Review: Aunty
AUNTY is billed as a family BBQ, and it certainly delivers. Half the opening night crowd was clearly back again after the first season, which adds to the ‘new partner at family Christmas’ vibe for first timers. Who hasn’t met a boisterous relation and silently wondered, ‘can I laugh? Am I going to be next?’ […]
Review: Body Double
Female desire, that most elusive of quarries. We should be chaste, but not prudish. Experienced, but not too slutty. Up for anything. Well, not that. Or that. Maybe just don’t talk about it? It’s enough to make a girl want to take a vow of celibacy and retire to a cave with a half-dozen rescued cats. […]
Review: Zest Food Tours
An eating tour of Wellington? That’s basically every weekend in my life, but it hadn’t occurred to me to try a structured one. Enter Zest Food Tours, who run eating extravaganzas masquerading as walking tours. Get your culture and history while also stuffing your face? Yes please. We took a condensed sampler version of the […]
Sacha Lees
Wellington artist Sacha Lees began her career working on The Lord of the Rings trilogy as an illustrator, airbrush artist and creature designer. These days Lees, originally from the West Coast, is a leading artist. She developed her painting technique in Florence and now specialises in the “fantastic” genre – a movement specialising in mythical creatures and […]
Review: The Father
André lives in his flat where Anne, his daughter, visits him. He’d rather his daughter Elise visited but she’s busy with her art work. Or is she? And who is Pierre? And why does Laura keep coming around? This show explores reality and perception in a family situation which is familiar to many people. What […]
Zoom zoom Zoomy?
We wrote about Uber when they first came to Wellington so I’m not here to regurgitate the many cons (though this ‘game’ about the life of an Uber driver is worth a play, similar to Action Station’s Pick A Path). The obvious truth is that for passengers, Uber is super convenient. Now there’s New Zealand-based […]
Review: Kátya Kabanová
Kátya Kabanová was the first opera I ever saw, back in 1996 when it was here for the International Festival. I was 16, and we got $5 tickets to the dress rehersal through drama class. I was overwhelmed by the music and the draaaaama and the rain on stage and the cliff that rose up on hydraulics […]
What’s on this week?
Here’s a round up of what shows are on this week. At Circa Theatre… Anahera, on at Circa Theatre to 7 October 2017 A contemporary domestic thriller (in the style of Broadchurch) about a struggling kiwi family. Liz and Peter Hunter have it all. A great marriage, successful careers, a beautiful house and two wonderful children. Until […]
Review: That Bloody Woman
Kate Sheppard, “the leading light of the New Zealand women’s suffrage movement” tells her story in this rock musical by Luke Di Somma and Gregory Cooper. Directed by Kip Chapman, (with Jennifer Ward-Lealand this season’s Rehearsal Director) the show is terrific. All the elements of the best musicals are here – a well constructed dramatic […]
Preview: Anahera
Anahera is the new play from Emma Kinane. Described as an “enthralling mix of an intense missing child drama and a behind-closed-doors look at New Zealand’s social services” it’s a contemporary domestic thriller about a struggling Kiwi family and how one woman making a stand could make all the difference. A finalist in last year’s Adam […]