The Wellingtonista

Random stuff about Wellington since 2005

improv

Review: The Saboteur

by Emma Maguire May 20, 2021

It’s improv. It’s a game show. It’s delightful chaos. It’s The Saboteur.  Off the back of sold-out seasons in the NZ Improv Festival in 2019 and in Melbourne in 2020, The Saboteur is just over an hour’s worth of improv chaos as a part of this year’s Comedy Fest. Five improvisors, one of which is trying to sabotage […]

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Review: Dungeoning and Dragoning

by Emma Maguire July 27, 2020

The show is exactly thus – four great actors playing Dungeons and Dragons on stage, led by an eminently likeable DM. I must admit I had my qualms when coming to this show, as I’ve always found playing D&D to be more fun than watching it, but the cast is excellent, the mood appropriate, and the […]

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Review: Bay’s Anatomy

by Emma Maguire March 15, 2020

I once again embarked on the odyssey that seems to be one of Kickin’ Rad/Soap Factory’s Fringe schticks these days – an improvised soap opera, set in Wellington, with a cast of ten and new episodes on the hour every hour from 1-11pm. Having stumbled exhaustedly but also with a great sense of excitement from […]

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Review: Death Comes To Us All

by Emma Maguire August 28, 2019

Death takes her by the hand, leads her to a pool of light at the apron of the stage and she tells us her last moments. There’s light at the end, she says, and disappears off stage. I sniff, a little, and hold back tears. Death Comes To Us All is a remarkably honest, very […]

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Review: So You Think You Khandallah

by Emma Maguire May 21, 2019

It’s 1982 in New Zealand, a time of Olivia Newton-John, Lazy Susans and brick mobile phones, and the students of the Khandallah Academy of Performing Arts are growing their skills, making friends, and perhaps even finding love, all while they try to get a paying performing arts career. However, things are not quite that easy […]

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Review/s: New Zealand Improv Fest Bonanza

by Emma Maguire October 27, 2018

I saw four improv shows last night as part of the New Zealand Improv Festival. In the interests of brevity, here’s a joint review of all four. Austen Found  Penny Ashton’s Austen Found is a perambulation into the world of one of Jane Austen’s lost musicals – in this case, the story of one Victoria Sandybottom, who […]

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Review: Space Patrol 5 (NZ Improv Festival)

by Emma Maguire October 25, 2018

I leaned over to my theatre-going companion just before the start of this show and pointed at one of the audience-made spaceships lying on the floor of BATS’ Random Stage. “That spaceship looks a lot like a dildo,” I remarked, presciently as always, and he agreed. The audience, in an ode to predictability, chose it. […]

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Review: The Dinner

by Emma Maguire August 11, 2018

  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 […]

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Review: The Blender (Sundays with BaseJump Improv)

by Emma Maguire June 18, 2018

With a dash of insanity, a smidge of ridiculousness, and a lot of Wellingtonian wit, BaseJump Improv’s new show The Blender is a wild ride for your Sunday evening. We don’t tend to see Sundays as a ‘going to theatre day’ but with a show running at roughly forty-five minutes long, this piece is easily manageable between […]

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Fringe Festival 2014 – Brooks & Brown in Literally Anything

by Sue Tyler February 26, 2014

We sent along intrepid theatre goer and Yarn Celebrity  Tash Barneveld to check out a new Fringe Show by Brooks & Brown. He’s what she thought.   ‘Brooks & Brown are a brand new transTasman duo who have no idea what their show is going to be about.’ Christine Brooks and Rik Brown have worked together only […]

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