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 […]

Preview: Dido and Aeneas: Recomposed

Dido and Aeneas: Recom­posed is a fringe fest style opera brought to BATS by Unstuck­Opera.  Direct­ed by long time Welling­ton cre­ative Frances Moore and re-com­­posed by one of NZ’s lead­ing young com­posers, Alex Tay­lor, their re-work of Hen­ry Purcell’s clas­sic includes sam­ples from Stravin­sky, Jazz Greats, and even Bey­on­cé and is per­formed by singers in over-the-top gowns, crazy make-up […]

Preview: Theatre shows on this week

  It’s all singing and danc­ing this week at Cir­ca and BATS. (Just what I need to get me through my sec­ond to last week at work before the hol­i­days tbh.) Scar­let and Gold con­tin­ues at Cir­ca The­atre as does Roger Hall’s “Jack and The Beanstalk”. (My review of Scar­let and Gold here. I haven’t […]

Preview: The Better Best Possible Album Party That Anybody Has Ever Been Two

I’m pret­ty excit­ed that Album Par­ty is the first show to ben­e­fit from BATS The­atre and The Base­ment The­atre (Auck­land) work­ing togeth­er to sup­port the best new emerg­ing shows to tour to both cities. A con­cert, a com­e­dy gig and a play all rolled into one, The Bet­ter Best Pos­si­ble Album Par­ty That Any­body Has […]