Review: Over My Dead Body: Little Black Bitch
This is the world premiere of the play by Jason Te Mete. The script shared the Adam New Zealand Play Award for Best Play by a Māori Playwright in 2018. It is a theatrical representation of one way depression can manifest. It starts with a mihi from Te Mete (also director and musical director) welcoming […]
DocEdge preview: The Silence of Others
DocEdge kicks off in Wellington on 13th June (running to the 23rd) and we’ve been fortunate enough to preview some of the films that will be showing. First up… The Silence of Others Directed by Almudena Carrucedo and Robert Bahar María Martín pins up her long grey hair with gnarled hands, then struggles with a […]
Review: Public Service Announcements – Indignity War
Judith Collins is on the warpath, Parliament is in chaos, and Simon Bridges is leading choreographed dances in this iteration of PSA – Indignity War. As David Seymour tables a bill to halve the amount of MPs in Parliament, all the major parties are panicking about who they’ll have to let go. Jacinda has the […]
Review: Uther Dean’s Elevation
This is a show somewhat about the hit U2 song “Elevation” (which I still haven’t heard) and somewhat not at all about that song. From the Fast and the Furious films to fights in Burger King, new partners and the cinematic classic Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Dean spins a verbose tale of coincidence, ennui and […]
Review: Absolute Monster by Alice Sneddon
Absolute Monster, guest reviewed by Lena Beets. It’s quite hard to write a review for a comedy show that has a medium to large bombshell admission in the middle that changes the context of all the jokes told thus far, but I’ll try my best because Alice Snedden’s Absolute Monster was great. I’ve been a […]
Review: Space Couch
Tim Batt and Disasteradio’s Space Couch is a synthwave Communist talkshow, and I don’t think those words have ever been uttered together in a sentence before. Things go like this. The titular pink Space Couch – sent into space by the Soviets in the mid-70s – has fallen back to earth and decided to host […]
Review: So You Think You Khandallah
It’s 1982 in New Zealand, a time of Olivia Newton-John, Lazy Susans and brick mobile phones, and the students of the Khandallah Academy of Performing Arts are growing their skills, making friends, and perhaps even finding love, all while they try to get a paying performing arts career. However, things are not quite that easy […]
Review: Snort with Friends
It’s not very easy to review improv, because it changes every night, but Snort with Friends is a very good time. From a series of monologues based off audience prompts, the Snort cast (in our case, it was Kura Forrester, Chris Parker, Brynley Stent, Donna Brookbanks, Rhiannon McCall and Tom Sainsbury) plays out a bunch […]
Review: Filthy Little Goblin
Brynley Stent’s 2019 solo show Filthy Little Goblin is a bizarre and fantastic series of esoteric vignettes and I absolutely loved it. From birthday gifts to self-checkout machines, strange strip performances and word-based game shows, this absurdist show pushes the envelope in terms of comedy and is just very, very fun. Stent has an incredible […]