• theatre
  • features
  • faqs
  • contact
  • theatre
  • features
  • faqs
  • contact
  Art Murmurs - Wellington Reviews

Reviews

Trough Rose Coloured Glasses

19/2/2016

Comments

 

Dell Mitchell

Through Rose Coloured Glasses draws you in with a playful scene that sets the nature of the relationship between best friends Sam and Taylor.  The play flicks back and forth between past and present ­ with hints of the trials they experienced as children/teenagers to the confrontation of how that impacted them as young adults.
As the show contains some powerful themes relating to mental health and abuse, this sets up several ‘reveals’ where they leave the nostalgia behind and acknowledge to each other how it really was.  

The acting was very strong, you believed the characters ­ as young kids they were playful, as teenagers annoying, and as young adults slowly becoming self aware.  The use of light 
hearted, age relevant, pop culture references lightened the mood at the appropriate times, and several audience members found themselves nodding along in recognition at the  
characters behaviours and reactions.

The venue creates an intimate experience with the minimal set used to the best effect. Every prop had a purpose and the actors used the space effectively to create safe spots for their characters in moments of tension.  This minimal idea carried through to the music, used sparingly it was never distracting and always served a purpose.  Good use is made of the lighting and voices in order to help the audience determine which time period we were in, but there were several times (especially in the first twenty minutes) where I was trying to figure out what age the characters were actually playing.­ This may have been deliberate, but I would have liked more hints and/or more obvious cues when switching. 

There is a lot crammed into this play; friendship, loss, abuse, mental health issues, and addiction but with some strong acting and staging it plays out well in the end and avoids the easy cliches.  

There are some excellent scenes and the friendship is played out effectively ending on an (almost) full circle.  Worth seeing.
Picture
Comments

    Local Honest Reviews

    At Art Murmurs, our aim is to provide honest and constructive art reviews to the Wellington community.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    September 2021
    July 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015

    Categories

    All
    All Age Appropriate
    Art
    BATS
    Beauty Standards
    Black Comedy
    Body Positive
    Circa
    Circus
    Comedy
    Comedy Festival 2018
    Comedy Festival 2019
    Comedy Gala 2022
    Community Theatre
    Dance
    Devised
    Documentary
    Drag
    Drama
    Emerging Artist
    Exhibition
    Experimental
    Female Artists
    Feminism
    Feminist
    Festival
    For Kids
    Fringe
    Fun
    Gallery
    Gryphon Theatre
    Hannah Playhouse
    Heart + Music
    History
    Improv
    Interactive
    International
    Interview
    Ivy
    Lighting
    Local
    Mental Health
    Monologue
    Music
    Musical
    New Writing
    New Zealand
    NZ Comedy
    NZ Fringe
    NZIF
    On Tour
    Performance Poetry
    Photography
    Photospace Gallery
    Physical Theatre
    Political
    Politics
    Premiere
    Pyramid Club
    Queer
    Race
    Roxy LIVE
    Science
    Scruffy Bunny Improv Theatre
    Sexual Violence
    Shakespeare
    Site Specific
    Site-specific
    Sketch
    Solo Show
    Song
    Spoken Word
    Stagecraft
    Storytelling
    Tahi Festival
    Te Auaha
    Theatre
    Thought Provoking
    Thought-provoking
    Thriller
    Toi Poneke Gallery
    Verbatim
    Victoria University
    Violence
    Virtual Theatre
    Weekly
    Wellington
    Wellington Footlights
    Wellington Repertory