Review: Amélie

By Talia Carl­isle The wait is over. WITCH Music Theatre is back in town, bring­ing the candy­­floss-sweet hearted magic of Amélie, our new friend at The Han­nah (Han­nah Play­house) till Nov 29. Have you ever opened your favour­ite child­hood story book or movie and wanted to dive right in? Now is your chance to dive […]

Review: Mr Halloween Bachelor

I’ve not seen so much body paint in a room in a while, and this time, I’m con­trib­ut­ing to it. It’s PopRox’s Mr Hal­loween Bach­el­or at the Han­nah Play­house, a tri­umphant sequel to last year’s Ms Christ­mas Bach­el­or­ette, and the cast (and some of the audi­ence) are fully cos­tumed for a night of flirty frivolity […]

Review: Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812

By Talia Carl­isle Invite out your friends and put on your best faux fur, because Witch Music Theatre is back in town. Don’t let the cold weath­er stop you from exper­i­en­cing the best night out this side of Broad­way, with Wellington’s own revolu­tion of music­al geni­us onstage at Han­nah Play­house until Sat­urday. Fol­low­ing a mem­or­able […]

Review: Cellfish

As part of the Kia Mau fest­iv­al this year I got to go and see the open­ing night of Taki Rua’s show Cell­fish, brought to Wel­ling­ton after a sea­son in Auck­land last year. Cell­fish is intense. A two per­son show, fea­tur­ing Car­rie Green and Jason Te Kare, Cell­fish is set in a Shakespeare class at […]

Review: Pōhutu

Pōhutu is a mul­ti­di­men­sion­al con­tem­por­ary dance piece that thrives in lim­in­al space. Draw­ing par­al­lels between Cho­reo­graph­er Bianca Hyslop’s grandmother’s dia­gnos­is of Alzheimers and the geo­therm­al land­scape she grew up in, it’s an unset­tling and utterly beau­ti­ful work. The begin­ning and end sequences draw gasps from the audi­ence. The middle sequences con­tain some of the most […]

Preview: Kororāreka: The Ballad of Maggie Flynn

Red Leap Theatre presents Kororāreka: The Bal­lad of Mag­gie Flynn, writ­ten by Paolo Rotondo and dir­ec­ted by Julie Nolan. The show is set in the era of the sign­ing of Te Tir­iti o Wait­angi, up at Kororāreka (present-day Rus­sell). Fic­tion­al­ised from the stor­ies of real life NZ women, it fol­lows Mag­gie Flynn, who leaves Ire­land […]

Review: The Pickle King

The Pickle King is on now at the Han­nah Play­house and is a col­our­ful, quirky and unique tale of love, death and what is worth pre­serving. Once the finest hotel in town, the Empire is now as faded as the dreams of the piano play­er who haunts the lobby. Ammachy runs the Empire with an […]

Preview: The Wholehearted

Massive Com­pany is bring­ing The Whole­hearted to Wel­ling­ton in Septem­ber. An hon­est por­tray­al of the extreme power of love, it was developed through con­ver­sa­tions with their loc­al com­munity, ask­ing them to share their per­son­al stor­ies of affec­tion and ded­ic­a­tion. The res­ult is a heart-warm­ing devised theatre work that spans gen­er­a­tions, genders and cul­tures. Massive Company’s […]

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 […]

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 […]