Tasman Clark The Scottish Ballet traveled across the globe to perform A Streetcar Named Desire as the cherry on top of the Auckland Arts Festival. An interpretation of Tennessee Williams’ classic Broadway play, it is a piece that translated beautifully into a ballet show. A quick summary, for those who don’t know, the show follows Blanche DuBois as she leaves her family home to follow her sister, Stella, in New Orleans.
Guy van Egmond Subversion was one of those shows that makes Pōneke really feel like a thriving city, with talent bubbling up out of every leaky pipe. Tucked into a parking lot off the alleyway that is Leeds Street, it was the epitome of a ‘street’ show.
Alia Marshall After a successful six week run in 2024, Roger Hall’s latest play End of Summer Time is back at Circa for a limited run, bringing back an iconic character from his body of work: Dickie Hart. As a PhD student focusing on Aotearoa’s canonical plays, I’m very familiar with Hall’s work, and I am curious to see what his latest script will deliver.
Tasman Clark The Lula Washington Dance Theatre is a South Los Angeles contemporary dance company that was founded by Lula and Erwin Washington. Lula boasts an impressive resume in choreographing dances for James Cameron’s Avatar and the original The Little Mermaid. A majority of their pieces express the African-American experience and themes that directly relate to Lula herself, who choreographs most of the pieces seen. The show itself, holding the same name as the company, is a compilation of four of their best works, and one world premiere performance, all done with their 10 piece group.
Ella Meg Paulsen Closing out the Auckland Arts Festival in Aotea Square’s Spiegeltent was the Delbert Anderson Quartet, an incredibly skilled group of musicians playing smooth, funky melodies – or jazz fusion to the common ear. Between each song, Delbert Anderson (trumpet) shared intriguing background to the music, exploring the significance to their story and his Diné heritage. One side of their culture he shared with us was spinning songs. Similar to kapahaka, these spinning songs are a way to retain cultural knowledge that’s been passed down from a long line of ancestors. Anderson has incorporated traditional melodies that his tribe elders taught him in his youth, respectfully transforming them into his contemporary musical style. He noted later that historically the elders would not support the ‘appropriation’ as Anderson told it, to modify the composition of their traditional songs, but allowed it as a means to connect their culture to the younger generations.
Brie Keatley Trick of the Light are truly one of the most magical theatre companies to ever come out of Aotearoa. Every time I witness one of their productions live I am reminded of how limitless theatre as an art form is.
Tasman Clark The History of House is a combined production between the three time Grammy winning group the Soweto Gospel Choir and Ministry of Sound collaborator DJ Groove Terminator that expectedly takes us through the History of House music. The entire show is designed and performed like a DJ set, yet I was delightedly surprised when the audience was taught the deep cultural and historical context within the history of house!
Corey Spence Ginette McDonald as Madame Arcati There’s an otherworldly buzz to Circa Theatre tonight as the crowd settles into Blithe Spirit, into the home of Charles Condomine (Phil Peleton), a novelist looking for his next hit. To fuel his novel, he and his husband Rudi (Simon Leary) invite the local psychic—whom most of the town is skeptical of—Madame Arcati (Ginette McDonald) to perform a séance in their home. The couple invites Dr and Mrs Bradman (Peter Hambleton and Hera Dunleavy, who also doubles as Edith the maid) around, as the four are looking forward to seeing the ‘hocus pocus’ of the so-called psychic… However, Charles can’t shake the thought of his ex-wife, Elvira (Laura Hill), as the séance begins. What could possibly go wrong when the spirit of your late first wife accidentally manifests and moves back in to torment your current partner?
Blithe Spirit is Noël Coward’s ‘improbable farce’ - a comedy with enough absurdity to keep you giggling and have you laughing for all the right reasons. And this production, directed by Colin McColl, hits all the right beats. Jack McGee  Izzie Newton-Cross’s Running Wet Through a Tunnel is nothing short of manic. A show about sperm making their way to the egg; it’s bananas, an hour of complete where-is-this-going-next madness. It bounces around genre, playing with elements of musical theatre, cabaret, and drag. It barrels forward, relentless, without waiting for the audience, or much in the way of polish, to catch up.
Jack McGee  The Night Has a Thousand Eyes is an odd duck in the NZ Fringe line up. It’s unusual to have a show at the “birthplace of brilliance” that’s come via the Dunedin Arts Festival. Still, whatever led Lucy Markinvoch and the team at Borderline Arts Ensemble to bring their work to Fringe instead of Circa (home of two of their previous works Lobsters, and Strasbourg 1518), I am not complaining. NZ Fringe is far from a small pond, but Thousand Eyes is a staggeringly massive fish.
 Nicola Brown’s Space Invaders is a stand-up show with a message. It seeks to educate the audience, as well as make them laugh. Similar to Hannah Gadsby’s (deservingly) lauded Nanette, it buries the lead. I have no idea going in that I’m going to learn a lot about Pelvic Organ Prolapse. Brown knows exactly what she’s doing, and it’s a joy to be along for the ride.
Sophie Kettley Walking into Te Pou, you instantly feel a sense of familiarity. Classic songs that everyone knows are playing in the background creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere. At the same time, the audience is greeted with a projection of both the Te Reo Māori and the Te Reo Pākehā versions of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Laura Olivia Tremaine A good enough MC will make you feel like you are part of a group of friends, a great MC will convince you to follow them out of the venue and onto the streets. This was the vibe we reached on the opening night of SMASHED- The Nightcap at the gorgeous new Spiegeltent in Aotea Square.
Sean Burnett Dugdale-Martin Accordion Ryan is a cabaret artist and musical comedian originally from the US but based in Vienna, Austria. After a hit run at the Edinburgh Fringe festival he has come all the way down to the base of the globe to amaze the Wellington audiences at the bottom of Cuba Street in our favourite little gay dive bar, Ivy.
Guy van Egmond In a well-kitted out community hall down in far-off Newtown, there was a most lovely and supportive evening when the Rocking Rainbows performed. Not just a band, as their Facebook page states, The Rainbows are a movement that showcases talent and capability against odds and scepticism. Supported by music therapist Sophie Sabri, the band put together a really joyful gig and created a wonderful shared space to perform their music.
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