Review: Flowers from my mother’s garden

Two women talk about their lives. Their childhoods. Their relationship with their parents. Their OE’s. Their, erm,  escapades. Their uncles and aunts. They are mother and daughter. A table, a couple of stools, a slideshow projector, and a screen with photos projected onto it provide the backdrop for Kate and Miranda Harcourt to tell the […]

Review: Clybourne Park

In 1959 a couple sell their house. At 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, their neighbours casually call in to see how packing is going. During the friendly discussion information about the buyers is revealed and tempers flare.  In 2009 members of a community meet at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon to discuss neighborhood covenants before […]

Benefit Concert for The Court Theatre at Circa

Next Monday (20 August) a group of Wellington performers will be getting together to raise funds for The Court Theatre in Christchurch. Badly affected by the earthquakes (forced to abandon thirty-five years of sets, costumes, and scripts) The Court Theatre has opened again in a new venue affectionately called ‘the Shed’. They have a space […]

Review: West End Girls

The first job artist Barbara Tate had in Soho was in a bar.  Soon she was charmed into working as a maid for Mae,  a ‘glamorous West End Girl ‘. Ken Duncum has adapted Tate’s memoir about her time working for a prostitute in Soho. It’s fun and fizzy in the first half before things […]

FixTV: people in Wellington doing cool things

The first episode of FixTV has gone live on their FB page. It’s filmed at Downstage in front of an audience. I don’t think they’ve quite got the mix right in terms of what they want for the web chat show versus what I want from a show when I’m in a theatre. There are […]

Review: Sunset Road

Lucia and Luka are twins, living in Rotorua. They can’t wait to turn 21 and leave town for a different life. Their Mum and Dad brought them to New Zealand from the Cook Islands. Rotorua is their different life. Mum and Dad have expectations and dreams for their children. But as they get closer to […]

Review: All my sons

Joe and Kate Keller are living a version of the American Dream. They have a comfortable lifestyle, a loving son, nice new neighbours. However there is a dark event in their past involving their old neighbours which will impact on their future. Arthur Miller’s Tony Award winning play was first performed in 1947.  It’s an […]

Review: Chekhov in Hell

Anton Chekhov wakes up in London after being in a coma for 100 years.  He explores London – going places,  meeting people.  Jason Whyte, as Chekhov, doesn’t get to say much. However, he is the centre of the play, with the other characters using him as a mirror to reflect themselves. Director Eleanor Bishop keeps […]

Review: Lucrece

An adaptation of Shakespeare’s narrative poem “The rape of Lucrece” by Binge Culture Collective. It’s a visual+audio installation at the Toi Poneke Gallery plus a live performance on Thursday and Friday evenings.  Fiona McNamara’s director’s note states “This production of Shakespeare’s poem claims the text, written by a man in a patriarchal society, as a […]

Beautiful Burnout tasting session

Frantic Assembly and the National Theatre of Scotland are over here with their acclaimed show Beautiful Burnout. Tonight there’s a special ‘Social Media Call’ for social media users.  The cast will perform two key scenes from the show, then will be available for a short Q&A session. You’ll be able to film, photograph, tweet, and/or […]