Lōemis Festival’s Harmonic Tree

The Harmonic Tree is a new artwork / musical instrument resembling an exotic plant, with steel strings, percussive fruit and berries. Beneath the surface it houses an array of audio effects processors, all adjustable by tending to twigs, branches and other parts of the tree, enabling an operator to create electroacoustic soundscapes. The Harmonic Tree was […]

That’s All She Wrote – Review

I’ve  found myself in a very lovely, very privileged, and deeply uncomfortable space.  I’ve seen three previous Red Scare Theatre Company shows, and I’ve genuinely loved them all.  I will have to enlist one of my ‘Ista comrades to review their shows in future, to preclude claims of bias and shameless fangirling. Each of those […]

A Definitive Ranking of Some of Wellington’s Most Cursed Locations

Cursed places. You might be familiar with them. Places you walk into and it feels like there’s ghosts, places that are a bit spooky or a bit weird or send a chill up your spine. To put it more colloquially – bad vibes. A place doesn’t have to be dilapidated to be cursed – I […]

Review – The Dunstan Creek Haunting

“This is the true story of two travelling carnies who develop an obsession with the occult, exposing and explaining the paranormal.” Lizzie Tollemache and David Ladderman listen to their audience.  It makes sense as performers who’ve worked with circus, cabaret, and variety around the world…  so much of those skills rely on the audience investing […]

Review: Water

Based on the true story of Carl Hans Lody, a WW1 German Spy. He was caught then executed inthe Tower of London four months into World War I. This new play, from award-winning writer, Mark Langham, centres Lody’s story and his reasons for becoming a spy. Stephen Lloyd-Coombs is a personable and charming Lody. Around […]

Review: Why are we still here?

Four women on the run break into an abandoned theatre to shelter from a terrible storm. The group’s leader, Benny, is the first to notice they’re not alone – there are two others in the building. It takes the group of women a little while to discover that the ‘others’ are ghosts but by then […]

WOAP 2018: Forage Kitchen + Bar

I’ve lived in central Wellington for more than five years and had no idea there was a hotel on The Terrace behind Willis Street, nestled just over a dark residential hill. The more you know.  A few weeks back, I got to sample the WOAP festival menu of the hotel restaurant, Forage Kitchen + Bar, […]

Review: TRASH GLAM DRAG SLAM

Long Cloud Youth Theatre ensemble, under the direction of Brett Adam, present an entertaining show about power and gender. The script was created from their honest discussions about their responses to current world events and interviews with family, friends, and people on the street. Various scenarios discussing sexism, slut shaming, gender stereotypes, peer pressure and […]

Review: Beneath skin and bone

Poto Manawa has a new flat. She took a quick trip to pick up a few things from her Mum’s place…and now her relatives won’t stop phoning her. They want her to come to a whānau hui. She’s reluctant to return to the homestead although she can’t quite remember why. Until Paia comes along to […]

Review: The Atom Room

150 years into the future Sarah and Danny meet, fall in love, and get married in a Wellington devastated by earthquakes, climate change, and the effects of a distant nuclear explosion. Then their careers separate them by distance – Danny in Wellington working to save the Earth, Sarah on Mars working to create a new […]