Review: The Little Mermaid

Some­how it’s nearly Christ­mas again, and that means Circa Theatre’s annu­al pan­to­mime is back! I’ve been going every year since I moved to Wel­ling­ton, and I’ve gotta say, it’s still a fant­ast­ic and very ridicu­lous exper­i­ence. This year it’s a wet and wild ride through The Little Mer­maid, writ­ten once again by Circa stal­warts Simon Leary […]

Review: Hole

I’ve been on a review­ing spree this week, so I passed this one onto our lovely guest review­er, who took up the mantle very well for his first time review­ing. Check out his piece below! – Hole is unbe­liev­ably charm­ing. The play itself is clev­erly writ­ten, util­iz­ing the charm of the char­ac­ters to get import­ant […]

Review: It’s Behind You!

We’ve all had ter­rible Zoom calls over lock­down. Night­mar­ish ones, per­haps. How­ever, they’ve nev­er been quite as deadly as this. Trick of the Light Theatre’s (via Circa Theatre) work It’s Behind You! is a piece of digit­al theatre born out of the COVID-19 lock­down. First per­formed live online on 28 May, and avail­able until 30 […]

Review: Alice in Wonderland

Cir­ca’s panto this year is Alice in Won­der­land, and it is a mys­tic­al jour­ney down the rab­bit hole (Mt Vic tun­nel), to dis­cov­er fun, some qual­ity Kiwi bangers, and utter man­i­cism (in a good way). Writ­ten by Circa stal­warts, Gav­in Ruther­ford and Simon Leary (who play the Dame and the Mad Hat­ter respect­ively), it’s a […]

Review: Cock

Cock is tense. It is beau­ti­ful, jar­ringly intim­ate, and phe­nom­en­ally craf­ted. It’s also com­pletely heart­break­ing. Circa One’s set (designed by Sean Lynch) inspires thoughts of a box­ing ring, or a fash­ion show – in the round, with bright lights cast down onto a white floor below. The audi­ence sits on three sides; I view the […]

Review: Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God

  Liz and Frank have spent the past few years achiev­ing the sort of anaem­ic exist­ence that passed for middle-class suc­cess for my par­ents’ gen­er­a­tion.  Careers, a house, a child.  Care­fully cur­ated shelves of books and knick-knacks in the liv­ing room.  This liv­ing room is the stage for a reunion din­ner party; two old friends […]

Review: Uneasy Dreams and Other Things

Dir­ec­ted by Sara Brod­ie. Writ­ten by Lori Leigh. Uneasy Dreams and Oth­er Things is a glor­i­ous, hil­ari­ous (in some places) piece of theatre, inspired by Franz Kafka’s The Meta­morph­os­is.  How­ever, instead of turn­ing into a giant bug overnight, our reluct­ant heroine, Sam­antha (Lydia Peck­ham), grows a penis. She spends the entirety of the play try­ing to deal […]

Review: The Dinner

  Take one part absurd com­edy, one part awk­ward din­ner with your par­ents, and a dash of glor­i­ous man­i­cism, and you have The Din­ner, a unique improv show cur­rently being played at Circa Theatre. Being per­formed for the first time out­side of Europe, this play brings togeth­er five din­ner guests (four friends, and a new […]

Theatre Review: Destination Beehive: 2017

You pos­sibly couldn’t get more Wel­ling­ton than head­ing to the theatre, regard­less of the weath­er, to watch a music­al about polit­ics. Last week, I went along to Des­tin­a­tion Bee­hive: 2017, writ­ten by the clev­er and witty duo of Lor­ae Parry and Pinky Agnew. The seat of Tinakori Heights is highly con­ten­ded this elec­tion as every […]

Preview: Some shows and a party

Wow this week is FULL of shows and there’s a party at the end of it. Let’s go! Hud­son & Halls is still going strong at the Han­nah Play­house. I loved it, Mr Goulter loved it, the Wel­ling­ton Theatre Awards judges loved it. Don’t miss it. Across the road at BATS Theatre Musique Romantique, Stand […]