A pākehā woman's face wearing clown makeup. A neon ribbon cascades in front of their face.

Review: Speed is Emotional

Speed is Emo­tion­al Writ­ten and per­formed by Jo Rander­son Speed is Emo­tion­al is exactly what it sounds like: fast, funny, a little chaot­ic, and com­pletely its own thing. Writ­ten and per­formed by Jo Rander­son, the show dives head­first into what it feels like to live with ADHD. Rander­son invites any­one with a neurodi­ver­gent brain, and […]

Review: Hamlet – One Hour. Three Actors. Denmark Will Never Be the Same

As someone who’s nev­er read or seen a per­form­ance of Ham­let, I might seem like an unlikely review­er for TheJoMarsh’s adapt­a­tion at Bats Theatre. How­ever, if I, with my inex­per­i­ence, can eas­ily fol­low and enjoy ‘Ham­let – One Hour. Three Act­ors. Den­mark Will Nev­er Be the Same,’ then any­one can. In this high-tech, dysto­pi­an take […]

Review: Concept for a Film

A Beau­ti­ful Har­mony of Theatre, Music and So Mush Spore.   I loved the nov­el format of storytelling that ‘Concept for a Film’ delivered. The scene opens with Max Bar­ton, sit­ting at a desk that faces the audi­ence, read­ing out the script for a film. These read­ings are inter­mit­tently dis­persed with many dis­rup­tions includ­ing phone calls […]

Review: Limits

Reviewed by Nadia Free­man Photo cred­it: Dav­id Vagg This is no typ­ic­al dance num­ber meant to dis­tract and delight you with sparkles and clap-along num­bers.  Lim­its sits in the realm of theatre that is to chal­lenge its audi­ence and give them a chance to view what it might be like to step into the shoes […]

Review: Homemade Takeaways

I don’t think any­one will dis­agree with me that it’s been one hell of a year, and Christ­mas is des­cend­ing on us fast.  So it seemed com­pletely appro­pri­ate to be watch­ing a show about people who’ve had a hell of a year, too, drawn togeth­er at Christ­mas. Annie and Will have grav­it­ated back to the […]

Review: Olive Copperbottom

Leav­ing Circa on Wed­nes­day after the open­ing night of Olive Cop­per­bot­tom, one of the many things I was feel­ing was deep regret that it was the very first of Penny Ashton’s shows that I’d seen, and I’d missed so many oth­ers.  Ashton is a bright light.  Her energy, her wit, and her joy were incan­des­cent […]

Review: Owls Do Cry

Owls Do Cry is not your typ­ic­al the­at­ric­al retell­ing of a book. Instead, it is a com­plete rein­ter­pret­a­tion of the work through move­ment, design and song.   The show starts very light-hearted with a chor­us of singing, move­ment and audi­ence inter­ac­tion. As the show con­tin­ues, how­ever, it draws you into the real pain and fra­gil­ity of […]

Review: Popcorn

Wel­ling­ton Rep­er­tory Theatre’s new­est offer­ing is Pop­corn, Ben Elton’s play. The dia­logue is witty, the script­ing tight and the themes pres­ci­ent des­pite being writ­ten in 1996. Set in the home of a exploit­a­tion cinema dir­ect­or, Bruce Delametri, Pop­corn takes place over one night as the legendary Mall Mur­der­ers invade Bruce’s house after he wins an […]

Review: The Look Of Love

I’ve seen Ali Harp­er before, at Old St Paul’s in 2012, and I was struck by her humour and pro­fes­sion­al­ism then.  It was a fun night out with my Robot Mum and we both enjoyed hear­ing songs we knew, and some we did­n’t, per­formed by someone who knew her craft and was super skilled. On […]

That’s All She Wrote – Review

I’ve  found myself in a very lovely, very priv­ileged, and deeply uncom­fort­able space.  I’ve seen three pre­vi­ous Red Scare Theatre Com­pany shows, and I’ve genu­inely loved them all.  I will have to enlist one of my ‘Ista com­rades to review their shows in future, to pre­clude claims of bias and shame­less fangirl­ing. Each of those […]