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. […]