Port­land phys­ic­al theatre com­pany A Little Bit Off make their New Zea­l­and debut at Te Aua­ha with Beau & Aero: Crash Land­ing. They were the San Diego Fringe Out­stand­ing Phys­ic­al Theatre award win­ners in 2017 and I can see why. Pilot Beau (Dav­id Can­tor) is brash, over­con­fid­ent and prone to get­ting a little too involved in what he’s doing. Co-Pilot Aero (Amica Hunter) is a slightly dippy trouble maker yet very attuned to the audi­ence. They’ve crash-landed and are try­ing everything to get back into the air with this street style per­form­ance. Yes, there is a bit of audi­ence par­ti­cip­a­tion and they make a great choice in their first stage invite. There are some hil­ari­ous set pieces and some breath­tak­ing phys­ic­al part­ner­ing. The pen­ul­tim­ate scene is so out­rageous I didn’t want to believe it was hap­pen­ing. Good fun stuff.

Prop warn­ing: bal­loons.

  • Beau and Aero on at Te Aua­ha as part of the NZ Fringe Fest­iv­al to 10 March 2018

 

Anoth­er per­former on debut in Wel­ling­ton is Telia Nevile with Poet vs Pageant. This is a long form poem about a poet who has decided to enter a beauty pageant. Neatly divided into chapters that fol­low the vari­ous sec­tions of the pageant (plus a couple for fram­ing) our her­o/anti-hero Miss PL (Poet Laur­eate) struggles against her­self as much as the sys­tem she’s will­ingly put her­self in to. The poem includes some great meta­phors around beauty, intel­li­gence, com­pet­i­tion and rela­tion­ships. Nevile is a gentle per­former, who uses pauses, facial expres­sions and the occa­sion­al step into to a spot­light to emphas­ise parts of the poem. This show has won awards in Mel­bourne and Montreal. I wasn’t sure what to expect and enjoyed it very much.

  • Poet vs Pageant on at BATS Theatre as part of the NZ Fringe Fest­iv­al to 9 March 2018