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 […]