Theatreview Weekly: 07/07/11

A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including Short+Sweet Theatre, The Family Wilder, Nga Hau E Wha, An Oak Tree, On The Upside-Down Of The World, Echolalia and Temptation and Womanz Work! Plays from New Zealand’s Female Playwrights.

See more recent reviews at http://www.theatreview.org.nz, the NZ Performing Arts Review & Directory

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Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, The Edge, Auckland - SHORT+SWEET THEATRE, AUCKLAND 2011: Top 20 Week 1
 - reviewed by Nik Smythe

There are only three rules that I know of in this competition: 1) The works are original, 2) they are approximately, but no longer than, ten minutes in duration, and 3) the sets have to be placed and struck within 30 seconds each side. Everything else is up to the contestants, now go!


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Basement Theatre, Auckland - THE FAMILY WILDER: An excellent cracking thriller in the classic style with a particularly local voice
 - reviewed by Stephen Austin

If you’re thinking this new work from the prolific Thomas Sainsbury is a reworking of Little House on the Prairie, you’ve obviously Googling too hard and not paying enough attention to the local theatre scene.


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Te Whaea, Wellington - NGA HAU E WHA: Boldly exploring indigenous philosophies through artistic collaboration
 - reviewed by Jack Gray

... the company has cut their fingers and drawn fresh blood, weaving and stitching the fabric of time and memory into a cloak of human poetry.


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Bruce Mason Centre, Auckland - TIC TIC: Transported to a twitchy gay 1970s
 - reviewed by Joanna Page

In this restrictively politically correct world, only Paul Barrett could make a comedy out of Tourette’s syndrome – and get away with it. Why? Because he has it, and on stage he owns it.

Jennifer Ward-Lealand directed the biographical one-man play Barrett wrote with Michelanne Forster and it’s honest as.


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Bruce Mason Centre, Auckland - HOTEL - A CABARET: Phenomenal talents
 - reviewed by Joanna Page

Takapuna’s Bruce Mason Centre was freezing last night.

They could have turned up the air-conditioning, but the chill in the air couldn’t compete with the two women who were on fire on stage.


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Circa Two, Wellington - AN OAK TREE: Profoundly entertaining
 - reviewed by John Smythe

I confess to feeling trepidation at the premise of this show: two performers only one of whom has rehearsed; the other is different every night yet plays a crucial role. Is it just a gimmick? Has live theatre become so desperate that a good story well produced is not enough?


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Concert Chamber - Town Hall, THE EDGE, Auckland - ON THE UPSIDE-DOWN OF THE WORLD: Riveting story of exploration and discovery
 - reviewed by Nik Smythe

Solo performer Laurel Devenie works impressively hard to bring Meek/Lady Martin’s verbose text to life on stage, somewhat hampered, as she is, by a large and less than intimate venue, and Tony Rabbit’s distracting set and lighting design which never manages to explain itself to me.


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Basement Theatre, Auckland - ONE DAY MOKO: Character-driven satire meets avant-garde ingenuity
 - reviewed by Nik Smythe

The sparse grey scuffed concrete stage floor bears nothing but a television set and a crumpled sleeping bag by a trolley containing various other props. The audience crosses the stage to their seats, which one could infer as symbolically claiming area before its occupation by the vagrant protagonist with nowhere to call his own.


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BATS - return season, Wellington - THRICELY? PRECISELY. A POCKET FULL OF PIPS: Compulsive cycles of behaviour out inthe open
 - reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant

A delicious title that belies the anxiety and compulsive behaviour that director Brigid Costello has chosen to explore. "Thricely" is three dancers dressed very precisely in crisp white with just a hint of colour and individuality, and the "pocket full of pips" is as much with the audience as the cast by the end of this arresting piece of theatre.


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Te Whaea, Wellington - NGA HAU E WHA: Elemental appeal
 - reviewed by Steve Attwood

One of the signs of very good art, whatever the genre, is when it has such elemental appeal it transcends boundaries of culture, gender, sexuality, language, race and nationality; when it puts the viewer in touch with the primitive core within us all ...


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BATS, Wellington - ECHOLALIA AND TEMPTATION: An opportunity not to be missed
 - reviewed by John Smythe

This is an unusual and very welcome opportunity to see some contemporary clowning rooted in classical principles that tap into the essence of innocent, fallible, gullible, always ‘in-the-moment’ human experience.


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Various schools - on tour,  - WOMANZ WORK!  PLAYS FROM NEW ZEALAND’S FEMALE PLAYWRIGHTS: Energetic and engaging no frills theatre
 - reviewed by Erin Harrington

The performance succeeds in large part because it treats its teenage audience as intelligent adults and doesn’t shy away from swearing and sexual content, none of which feels gratuitous or out of place. Once the initial “can they say that at a school?” shock factor passed ...


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Galatos, Auckland - TASTE ME - THE LIVE SERIES: Taster invites return for more
 - reviewed by Felicity Molloy

What I saw was a veritable feast of hybrid art – a buffet? No - we followed the menu from start to finish with a selective build towards a slowly unwinding ending. A degustation then and one which (as much as I am about to overuse menu metaphors!), inevitably, I draw from subsequent comparisons with other recent tastes of hybrid contemporary dance works.


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BATS, Wellington - HAMLET DIES AT THE END: Stellar cast brings theatre story to amusing life
 - reviewed by Ewen Coleman

Community theatre groups are often seen as a microcosm of society, the members involved coming from all walks of life and often joining the group for reasons other than to perform on stage. It is this premise the Gavin McGibbon has taken for his latest play Hamlet Dies at the End, currently playing at Bats.


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Maidment, Auckland - THE GURU OF CHAI: A spice-layered chai worth savouring
 - reviewed by Stephen Austin

Rajan in full flight is an incredible solo performer – his character work is richly detailed, with beautiful broad range and rich textures in every moment. Not even a minor character (there are many) is allowed to slip by with any degree of vagueness and they all get the story-arc necessary within the lean 80 minute run time.

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