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 […]
Two shows on now in Wellington
First up, a brilliant interpretation of a Shakespeare’s Richard II. Richard II is a few years into his kingship and is starting to flex his power. After some dubious decisions regarding his empire he takes the chance to seize land after the death of John of Gaunt thus setting Gaunt’s child, Bolingbroke, against him. Richard […]
Review: Dust Pilgrim
A dizzying physical poem of theatre, dance, and stagecraft, Red Leap’s Dust Pilgrim comes at you with intriguing immediacy and lingers like an ingenious, puzzling dream. Devised by the company and directed by founding members Kate Parker and Julie Nolan, the show takes audiences on the journey of Panuelo, a girl whose arrival foreshadowed the disappearance of water […]
Quick reviews of three shows in the Kia Mau festival
Opening last night at Circa Theatre SolOTHELLO, is a riotous one man retelling of Shakespeare’s Othello. (An unofficial British Council representative described it as the first time he’s seen Othello performed as standup comedy.) The mix of original text, Te Reo Māori, colloquial English, and stylised movement used by the four characters conveys the essence […]
Preview: Kia Mau Festival 2016
Eight companies perform eight productions over three weeks in the Kia Mau festival of theatre and dance. Matariki is the perfect time of the year to indulge your senses with world class theatre and dance hosted by BATS Theatre, Te Papa, and Circa Theatre. First up (tonight!) is Versions of Allah presented by contemporary indigenous theatre […]
Review: The Elephant Thief
An exuberant onstage cartoon, Indian Ink Theatre Company’s The Elephant Thief begins in a jail cell and ends in… space, or the afterlife, or some other such vague spoiler. It’s an outsized feast of imaginative staging and potential pachyderm puns, anchored by a winning performance by company newcomer Vanessa Kumar. The show’s setting is a […]
Review: The Sevens Sons of Supparath
The State of Supparath has been at war with the demon lord Krunk for ninety years. Finally they have captured him (it?). The seven states sit in judgement and sentence Krunk to a terrible punishment. In order to enact their decree they send the Seven Sons of Supparath across the seven sections of the state to […]
Review: The ACB with Honora Lee
Perry is the only child of two loving and hard-working parents. She’s inquisitive, enthusiastic and overwhelmed with after-school activities. When an opportunity comes up for her to spend more time in the home with her Gran (instead of tennis) she jumps at it. Over the year as Perry gets to know her Gran and the […]