Preview: Your heart looks like a vagina

After suc­cess at Lit­Crawl last year, Dominic Hoey  is return­ing to Welling­ton with Your Heart Looks Like A Vagi­na at BATS The­atre next week. It’s a one man show about being diag­nosed with Anky­los­ing spondyli­tis, a form of inflam­ma­to­ry arthri­tis that affects the spine and joints in the low­er back. Treat­ment aims to min­imise symp­toms and pre­vent […]

Review: At The Wake

Robert’s moth­er Olivia has died unex­pect­ed­ly and he’s returned from New York for her funer­al. His grand­moth­er Joan is pleased he’s back as she’s dev­as­tat­ed by her daughter’s death. Joan has been a big part of Robert’s life since his father Tofi walked out before he was born. A lit­tle bit of courage will get […]

Review: Dressing up with Margot

World famous fash­ion styl­ist Mar­got Von Dont has returned to New Zealand with life and style advice for us. We’re upstairs above Leroy’s Bar with a small stage that resem­bles a talk show set. There are clothes hung on racks and spilling out of suit­cas­es. The show starts with an announce­ment that’s not usu­al­ly heard […]

Review: My Best Dead Friend

This is a sto­ry from a sum­mer in Dunedin in 1998 when the pos­si­bil­i­ties were end­less for Anya and her best friends. They have jobs at a cafe. They have their own space to share. The Back­street Boys are at their peak. Enriched with exquis­ite details about Dunedin and inter­cut with asides about the state […]

Review: Aunty

AUNTY is billed as a fam­i­ly BBQ, and it cer­tain­ly deliv­ers. Half the open­ing night crowd was clear­ly back again after the first sea­son, which adds to the ‘new part­ner at fam­i­ly Christ­mas’ vibe for first timers. Who hasn’t met a bois­ter­ous rela­tion and silent­ly won­dered, ‘can I laugh? Am I going to be next?’ […]

Review: Body Double

Female desire, that most elu­sive of quar­ries. We should be chaste, but not prud­ish. Expe­ri­enced, but not too slut­ty. Up for any­thing. Well, not that. Or that. Maybe just don’t talk about it? It’s enough to make a girl want to take a vow of celiba­cy and retire to a cave with a half-dozen res­cued cats. […]

Review: Kátya Kabanová

Kátya Kabanová was the first opera I ever saw, back in 1996 when it was here for the Inter­na­tion­al Fes­ti­val. I was 16, and we got $5 tick­ets to the dress rehersal through dra­ma class. I was over­whelmed by the music and the draaaaa­ma and the rain on stage and the cliff that rose up on hydraulics […]

What’s on this week?

Here’s a round up of what shows are on this week. At Cir­ca The­atre… Ana­hera, on at Cir­ca The­atre to 7 Octo­ber 2017 A con­tem­po­rary domes­tic thriller (in the style of Broad­church) about a strug­gling kiwi fam­i­ly. Liz and Peter Hunter have it all. A great mar­riage, suc­cess­ful careers, a beau­ti­ful house and two won­der­ful chil­dren. Until […]

Review: That Bloody Woman

Kate Shep­pard, “the lead­ing light of the New Zealand women’s suf­frage move­ment” tells her sto­ry in this rock musi­cal by Luke Di Som­ma and Gre­go­ry Coop­er. Direct­ed by Kip Chap­man, (with Jen­nifer Ward-Lealand this season’s Rehearsal Direc­tor) the show is ter­rif­ic.  All the ele­ments of the best musi­cals are here — a well con­struct­ed dra­mat­ic […]

Preview: Anahera

Ana­hera is the new play from Emma Kinane. Described as an “enthralling mix of an intense miss­ing child dra­ma and a behind-closed-doors look at New Zealand’s social ser­vices” it’s a con­tem­po­rary domes­tic thriller about a strug­gling Kiwi fam­i­ly and how one woman mak­ing a stand could make all the dif­fer­ence. A final­ist in last year’s Adam […]