Preview: The Māori Sidesteps
The newest and naughtiest Maori showband on the Aotearoa entertainment scene plays at BATS Theatre during the Kia Mau Festival. Self described as “Funny Māoris with funny songs” this show is more of a gig than a theatre piece for the actors involved. Band member Jamie McCaskill talked about the origins of the group and what they do. “Rob Mokaraka, […]
Preview: The Purple Onion
The Purple Onion peeps into the world of Wellington’s infamous burlesque parlour as part of the Kia Mau Festival. Established in the mid 1960s, the Purple Onion was Wellington’s premiere strip club which attracted some of New Zealand’s social elite as well as its fair share of dubious characters. Combining text, dance and a live funk […]
Preview: Riverside Kings
Riverside Kings opens in Upper Hutt today and plays in BATS Theatre next week as part of the Kia Mau Festival. The creators Sarita So and Natano Keni, describe it as “a physical weaving of brotherhood, nostalgia and change.” Their new company, I Ken So Productions, aims to create, diverse works of a high quality. They […]
Review: Three days in the country
Set against the backdrop of 1850’s Russia. Serfs (aka slaves) still work the land under the estate holder’s control. Reform is coming and the country is restless. Rakitin is visiting his friend Arkady at his country estate. Arkady’s wife Natalya is recovering from her illness. Their son Kolya, and their ward Vera, are spending time […]
Preview: Kia Mau Festival
New Zealand’s only contemporary indigenous theatre and dance event Kia Mau Festival returns to Wellington from Friday 2 – Saturday 24 June. It’s a unique and innovative opportunity for whānau and communities across the Wellington region to engage with today’s tangata whenua and First Nations artists from across the globe. Led by Wellington’s own Māori and Pasifika theatre […]
BATS fundraiser preview -White Rabbit Red Rabbit
BATS is bringing the “audacious theatrical experiment“ White Rabbit Red Rabbit to Wellington for a fundraising season. Written by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour, the play premiered in 2011 and has since been translated into 20 different languages. There are no rehearsals, no director, a different actor each performance, and a script waiting in a sealed […]
DCM Bookfair dates & donations
The day of the 2017 DCM Bookfair is Set. Set aside time for book foraging on Saturday August 5th from 8am till 8pm, at Shed 6 in Queens Wharf. Want to donate books to DCM’s Bookfair on 5 August? This week, is your last chance to donate books because there is a strong likelihood DCM may have […]
Review: Olive Copperbottom
Penny Ashton presents a new musical inspired by the writings of Charles Dickens as part of Comedy Festival 2017. Olive, a beautiful virtuous orphan, teaches the younger orphans at Mrs Sourtart’s squalid orphanage in exchange for a place to live. Her suitor, Edward Goodsort, was reclaimed from the same establishment by his moneyed family and now lives […]
Shape of the Suburbs
Last weekend a friend asked on Twitter whether anyone had made a New Zealand equivalent of this poster of London boroughs, which took the outlines of the boroughs out of context by arranging them alphabetically while keeping them to the same scale. This revealed both the weirdness of some of the shapes, and the striking […]
Win a double pass to the 2017 Food Show in Wellington!
We’ve written before about the Food Show and how it’s basically Rex Manning Day for people who like to try lots of food and taste a lot of wine. If you’re looking for ways to fire up your creative juices in the kitchen, look no further. The Food Show Wellington is on at Westpac Stadium […]