My predictions for Wellington on a Plate 2018
Tomorrow is my favourite launch of the year – the Wellington on a Plate programme. In advance, and without having looked at their website, here’s what I think it will include (or not) so we can look tomorrow and see if I was right or wrong. There’s always a trending meat (wow is that a […]
NZSO Shed Series: “Juxtaposition”
My first trip to the new Shed 6 was a few weeks ago to see contemporary music outfit Stroma. They were playing a sampler of modern art music, stretching from Ravel and Schoenberg, through Boulez and Berio, to more recent work by Gillian Whitehead and David Lang. Music writer Alex Ross was our tour guide, […]
NZSO – The Shed Series
Not everyone is digging the orchestra in the concert hall, although let me just say that the NZSO tribute a few weeks ago to Torvill and Dean’s standout Bolero performance in 1984 was bloody powerful. Generally the concert vibe appeals to one kind of crowd and the standing in a shed gig appeals to another. […]
Review: Welcome to the Murder House
Indian Ink has done it again. Welcome to the Murder House is dark, deadly, a little bit sexy, and something you definitely should read the press release for before you see because it does not pull any punches. Our five main characters; death-row convicts who have a particular penchant for theatre, take us on a […]
Preview: Kia Mau Festival
The fourth Kia Mau Festival is on from 1-16 June 2018. A contemporary Indigenous theatre and dance experience, the festival celebrates Māori, Pasifika, First Nations artists and their companies. Kia Mau Festival is an innovative experience for whānau and communities throughout the Wellington region to engage with Tangata Whenua and First Nations artists from across […]
Preview: Welcome to the Murder House
Indian Ink Theatre Company present their latest show written by Jacob Rajan and Justin Lewis and commissioned by American theatre company South Coast Repertory Theatre. Welcome to the Murder House is a deliciously dark tragedy of comic proportions. The dawning of the electric age in 1890’s America brought about massive technological and social change creating […]
Review: Romeo and Juliet at Victoria University
Victoria University’s Romeo and Juliet is an utter triumph of stagecraft. The mood within Studio 77, the campus’ main blackbox theatre, seems fittingly Shakespearean as thunder rolls overhead and rain pours down outside. We’re all here to see Romeo and Juliet, arguably one of theatre’s most played-out stories, but I’ve never seen it quite like this. Our cast, members […]
Preview: I am not Margaret Mahy
Witch, jungle child, bewildered student, detective, librarian, shark: iconic writer Margaret Mahy defied the norm at every turn, embodying aspects of her characters in the many lives she lived. Jane Waddell’s stage adaptation of Mahy’s essay ‘Notes of a Bag Lady‘ reveals the woman behind the stories: her witchy ways, her bag-lady tendencies and her […]
Review: The Big Show
The Big Show is a 100-minute extravaganza with three UK comedians who you may or may not have heard of. (The comedy world is big, okay?) Despite my utter obliviousness to whom two out of three of them were, this three-act show was a whole lot of fun. Ian Smith Acting as our MC for […]
Review: Andrew Maxwell – Showtime
Andrew Maxwell is baffled by New Zealand. And fair enough too. As he so lovingly puts it, our news cycle is a mad mess of fallen trees and cats on buses. We spend far too much time caring about things that aren’t global political conflicts and Trump. Why should we worry about global politics when […]