#RWC11 is prompt­ing an abund­ance of New Zea­l­and theatre. The plays cov­er NZ his­tory, polit­ics, and travel.

On at Down­stage is On the Upside-Down of the World by Arthur Meek. It’s based on ‘Our Maor­is’ by Ann Mar­tin. She came to New Zea­l­and from Eng­land with the first Chief Justice. The play fol­lows her as she adapts to life in the wilds of early Auck­land. I saw it last year when it was per­formed as a semi-staged read­ing for ATC. Laurel Devenie was lumin­ous as Ann and all reports I’ve heard sug­gest she is even bet­ter in a fully real­ised pro­duc­tion. Until 10 Septem­ber.

On at BATS Theatre in the early even­ing is Slouch­ing toward Beth­le­hem the “true story of New Zealand’s most evil prime min­is­ter ever!” (I saw it last night. My impres­sions – it’s a busy play, vicious and sym­path­et­ic at the same time. Good script, good cast.) Until 10 Septem­ber. Late night at BATS is polit­ic­al satire Pub­lic Ser­vice Announce­ments. There are three shows per­formed over six week­ends. Until 8 Octo­ber.

Open­ing at Circa tonight is Four Flat Whites in Italy. “Two typ­ic­al Kiwi couples take off on an Itali­an trip of a life-time.”  (There is an audio described per­form­ance on 5 Octo­ber at 2pm.) Until 7 Octo­ber.  Open­ing next Wed­nes­day is I, George Nepia, most fam­ous for being an All Black in the Invin­cibles team.  He sounds like an inter­est­ing man who lived a full life. Until 16 Septem­ber.

(Open­ing at BATS Theatre next Tues­day with the middle timeslot is Sketch. It’s a New Zea­l­and play deal­ing with con­tro­versy over art (my very reduct­ive descrip­tion based on the play syn­op­sis.) Until 17 Septem­ber.)