Review: Olive Copperbottom

Leav­ing Circa on Wed­nes­day after the open­ing night of Olive Cop­per­bot­tom, one of the many things I was feel­ing was deep regret that it was the very first of Penny Ashton’s shows that I’d seen, and I’d missed so many oth­ers.  Ashton is a bright light.  Her energy, her wit, and her joy were incan­des­cent […]

Review: Owls Do Cry

Owls Do Cry is not your typ­ic­al the­at­ric­al retell­ing of a book. Instead, it is a com­plete rein­ter­pret­a­tion of the work through move­ment, design and song.   The show starts very light-hearted with a chor­us of singing, move­ment and audi­ence inter­ac­tion. As the show con­tin­ues, how­ever, it draws you into the real pain and fra­gil­ity of […]

Review: Pudgy Mediocre White Men Solve Your Problems

A white­board greets us at the top of the stairs of BATS’ Dome Theatre. 10am – Dan­cing with Craig (R18). It reads. 1.45pm – Knit­ting with Craig (R18), then 8pm – Dave & Bry­an Impov Thing. And that is what we’re here to see (though I am par­tic­u­larly taken by the concept of 12.45pm – Autopsy for Begin­ners.) We’re at […]

Review: Title & Deed

Reviewed by Lox Dix­on. Presen­ted as a part of TAHI Fest­iv­al, 2022. I’m going to make an earn­est effort to men­tion the writ­ing as little as pos­sible in this review because that’s not really the point and every­one prob­ably knows by now that Will Eno is a phe­nom­en­al writer. That said, the beauty of this […]

Review: Effy

Reviewed by Lox Dix­on. Presen­ted as a part of the TAHI Fest­iv­al, 2022.  Effy is a piece of phys­ic­al theatre per­formed by a masked act­or, and fea­tur­ing no verbal com­mu­nic­a­tion. The show takes place in what ostens­ibly looks like a pub­lic park. A rub­bish bin sits on one side of the stage, an old wooden […]

Review: HATCH

Reviewed by Jules Daniel. Presen­ted by TAHI: New Zea­l­and Fest­iv­al of Solo Per­form­ance, HATCH is an oppor­tun­ity for five emer­ging stu­dent artists from Te Aua­ha, Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School, and Te Her­enga Waka – Vic­tor­ia Uni­ver­sity of Wel­ling­ton to show­case and devel­op their work fur­ther. The mahi of a pro­gram with a kaupapa to […]

Review: Krishnan’s Dairy

Review by Talia Carl­isle. A wise man once told me that real loves grows, and so does my love of Indi­an Ink’s now legendary tale of Krishnan’s Dairy that wound up its final sea­son in Wel­ling­ton this week. The pro­duc­tion is a well pol­ished gem in the crown of cre­at­ive team Jac­ob Rajan and Justin […]

Review: Back to Square One?

Reviewed by Shona Jaunas Back to Square One invites you into con­ver­sa­tion between 95 year old Inga’s liv­ing room in Den­mark and her grand­son, Anders Fal­stie-Jensen in New Zea­l­and. It starts with the audi­ence all writ­ing their names on the stage front in chalk which imme­di­ately brings us into the space; we are all involved […]

Review: Skin Tight

Skin Tight is my favour­ite ever play and I’ve been want­ing to see it per­formed since I first read it. Circa Theatre did not dis­ap­point with their iter­a­tion of this show; a glor­i­ously evoc­at­ive piece with incred­ible sta­ging, per­form­ances and move­ment. The play is not just a love story to its char­ac­ters – and the highs […]

Review: Shift Your Paradigm

Shift Your Paradigm Reviewed by Lox Dix­on Shift Your Paradigm (No Chairs Required) begins by wel­com­ing us into the Dome space at BATS Theatre, for a chair sem­in­ar. The stage is sparse. Two cheap desks are set up, one to either side of stage, and an object (pre­sum­ably a chair) covered by a sheet, sits […]