Review: Beneath skin and bone

Poto Manawa has a new flat. She took a quick trip to pick up a few things from her Mum’s place…and now her relatives won’t stop phoning her. They want her to come to a whānau hui. She’s reluctant to return to the homestead although she can’t quite remember why. Until Paia comes along to […]

Preview: I am not Margaret Mahy

Witch, jungle child, bewildered student, detective, librarian, shark: iconic writer Margaret Mahy defied the norm at every turn, embodying aspects of her characters in the many lives she lived. Jane Waddell’s stage adaptation of Mahy’s essay ‘Notes of a Bag Lady‘ reveals the woman behind the stories: her witchy ways, her bag-lady tendencies and her […]

Review: You do you babes – Donna Brookbanks

Guest review by Emma Maguire We are welcomed into the BATS Studio by a woman dressed in a black cloak. Illuminated by the light of flickering (electric) candles, we’re baptised by water poured from a menstrual cup, and we recite the single person’s prayer. All the single ladies… now put your hands up! Donna Brookbanks’ […]

Preview: Your heart looks like a vagina

After success at LitCrawl last year, Dominic Hoey  is returning to Wellington with Your Heart Looks Like A Vagina at BATS Theatre next week. It’s a one man show about being diagnosed with Ankylosing spondylitis, a form of inflammatory arthritis that affects the spine and joints in the lower back. Treatment aims to minimise symptoms and prevent […]

Review: One Night Only

“The world’s most famous boy band, FourEver, is nearly ready to take the stage for their only New Zealand show. All that stands in their way is each other, their fans, the media, and the ghosts of their dodgy past.” Stella Reid directs this Young & Hungry play by Finnius Teppett. In her Director’s note she describes […]

Preview: Kia Mau Festival

New Zealand’s only contemporary indigenous theatre and dance event Kia Mau Festival returns to Wellington from Friday 2 – Saturday 24 June. It’s a unique and innovative opportunity for whānau and communities across the Wellington region to engage with today’s tangata whenua and First Nations artists from across the globe. Led by Wellington’s own Māori and Pasifika theatre […]

BATS fundraiser preview -White Rabbit Red Rabbit

BATS is bringing the “audacious theatrical experiment“ White Rabbit Red Rabbit to Wellington for a fundraising season.  Written by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour, the play premiered in 2011 and has since been translated into 20 different languages. There are no rehearsals, no director, a different actor each performance, and a script waiting in a sealed […]

Review: Onstage Dating

In the age of ‘swiping right’ and ‘reality’ dating shows, the concept of live onstage dating by far provides more entertainment. Bron Batten so brilliantly proved this on her opening night of Onstage Dating. In this show, there’s no opportunity to accept or reject based on appearances and no producers or editors deciding on the […]

Shows on this week

At BATS Theatre: Starting this week is an encore season of Onstage Dating by performance artist Bron Batten. Watch as she goes on first dates on stage. (These are actual first dates with a stranger, not with a performing audience plant.) Witness the vulnerability, thrills and heartbreak of the dating experience up close, as Bron […]

Preview: I am Tasha Fierce

From the mind of Wellington based artist Rose Kirkup, the recipient of the 2016 Fringe Festivals’ NZ Pacific Artist Residency award, comes I Am Tasha Fierce. We’re introduced to Kirkup’s alter ego Tasha: your typical Kiwi chick.  Her time at polytech, as well as following the teachings of Beyoncé, has helped her get out of […]