Preview: Some shows and a party

Wow this week is FULL of shows and there’s a party at the end of it. Let’s go! Hud­son & Halls is still going strong at the Han­nah Play­house. I loved it, Mr Goulter loved it, the Wel­ling­ton Theatre Awards judges loved it. Don’t miss it. Across the road at BATS Theatre Musique Romantique, Stand […]

Preview: Hudson and Halls

Silo Theatre is bring­ing last year’s Auck­land fest­ive hit “Hud­son and Halls” to the Han­nah Play­house. I’ve heard pos­it­ive reviews from my Auck­land friends and I’m so look­ing for­ward to see­ing it when it’s down here. Peter Hud­son and Dav­id Halls were on New Zea­l­and tele­vi­sion from 1976–1986 with a cook­ing show that included camp […]

LitCrawl 2016

This Sat­urday lit­er­at­ure lov­ers will be run­ning from ven­ue to ven­ue hop­ing to catch their favour­ite writers at LitCrawl 2016. Based on the concept of a pub crawl but with more words (and (maybe?) few­er drunk­en stumbles) the event is in its third year. There are 18 ven­ues for the crawl this year plus the After Party at […]

Preview: The Rime of the Modern Mariner

BATS Theatre cel­eb­rates 21 years of STAB annu­al com­mis­sions with a pro­duc­tion of The Rime of the Mod­ern Mar­iner by The Play­Ground Col­lect­ive. In this adapt­a­tion “the Mar­iner sets out to sea to catch the ulti­mate prize, but when he care­lessly fells an albatross a curse befalls his ship. Stran­ded in the north Pacific Gyre […]

Reviews: The Biggest, and Central

Two shows fea­tur­ing asshole* men. What are the odds? The odds are good and pretty enter­tain­ing. The Biggest by Jam­ie McCaskill Stu has had a ter­rible acci­dent, writ­ing off the car and the boat. His mates – Wal­ter, Pat, and Mick – decide to enter a fish­ing com­pet­i­tion to win him a new boat. Loc­al […]

Reviews of two shows now on – Lungs and Fred is Cold

Two plays on now in Wel­ling­ton – one a story pre-con­­­cep­­tion, the oth­er a story post-death. Both are very good. Review: Lungs A couple are think­ing about hav­ing a child. They’re pretty sure they’re good people but a whole new per­son is a pretty big respons­ib­il­ity. What about cli­mate change? What about their car­bon foot­print? […]

Preview: Some shows on at BATS Theatre this week

Pla­tonicRo­mantic Fea­tur­ing lead vocal­ist Moana Ete, and accom­pan­ied by the rhythm sec­tion of Slade But­ler and Mar­cus Gurt­ner  A Girl Named Mo deb­uted ‘Mud & Star­dust’ dur­ing Fly my Pret­ties’ August shows. A cool mix of R&B + elec­tron­ic and one of the pret­ti­est songs I’ve listened to for a while. Each per­form­ance will be […]

Preview: New Zealand Improv Festival

The New Zea­l­and Improv Fest­iv­al is at BATS Theatre all this week. See some of the country’s best prac­ti­tion­ers and com­pan­ies in unscrip­ted theatre that’s devised before your face. That’s right – no scripts, no set plays. Here’s how it works – each show will have a frame for the show the impro­visers will cre­ate.  […]

Review: Vanilla Miraka

Per­former Hay­ley Sproull tells her story of a “white wahine’s deeply dis­en­gaged bicul­tur­al her­it­age”. Recog­nising that her Nana’s death meant a loss of con­nec­tion to her Māori her­it­age this is a “comed­ic explor­a­tion of her embar­rassed ignor­ance.” (Quotes from the pro­gramme.) An eleg­ant set in white peg­board – on one side a whare shape, on […]

Review: The grass is meaner

Alec and Mary McPh­er­son run a little cafe in scen­ic New Zea­l­and called House of Mince. Mary is a little tired of the mono­tony of their life but she’s happy enough. Then a man known as Don­key Boy vis­its Lon­­don-based crime lord Vic Snow, and Alec and Mary’s lives won’t be the same. Writ­ten by […]