Review: Messy

Reviewed by George Niv­en Step­ping into the Dome stage at Bats on Tues­day night felt almost like intrud­ing. Tak­ing my seat I felt I was brush­ing past Freya, the char­ac­ter played by writer Tara West­­on-Webb, as she sat cross-legged on the floor of her room fas­tid­i­ous­ly paint­ing bright­ly coloured icons in a small grid. The […]

Review: Everything That Happened at Number 68

Have you ever con­sid­ered flat­ting in Mel­bourne? Won­dered what to look for in a flat­mate? What are the red flags, green flags, rain­bow flags to look for? Grab a tea and a blan­ket and cosy up for Nick Robertson’s Fringe Fes­ti­val adven­ture, Every­thing That Hap­pened at Num­ber 68. As Nick shares with us, “Share­hous­es come […]

Review: Triple Double Trouble

Review by Nicole Win­ters Triple Dou­ble Trou­ble is a hilar­i­ous and engag­ing show,  and tru­ly made us care about the char­ac­ters. With a rotat­ing cast of dou­bles — today’s show is made up of Jonathan Man­de­no & Thomas Bauer, Sarah Ashill & Tony Yuile — each night gives you some­thing dif­fer­ent. Dur­ing our show, each […]

Review: Hamlet — One Hour. Three Actors. Denmark Will Never Be the Same

As some­one who’s nev­er read or seen a per­for­mance of Ham­let, I might seem like an unlike­ly review­er for TheJoMarsh’s adap­ta­tion at Bats The­atre. How­ev­er, if I, with my inex­pe­ri­ence, can eas­i­ly fol­low and enjoy ‘Ham­let — One Hour. Three Actors. Den­mark Will Nev­er Be the Same,’ then any­one can. In this high-tech, dystopi­an take […]

Review: Hine Te Rēhia

It’s a chilly win­ter day in Pōneke, but the joy from the audi­ence sur­round­ing me and my the­a­tre-going com­pan­ion could warm the most cyn­i­cal of souls. We’re here to see Hine Te Rēhia, a gor­geous piece of the­atre by Auck­­­land-based Tutatara Col­lec­tive, and the mood in the room is unbe­liev­ably high. For­give my lack of […]

Meet the creatives behind HINE-TE-RĒHIA

Pre­sent­ed by Tuatara Col­lec­tive, HINE-TE-RĒHIA is a mul­ti­lin­gual the­atre expe­ri­ence com­ing to BATS The­atre in July. Devised, cre­at­ed and per­formed by an all-female BIPOC cast, this excit­ing show promis­es to leave you gasp­ing in awe of their tal­ent. I had the chance to inter­view Jason Te Mete (pre­vi­ous deviser/director), Tāw­era Orms­by (co-Kai­whaka­haere of Tuatara Col­lec­tive) […]

Review: Femme Natale — The Queen Years

Reviewed by Talia Carlisle The tal­ent­ed team behind Femme Natale have worked their butts off to bring a mag­nif­i­cent sketch show­case of par­ents’ inner adult desires to BATS The­atre. After return­ing from Edin­burgh Fringe with a new lease on par­ent­hood, their new iter­a­tion of Femme Natale is refresh­ing­ly hilar­i­ous and impor­tant to share in a […]

Review: A Bit Dramatic

This show was incred­i­bly pop­u­lar and got reviewed mul­ti­ple times dur­ing the Improv Fest! Check out a vari­ety of those reviews below. — Reviewed by Thalia Kehoe Row­den In an intense, mov­ing 60-minute show, the cast of four take inspi­ra­tion from real-life jour­nal entries – unseen until the per­for­mance – and invent and explore the […]

Review: NO SLEEP

Reviewed by Rebec­ca Stub­bing. Fri­day the 13th was the per­fect occa­sion for NO SLEEP, a joy­ful­ly chaot­ic improv show pre­sent­ed at this year’s New Zealand Improv Fes­ti­val. The show began at 9:30pm on the won­der­ful Stage at BATS The­atre, and the slight­ly sleepy audi­ence were imme­di­ate­ly reas­sured by the per­form­ers not to wor­ry, we were […]

Review: Fifty Shades of Ray

Reviewed by Talia Carlisle. On a rain-splat­tered Welling­ton evening, I find myself refuge in BATS Theatre’s Stu­dio space where paper “wor­ries” are hung on string across the small stage. An eager smat­ter­ing of audi­ence mem­bers buzz in excite­ment, wait­ing for Ray Ship­ley to enter, fresh from a pop­u­lar Christchurch sea­son with a well-craft­ed set ready […]