Sean Burnett Dugdale-Martin The Boy Who Caused 9/11, written by NZ-Japanese playwright Ken Mizusawa and directed by Cassandra Tse. Performed by the Year 2 Stage & Screen Te Auaha students with crew support from the Year 1s, is about an 11-year old boy from a small town who believes he has uncovered the secrets of the universe. It’s a cute and lovely show, despite its suggestive title, and watching young and upcoming performing arts students in their element is just as heart-warming.
Sean Burnett Dugdale-Martin Birthday Book of Storms by Theatre of Storms Collective is directed by Jaime G. Dörner, written and assistant directed by R. Johns and production design is by Peter Mumford. The performance is a work of fiction about Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, Assia Wevill and Shura that is not a biography. It is magical realism and describes its setting as a “magic, surrealist temporality”. This alternative style finds inspiration in poetry, just like its character did, but at points becomes difficult to follow.
Lilli Margaret Photo by Andrew McGee Long Ride Home, written and directed by Jack McGee and produced by Squash Co. Arts Collective tells a simple story of two siblings who are struggling to connect. This is a new piece of writing from McGee, and it has great potential with a little bit of finessing to have a stellar second season.
Corey Spence The blurb for The Sun and the Wind was all the convincing I needed to jump at reviewing the show. There’s something incredibly powerful about the way theatre can inspect our relationship with grief, and this production is no different. Led by director Edward Peni and kaiwhakahaere Borni Te Rongopai Tukiwaho, written by Tainui Tukiwaho, and presented by Taurima Vibes, The Sun and the Wind is a beautiful and thoughtful meditation on that very relationship we have with grief. From direction, to craft, to performance, this phenomenal production had me on the edge of my seat from the very beginning.
Corey Spence My theatre experience is usually quite traditional: glass a vino, settling into a chair beside my partner, unfurling a notebook ready to scribble confusing and indecipherable notes in the lowlight. Today, however? All of that’s out the window as I settle into a livestream, coming straight from Tank Theatre in NYC, to view Antonio!. As the digital programme tells me, I’m in for a “queer pirate-punk musical that reframes – and reclaims! – iconic characters from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Merchant of Venice.”
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