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 […]