Review: The truth game

Frank Stone (Alan Lovell) is acting editor of a daily newspaper. He’s been away and is back in the office and on the job again much sooner than his colleagues expected. There’s Ralph Jones (Brian Sergent),  long-serving journalist, Sam Hunter (Jessica Robinson), well-regarded journalist, Jo Pointer (Acushla-Tara Sutton), newbie journalist (who has come from blogging  […]

Review: Eight

Monologues have always struck me as exciting things to watch. There is only the performer and the audience. If the audience doesn’t like the performer then it can seem like a very long time sitting in the dark waiting to get back to the bar. If it works then it’s magical. In Eight, there are […]

Post show look at: ‘Awhi Tapu’ and ‘An Oak Tree’

‘Awhi Tapu’ and ‘An Oak Tree’ are on until the end of the week.  I found both fascinating for the way the story was told as much as for the narrative. Awhi Tapu at Downstage is set in a small ex-timber town. Wendyl is the leader holding Raj, Casper, and Girl Girl, together. He’s hoping […]

Review: Heat

Baby, it’s cold outside. “Heat”, by New Zealand playwright Linda Chanwai-Earle, returns to Wellington after its 2008 debut at Bats. I didn’t quite know what to expect of this icy Antarctic tale, but I ended up really enjoying it, and found it surprisingly moving. Set in an isolated research hut in Antarctica, it focuses on […]

Camping at Circa

While lots of Wellingtonians are off holidaying in remote parts of the country (huddling under canvas, finding sandbags to keep the creek out, hoping the caravan doesn’t blow away) Circa Theatre have kindly brought the camp site to those of us who stayed at home – in the form of Dave Armstrong’s new play The […]

Review: The Second Test

Jonathan Brugh’s one-man play The Second Test returns to Wellington, this time playing at Circa. The Second Test tells the amazing true-life story of New Zealand cricketer Bob Blair, whose fiancee Nerissa Love was tragically killed in the Tangiwai disaster while Bob was in South Africa on tour with the New Zealand cricket team (also […]