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 […]
Save Kate – from who?
Walking my daughter to school on Tuesday morning, I was handed a flyer on Lambton Quay – “Keep Kate!”. As kind of a fan of the Kate Sheppard traffic lights, I took the flyer – and saw that they “were under threat of removal” with a link to a petition. I’d sign that! But turning […]
Into the unknown
The deepest cave system in the Southern Hemisphere is in the Nelson hinterland. How do we know this? Because Kieran Mckay went in and explored it. One of Red Bull’s Explorers of the Century, he’ll be speaking about his experiences and introducing a film about his cave explorations on Saturday evening at Onslow College. “The […]
Review: The travelling squirrel by Robert Lord
Bart (Paul Waggot) is a writer who is married to Jane, (Acushla-Tara Sutton). Jane is an actress who is nervous about her job security and therefore is keen to cultivate a working relationship with Wallace (Gavin Rutherford) a gossip columnist. Wallace throws a party where Jane and Bart meet Terry (Andrew Paterson) who can help […]
Notional Significance: Yellow Earth
[See all Notional Significance posts] Wind-hurried raindrops pelt against the Shadehouse roof, which provides but meagre shelter as I wait out the passing shower. Cold droplets descend through green air into the expectant foliage, maintaining a humid atmosphere to feed a pteridomaniac’s wet dream. In a fern-fevered nation this is an orgy of patriotic symbols, […]