#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.)