Young man wearing a T-shirt and trousers sits on the floor holding a toy cuddly chicken with his right arm. There is a baby duck image behind his left arm that is pointing to his head, and a goose in front of his right leg.

Comedy Review: Oliver Pol – Featherbrained

The only inform­a­tion I have on Oliv­er Pol is his self-descrip­­tion as a “young­ish, tallish stand-up comedi­an.” But it prom­ised to be “a fun, weird hour per­formed with irre­press­ible, limb-flail­ing energy,” and he abso­lutely delivered. Pol’s style is a bundle of nervous and enthu­si­ast­ic energy. He often moves his body in odd shapes across the […]

Review: Joe Daymond’s Comedy Mixtape

The Com­edy Mix­tape lineup, hos­ted and cur­ated by Joe Day­mond, was billed as a stand-up show­case built like a per­fect set list, comedi­ans you already rate mixed with rising stars you’re about to fall in love with. The night kicked off with DJ Randy from Mai FM spin­ning clas­sic Hutt bangers. Joe described the aim […]

To adults stand in business suits. One has an orange intheir mouth, the other raising a pencil to their head.

Comedy review: Ginge and Minge – REDEMPTION

A Night of Chaos, Laughs, and Second Chances Ginge and Minge’s REDEMPTION is a mis­sion to save the dis­carded and rejec­ted from the bot­tom of the bin and give them anoth­er shot. These two have been tear­ing up stages across Aotearoa since 2020, and their chem­istry is as strong as ever. Megan, fresh off a Mas­ter […]

Blonde woman wearing a floral dress laughing while surrounded by teddy bears.

Comedy Review: Samantha Hannah – Peekaboo!

I atten­ded Sam­antha Hannah’s show on Tues­day night with high expect­a­tions, and she did not dis­ap­point. For those who don’t know her, Sam­antha Han­nah is a Billy T Award nom­in­ee who’s been turn­ing life’s oddit­ies into com­edy for years. In 2018, she garnered a lot of atten­tion with her show How to Find a Hus­band in […]

A pākehā woman's face wearing clown makeup. A neon ribbon cascades in front of their face.

Review: Speed is Emotional

Speed is Emo­tion­al Writ­ten and per­formed by Jo Rander­son Speed is Emo­tion­al is exactly what it sounds like: fast, funny, a little chaot­ic, and com­pletely its own thing. Writ­ten and per­formed by Jo Rander­son, the show dives head­first into what it feels like to live with ADHD. Rander­son invites any­one with a neurodi­ver­gent brain, and […]

Review: Hamlet – One Hour. Three Actors. Denmark Will Never Be the Same

As someone who’s nev­er read or seen a per­form­ance of Ham­let, I might seem like an unlikely review­er for TheJoMarsh’s adapt­a­tion at Bats Theatre. How­ever, if I, with my inex­per­i­ence, can eas­ily fol­low and enjoy ‘Ham­let – One Hour. Three Act­ors. Den­mark Will Nev­er Be the Same,’ then any­one can. In this high-tech, dysto­pi­an take […]

Shadow of figure sitting down in front of two wall size projected images of an abstract image of thousands of blue coloured lines

The Grid – New Digital Art Space

Writ­ten by Nadia Free­man Wel­ling­ton’s new­est and poten­tially first digit­al art space opened this month, and I am deeply appre­ci­at­ive of the entre­pren­eur­i­al spir­it of Shan­non Bros­na­han Ing­lis and Delainy Jamahl. In an era when invest­ment in the arts is dwind­ling, launch­ing a ven­ture of this scale and qual­ity is inspir­ing. Ini­ti­at­ives like this infuse […]

soup and a scone at Arlo

Best of the Week: May 18–25

Our weekly wrap-up of what’s good,  this time fea­tur­ing fea­tur­ing Emma, Joanna and Tom Emma’s bests Best theatre: Farce Onion at BATS – a deeply warm­ing joy­ous non­sense impro­vised time Best vibes: Still­wa­ter – I only had a drink there with some mates so I can­’t speak to the effic­acy of their cof­fee or food […]

a screenshot of the Wellingtonista from 2005

A lengthy mea culpa, 20 years of history and a reboot?

If you don’t like lengthy deep navel gaz­ing, take this tl:dr and be on your way until the next post: the Wel­ling­tonista web­site has been very neg­lected for a num­ber of years, and I intend to do bet­ter – per­haps you might like to con­trib­ute some­thing too.  I was 24 when James asked me to […]

Review: Prima Facie

By Nadia Free­man Prima Facie shares an authen­t­ic story of a woman’s exper­i­ence of assault and nav­ig­at­ing the judi­cial sys­tem to seek justice. The nearly sell-out sea­son demon­strates that des­pite the raw and chal­len­ging sub­ject, there is a strong call­ing for stor­ies like this.   Rape is a word people don’t want to say, and for […]