A photo of a man and woman, standing, smiling and gesturing wildly, in front of a woods backdrop.

Review: Into the Woods

Image cred­it: Maeve O’Con­nell. Reviewed by Talia Carl­isle Not dis­sim­il­ar to the high fash­ion of the Met Gala, I adorned my best tiara and lav­ender frock, ready to des­cend Te Auaha’s stairs to Witch Music Theatre’s Into The Woods. There isn’t a more magic­al stair­case to a fairytale full of laughter. If the eye-catch­ing advert­ising […]

Review: Concept for a Film

A Beau­ti­ful Har­mony of Theatre, Music and So Mush Spore.   I loved the nov­el format of storytelling that ‘Concept for a Film’ delivered. The scene opens with Max Bar­ton, sit­ting at a desk that faces the audi­ence, read­ing out the script for a film. These read­ings are inter­mit­tently dis­persed with many dis­rup­tions includ­ing phone calls […]

Review: The Sensemaker

Pro­duced by ‘Woman’s Move’ from Switzer­land and co-dir­ec­ted by cho­reo­graph­ers Elsa Couvreur and Iona D’Annunzio. The Sense­maker starts as a clev­er and under­stated com­edy that uses dance, move­ment and sound as its main devices. Theatre like this is at its best when min­im­al and per­fectly timed, which is a key strength of The Sense­maker. The […]

Review: The Culture

The Cul­ture, starts before the per­formers come on stage with a mont­age of video foot­age of news art­icles on sys­tem­ic and polit­ic­al miso­gyny. This sets the scene for the every­day ways women are dis­ad­vant­aged that are so embed­ded, that they often go unnoticed. The news­feed soon fades out, the lights come up, and Will and […]

Review: U R Here

Reviewed by Nadia Free­man U R Here is an invit­a­tion to take things a little less ser­i­ously, to for­get about the busi­ness of adult­hood and be play­ful. Set away from the day-to-day rhythm of urb­an liv­ing. Bar­bar­i­an Pro­duc­tions draws us out to Mar­tin Luck­ie Park in Ber­ham­pore. On arrival, my group is wel­comed by 80’s […]

Review: End of the Rainbow

Judy’s return some­thing to talk about By Talia Carl­isle Pour the cham­pagne because Judy Gar­land has come to town. Peter Quilter’s smash hit show End of the Rain­bow opened to loud belly laughs, big smiles and plenty of cheers at the Wel­ling­ton Opera House this week­end. While the audi­ence and stars were dressed to impress, […]

Review: Professor Wild Returns

  I’ve nev­er seen a show at the zoo before, but that’s where Pro­fess­or Wild Returns takes me for my first review of NZ Fringe 2023. Anoth­er entry in the incred­ible Aus­tin Har­ris­on The­at­ric­al Uni­verse, this solo show resur­rects Har­ris­on’s seg­ment ‘Pro­fess­or Wild’ from What Now in 2009 as a full-length show for adults, set amongst the climbs of […]

Review: Big J: A New Legacy

Reviewed by Nadia Free­man Photo cred­it: Philip Merry Jac­ob Dom­broski is all heart in his per­form­ance of Big J A New Leg­acy. It is clear that he relives the feel­ings of every story he shares. This vul­ner­ab­il­ity is most evid­ent dur­ing his dance pieces. From krump to grace­ful, emotive sec­tions, his actions are delib­er­ate. He […]

Review: Homemade Takeaways

I don’t think any­one will dis­agree with me that it’s been one hell of a year, and Christ­mas is des­cend­ing on us fast.  So it seemed com­pletely appro­pri­ate to be watch­ing a show about people who’ve had a hell of a year, too, drawn togeth­er at Christ­mas. Annie and Will have grav­it­ated back to the […]

Review: The Griegol

We need more shows like this. The kind that effort­lessly trans­ports you to the same child­like sense of won­der, akin to the first time you are read what will become your favour­ite story. And it is no coin­cid­ence that The Griegol, writ­ten by Han­nah Smith and Ral­ph McCub­bin How­ell, revolves around the power of storytelling. […]