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 […]