The Wellingtonista

Random stuff about Wellington since 2005

Kris

Preview: Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God

by librarykris September 6, 2019

‘Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God’ by Roland Schimmelpfennig is opening at Circa Theatre next week. A New Zealand premiere appropriate for our modern lives, this play examines colonialist attitudes over freshly baked bread, and discusses quarantines and vaccinations while sharing drinks – it’s irony, of a sort. Are we doing enough to help […]

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Review: Ideation

by librarykris July 1, 2019

A team of ‘management consultants’ are recalled from their project overseas in order to work on an urgent proposal. The question in front of them – if there was a deadly virus that killed the carrier and easily infected others, how would you contain it without alarming the community? As they start to work through […]

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Review: Digging to Cambodia

by librarykris June 14, 2019

Sarita So revisits her Toi Whakaari solo show, turning it onto a longer exploration of making memory and history telling. “Through words, movement and songs from Cambodia’s 1960’s rock era – Digging to Cambodia is a letter to her past, present and future self, it asks us all “What is worth remembering?”” So wears a […]

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Review: Windigo

by librarykris June 13, 2019

Wow, did I misunderstand the marketing for this show. “Fierce and visceral, Windigo resonates like a scream, the vibrant echo of a long history of hu-man ransacking and destruction, a violation of a land and its culture.” I went in bracing myself for the emotional equivalent of a hurricane. This is not that. For me, […]

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Review: The Weekend

by librarykris June 12, 2019

Lara has only the weekend to track down her partner as she traverses the world of public housing, drug dealing, and addiction. The Weekend is based on a situation that first time playwright that Henrietta Baird (from Kuku Yalanji/Yidinji country in Queensland’s Far North) experienced. From this she’s written an extremely funny, emotionally horrifying one-woman […]

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Review: Pōhutu

by librarykris June 7, 2019

Pōhutu is a multidimensional contemporary dance piece that thrives in liminal space. Drawing parallels between Choreographer Bianca Hyslop’s grandmother’s diagnosis of Alzheimers and the geothermal landscape she grew up in, it’s an unsettling and utterly beautiful work. The beginning and end sequences draw gasps from the audience. The middle sequences contain some of the most […]

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Review: Over My Dead Body: Little Black Bitch

by librarykris June 5, 2019

This is the world premiere of the play by Jason Te Mete. The script shared the Adam New Zealand Play Award for Best Play by a Māori Playwright in 2018. It is a theatrical representation of one way depression can manifest. It starts with a mihi from Te Mete (also director and musical director) welcoming […]

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Review: System

by librarykris March 21, 2019

A sparse set – two walls, some tape on the floor –  is given character by lighting (Natasha James) and projection effects (Jason Wright). Flickerings along the edges of furniture, spinning triangles, water on the base of the wall, clearly defined shadows. A light rectangle becomes something to investigate. The score (Jason Wright) is an […]

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Review: Water

by librarykris March 19, 2019

Based on the true story of Carl Hans Lody, a WW1 German Spy. He was caught then executed inthe Tower of London four months into World War I. This new play, from award-winning writer, Mark Langham, centres Lody’s story and his reasons for becoming a spy. Stephen Lloyd-Coombs is a personable and charming Lody. Around […]

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Review: Yesterday, in space

by librarykris March 19, 2019

The good spaceship Yesterday is the first rocket ship to launch from Aotearoa New Zealand and we get to come along for the ride! Her new crew are determined to show us a good time. What a pity they’re stuck in the middle of professional rivalries, confusing personal relationships, and an asteroid belt… All those […]

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