stars you’re about to fall in love with. The night kicked off with DJ Randy from Mai FM spin­ning clas­sic Hutt bangers. Joe described the aim […]

Comedy review: Ginge and Minge – REDEMPTION

A Night of Chaos, Laughs, and Sec­ond Chances Gin­ge and Minge’s REDEMPTION is a mis­sion to save the dis­card­ed and reject­ed from the bot­tom of the bin and give them anoth­er shot. These two have been tear­ing up stages across Aotearoa since 2020, and their chem­istry is as strong as ever. Megan, fresh off a Mas­ter […]

Comedy Review: Samantha Hannah — Peekaboo!

I attend­ed Saman­tha Hannah’s show on Tues­day night with high expec­ta­tions, and she did not dis­ap­point. For those who don’t know her, Saman­tha Han­nah is a Bil­ly T Award nom­i­nee who’s been turn­ing life’s odd­i­ties into com­e­dy for years. In 2018, she gar­nered a lot of atten­tion with her show How to Find a Hus­band in […]

Review: Speed is Emotional

Speed is Emo­tion­al Writ­ten and per­formed by Jo Ran­der­son Speed is Emo­tion­al is exact­ly what it sounds like: fast, fun­ny, a lit­tle chaot­ic, and com­plete­ly its own thing. Writ­ten and per­formed by Jo Ran­der­son, the show dives head­first into what it feels like to live with ADHD. Ran­der­son invites any­one with a neu­ro­di­ver­gent brain, and […]

Review: RNZB’s Macbeth

Review con­tains major spoil­ers for the RNZB’s Mac­beth — the only rea­son I’m spoil­er warn­ing a 400 year old sto­ry based loose­ly off an 1000 year old his­tor­i­cal fig­ure is that the RNZB does include some changes in its stag­ing that are more so implied in the text, and there’s also some things you want to […]

Review: Ghost Bros

By Talia Carlisle Creak­ing floor­boards, howls in the night… just anoth­er Welling­ton storm or is there some­thing spooky hid­ing in Paramount’s new venue, The Gods? I’m not entire­ly sure since I can’t find the place… But a ghost­ly maze of paths and Fringe staff lead me to the audi­to­ri­um even­tu­al­ly, where I man­age my less […]

Ten Years in Pōneke: Part Five — Somes Speedrunning

Or, hey I was sup­posed to fin­ish all of these arti­cles in 2025 but then life hap­pened so I guess we’re doing lit­tle quests in 2026 as well. [Warn­ing: This piece talks about dis­ease, war and death.] Matiu / Somes Island is the ever-present spec­tre loom­ing in Te-Whanganui-a-Tara, one of three islands that the har­bour […]

Review: Amélie

By Talia Carlisle The wait is over. WITCH Music The­atre is back in town, bring­ing the can­dyfloss-sweet heart­ed mag­ic of Amélie, our new friend at The Han­nah (Han­nah Play­house) till Nov 29. Have you ever opened your favourite child­hood sto­ry book or movie and want­ed to dive right in? Now is your chance to dive […]