Review: Pudgy Mediocre White Men Solve Your Problems

A white­board greets us at the top of the stairs of BATS’ Dome Theatre. 10am – Dan­cing with Craig (R18). It reads. 1.45pm – Knit­ting with Craig (R18), then 8pm – Dave & Bry­an Impov Thing. And that is what we’re here to see (though I am par­tic­u­larly taken by the concept of 12.45pm – Autopsy for Begin­ners.) We’re at […]

Review: Effy

Reviewed by Lox Dix­on. Presen­ted as a part of the TAHI Fest­iv­al, 2022.  Effy is a piece of phys­ic­al theatre per­formed by a masked act­or, and fea­tur­ing no verbal com­mu­nic­a­tion. The show takes place in what ostens­ibly looks like a pub­lic park. A rub­bish bin sits on one side of the stage, an old wooden […]

Review: HATCH

Reviewed by Jules Daniel. Presen­ted by TAHI: New Zea­l­and Fest­iv­al of Solo Per­form­ance, HATCH is an oppor­tun­ity for five emer­ging stu­dent artists from Te Aua­ha, Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School, and Te Her­enga Waka – Vic­tor­ia Uni­ver­sity of Wel­ling­ton to show­case and devel­op their work fur­ther. The mahi of a pro­gram with a kaupapa to […]

Review: Shift Your Paradigm

Shift Your Paradigm Reviewed by Lox Dix­on Shift Your Paradigm (No Chairs Required) begins by wel­com­ing us into the Dome space at BATS Theatre, for a chair sem­in­ar. The stage is sparse. Two cheap desks are set up, one to either side of stage, and an object (pre­sum­ably a chair) covered by a sheet, sits […]

Review: Trifles

Reviewed by Shauwn Keil. Upon enter­ing the theatre, we are treated to a mag­ni­fi­cent set, designed by Jas­mine Bry­ham. Everything that reminds you of Nana and Pop­pa’s house is present. Jars of God knows what across the kit­chen bench. A kettle and cool mugs. Din­ner set items. A paua shell ash­tray on a shelf on […]

Review: Illegally Blind

Now, I’m lit­er­ally in this show so I figured prob­ably not the best for me to review it. This week we’ve got the lovely Cordy Black writ­ing some kind words! The exper­i­ence starts in the foy­er, after a ritu­al of scan­ning and phone-wav­ing – the default pro­gramme for Illeg­ally Blind is presen­ted to the vis­it­or […]

Review: Best on Tap’s Community Noticeboard

This is the only theatre show cur­rently run­ning in Wel­ling­ton, we’re told, as Com­munity Notice­board begins. It’s a little sur­real to be back in a theatre – I’ve per­son­ally not been in one since like… June? – and it is espe­cially sur­real to be wear­ing masks and spaced out across a tra­verse in BATS Theatre’s Dome stage. […]

Review: Maximum Benefit

I’m out of com­mis­sion at the moment brain-wise, and could­n’t get to this show, but the work got lovely com­ments from those there in my steed. The show sea­son is com­pletely sold out, but I’m cer­tain these two will be about town per­form­ing at a later date – they’re a tal­en­ted pair and deserve your […]

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 […]

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 […]