Preview: Girl in the loft
Girl in the loft is a solo show by Katherine Wyeth. It’s the story of a childhood growing up at The King’s Head Theatre, London. “My life began as a theatre kid growing up at the world-renowned King’s Head Theatre in London. I was lucky to experience a unique childhood growing up in the theatre… […]
Preview: Routine Magic-Magic Routine
Routine magic — Will Aloysius abandon ritualistic powers acquired during his 10 year social isolation? Magic routine — Can YouTube Influencer Ant Hill find sufficient inner harmony to open a life-changing envelope? This pair of plays, utilising the same set and actors, tell two timely and compelling stories. Routine Magic, shortlisted for the Adam NZ Play […]
Review: The Human Voice (La Voix Humaine; NZO season)
TW: Suicide, overdose, trauma I reviewed a production of La Voix Humaine in February. It’s been a strange wormhole of a year and it feels like a million years ago but also maybe yesterday that I was sitting in Suite Gallery, experiencing this piece for the first time. Writing this review with the last one […]
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 […]
Preview: New Zealand Improv Festival 2020
Every year improvisers gather in Wellington to celebrate the New Zealand Improv Festival (NZIF), but this year improvisors from overseas have been COVID-19-blocked. Festival director Jennifer O’Sullivan says, “We have built the festival on a platform of collaboration and connection, reaching nationally and internationally and bringing together amazing talent and perspectives. Of course, the current […]
Preview: The Glitter Garden
The Glitter Garden is a drag musical extravaganza for kids featuring dazzling outfits and fierce lip syncing. Join Hugo the Gardener on Pride Parade as he attempts to embrace self-care, personal growth and planter boxes, all with the help of his glittering garden friends. Created by TVNZ’s ‘House of Drag’ winner Hugo Grrrl (George Fowler) […]
Review: PLAY
It’s strange to be back in a place like BATS during times like these, but I’m very pleased I went along to see PLAY, a gay dating dramedy here from Auckland. It’s a play within a play, of a sort — the first twenty minutes or so being a form of a drawing-room comedy, then the show […]
Review: PSA — Election 2020
Has it really been a year since I last reviewed an interation of Public Service Announcements? Apparently so. The political satire is back, mixing COVID, controversy, and Election Night into one wild and very timely show. Our actors take the stage with a parody of a well-known ABBA song, now rebranded as “MMP”. This trend of […]
Drink beer, support the arts with Garage Project Ghost Light beer
Wellington based independent brewery Garage Project has released a new beer to support NZ theatres and live performing arts. Working in conjunction with Wellington’s BATS Theatre, Auckland’s Basement Theatre, Christchurch’s Little Andromeda and other independent theatres around the country, the Ghost Light beer has been designed to reference a tradition in the arts, and be […]
Preview: Ecology in Fifths
Award-winning director and performance designer Sam Trubridge is bringing a bold new performance to Te Whaea this August. Taking inspiration from H Guthrie Smith’s ‘Tutira: The Story of an NZ Sheep Station’ (1921), Ecology in Fifths enacts this obsessive account of NZ ecology — now a recognised classic in environmental science worldwide. Piece by piece, the […]