Review: The Saboteur

It’s improv. It’s a game show. It’s delightful chaos. It’s The Saboteur.  Off the back of sold-out seasons in the NZ Improv Festival in 2019 and in Melbourne in 2020, The Saboteur is just over an hour’s worth of improv chaos as a part of this year’s Comedy Fest. Five improvisors, one of which is trying to sabotage […]

Giselle by the Royal New Zealand Ballet

Giselle is a ballet I know very little about, aside from one episode of Angel and reading the synopsis on Wikipedia: The ghost-filled ballet tells the tragic, romantic story of a beautiful young peasant girl who falls for the flirtations of the deceitful and disguised nobleman Albrecht. When the ruse is revealed, the fragile Giselle dies […]

A Quick and Dirty Look at the Comedy Fest!

Ah, the NZ International Comedy Fest – remember when we last had one? Two years ago. However, it’s back, and we’re well into the three week programme now. If you’ve not gotten along to any shows yet, here are some highlights coming up in the next few days! Josh Davies – Look! I’m blind.  Nominated […]

Review: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

There’s something so delightful about going into a theatre show completely blind. I knew nothing about this play, had read nothing about it, all I knew was the charming aesthetic of the publicity photos and the fact that this was a New Zealand premiere. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is a true telling of the perpetuity of love […]

Review: The Look Of Love

I’ve seen Ali Harper before, at Old St Paul’s in 2012, and I was struck by her humour and professionalism then.  It was a fun night out with my Robot Mum and we both enjoyed hearing songs we knew, and some we didn’t, performed by someone who knew her craft and was super skilled. On […]

A couple of new(ish) bars

Hey, remember when we used to be on top of all the openings and closings in town and filled with reviews? Yeah me neither. The ‘ista is old and property-and-business owning now, and we have Twitter instead of our group mailing list. But we can still try! So to that end, here’s a couple of […]

Family-owned Naumi Hotels open Naumi Studio Hotel on Cuba Street

There’s been a hotel on Cuba Street for as long as I can remember.  In sixth form my very daring sex-having friend booked herself and her boyfriend a room at Trekkers Hotel for after our ball at Cuba Cuba (but she ended up getting too drunk to leave the room).  In the mid naughties, we […]

Preview: The Slutcracker

From School For Gifted Children, and the creator of Change Your Own Life comes a new queer ballet for Christmas. Loosely based on the classic Tchaikovsky ballet The Nutcracker, The Slutcracker tells the story of a queer chosen family Christmas gathering, and a romantic whirlwind night through the queer streets of Wellington. Director Jean Sergent says “I […]

Preview: Ubu sux

It’s citizen versus everything in this totally original, entirely reimagined adaptation of Alfred Jarry’s classic avant-garde satire Ubu Rex. Grotesque, ridiculous and deeply profound, this irreverent adaptation of Ubu Rex draws from a huge range of source material to amplify the messages from Jarry’s original narrative. The live show is multimedia in every respect, with […]

Preview: Girl in the loft

Girl in the loft is a solo show by Katherine Wyeth. It’s the story of a childhood growing up at The King’s Head Theatre, London. “My life began as a theatre kid growing up at the world-renowned King’s Head Theatre in London. I was lucky to experience a unique childhood growing up in the theatre… […]