Theatreview Weekly: 27/10/11

A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including A Thousand Hills, Joseph Harper: The Boy And The Bicycle, Hold Onto Your Horses and Yo Future.

See more recent reviews at theatreview.org, the NZ Performing Arts Review & Directory.

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Pacific Crystal Palace, Tauranga - TIC TIC: Quite simply an inspiration

- reviewed by Vivienne Quinn

Barrett is engaging with his audience, a good-sized crowd at Tauranga’s Art Festival. This one-man show never wavers in its clear narrative; a challenge considering how many characters Barrett brings to life, with an assortment of their own personal tics and accents.

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BATS, Wellington - RISE - JAVA DANCE COMPANY: An exhilarating celebration of flour power

- reviewed by John Smythe

It’s wonderful to see performers at Bats making real dough for a change. Literally. Once you combine flour, water and golden syrup you can make all sorts of things from it – and that’s pretty much the case with Rise. Choose your own metaphor.

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Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, The Edge, Auckland - A THOUSAND HILLS: The quest for “a home, love and good health”

- reviewed by Sian Robertson

The setting moves back and forth between the refugee camp in Zaire and Philippe’s village in Rwanda, where he grew up and where he was suddenly plunged into the nightmare, during which his loved ones were slaughtered and he barely escaped the ‘devils in the night’.

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The Festival Tent, Nelson - RANDOM ACTS OF GOD & OTHER STORIES: A CONTEMPORARY CABARET: The best performance in Nelson Arts Festival 2011

- reviewed by Janet Whittington

Each song and dance sequence starts in a traditional manner; cruises along in the expected format for a few bars, thus preparing you for boredom to come. Then it all changes. Very thrilling. My eyes widen, I smile, I gasp, laugh. Most amazing of all – it works. I don’t know how. I am so impressed that it works so well. I could happily sit through another performance.

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Fred’s, 46 Frederick Street, Wellington - JOSEPH HARPER: THE BOY AND THE BICYCLE: Intense yet lyrical, fretted with humour, absorbing and strangely life-affirming

- reviewed by John Smythe

The boys rides the bicycle; the ‘black dog’ of depression rides the boy … When Joseph Harper rides the 10-speed on stage – it’s rear wheel braced to allow him to pedal nowhere fast – he converses with it, variously as himself with the bike; as the dog with himself.

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Canterbury towns and suburbs, Christchurch - Canterbury - HOLD ONTO YOUR HORSES: Broken community’s issues confronted with style, commitment and sensitivity

- reviewed by Robert Gilbert

Three white-faced actors play a multitude of community characters. However, it is Christchurch’s newest archetypes that hold the play together: The Worrier; The Weeper; The Fix-it-up-er.

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Fred’s, 46 Frederick Street, Wellington - JOSEPH HARPER: BIKES I’VE OWNED VERSUS GIRLS I’VE FALLEN IN LOVE WITH: Comedy of anguish generously shared

- reviewed by John Smythe

Nothing sucks an audience in and massages their empathy glands quite so effectively as an authentic sharing of true life experience, especially when the storyteller reciprocates the empathy and has the skill to maintain audience interest.

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Whitirea Performance Centre, 25-27 Vivian Street, Wellington - YO FUTURE: Mortality and anarchy loom large

- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

Yo Future starts and ends with the 22-strong cast watching a programme being shown on television. At the beginning they are a close-knit group entwined on and about a small sofa, laughing and sighing at what ever it is the drama is all about.

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

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