Review: Dead Men’s Wars
Three high school students from Australia and New Zealand have won a competition to visit Gallipoli for the ANZAC day commemorations. They are escorted over by two company representatives. Everything is going according to the schedule when one of the students goes off script. The fallout affects them all. This is the 2015 STAB production […]
Preview: The Blacklight Comedy Club at Moon
Hello, I’m Jonny, and I’m about to start a comedy night at Moon in Newtown. It’s called the Blacklight Comedy Club. If you’re able to come along, please try. I think you’ll enjoy it. Jo asked me to write a Blacklight Comedy Club ‘guest manifesto’ for the Wellingtonista. I’ve realised that I can’t. To me, […]
Reviews of The Angry Brigade and Gifted
Two wordy plays are currently showing in Wellington. Both are very good. The Angry Brigade by James Graham, directed by Samuel Phillips Four police officers are in a basement office in London trying to track down some terrorists. Threats have been made. Bombs have gone off. It’s not the IRA. In fact, they’re not like […]
Review: Bubblelands by Renee Liang
The clinking of cutlery and mumbled conversation greet us as we walk into the theatre. Blue glowing lines show the edges of the fishtank. It’s a sparse place but I guess the fish aren’t there to live. Blue Cod (Hweiling Ow) is preparing to be chosen. She is joined unexpectedly by Crayfish (Bemjamin Teh) who […]
Tosca top notch
When I invited my friend Keith to Tosca and he told me he’d seen it before, I asked for no spoilers. He sent me a text saying “Psh. It’s an opera. There is singing. People die. From a feminist view it is problematic. That’s about all there is to it”. His text was true, but also […]
Preview: Bubblelands by Renee Liang
A Bluecod has been in the tank of a Chinese restaurant for an indeterminate amount of time. She’s not sure how she got there or what life was like before the tank. Then a Crayfish arrives. He’s energetic and she starts to think about life again. Meanwhile there’s always the possibility that one of them […]
WOW in Wellington for 2015
There is something quite special when The World of Wearable Arts season lands in Wellington. Shop windows transform and restaurants do delightful meal & cocktail specials and the City Council puts on free events around town. Then for almost 3 hours every night those of us lucky enough to see the show are whisked away into […]
Kākā cam
With more and more kākā spilling out of Zealandia and spending their ne’er-do-well days rioting in the neighboring suburbs, there are now nests outside the fence. So the council has set up some nestboxes to keep the new families safe, and in one, they’ve set up a live camera. Today, the five chicks are only […]
New Zealand Improv Festival 6-10 October 2015
Improv shows are always different depending on the energy of the performers, the prompts they are given, and the energy of the audience. Most of the ones I’ve seen in Wellington have been entertaining. Some are sublime and contain moments of pure theatrical genius. The kind where the whole audience holds its breathe then exhales […]
Halloween Horror close to home
Wellington-made horror film The Dead Room is sure to spook audiences this Halloween. Based on a true chilling New Zealand story from the 1970s, a psychic and two scientists are sent in to investigate paranormal activity at an Otago farmhouse after its terrified family flees. Wellington-based actress Laura Petersen, who plays the young psychic Holly […]