Julia Bon-McDonald Talking Heads released the song Heaven in 1979. Here’s the main refrain: ‘Heaven is a place, a place where nothing, nothing ever happens’. If the song is to be believed, is the inverse a place where nothing ever stops happening?
Brie Keatley This is my second time reviewing a show by Horse With No Name and I can honestly say they are consistently absolutely smashing it. From the costumes to the performances, everything in Kiwi’s Big Hararei (written by Ryan Cundy and Catriona Tipene, also directed by Tipene) is polished and full of energy.
Jack McGee  At the beginning of Manage Your Expectations, performer/creator Eliza Sanders monologues at length about what the rest of the show will be. As she does this, she frequently contradicts herself, doubling, tripling, quadrupling back to clarify and re-clarify every new idea. All thoughts are treated as equally significant, or insignificant, to the point where we as the audience lose the ability to separate the wheat from the chaff, our brains scrambling to make sense of all the words coming at us. Not to mention the litany of puns. It’s a cacophony of context.
Guy van Egmond Thriller is a genre of control, holding back information to keep the audience unsettled, guiding exactly what they’re allowed to learn and when. An author can drip-feed information by the word; a filmmaker has total direction over what the audience can hear and see. But a thriller on stage is a whole other ballgame.
Brie Keatley What does it mean to be alone? What is death? And where does the sun go when it sets? All these questions are grappled with by Robert Lloyd in his mystifying first original piece There once was a boy.
Guy van Egmond When the call came in to review Shakespeare’s North’s latest production, I was keen. I found their staging of Julius Caesar—last year at two/fiftyseven—endearing; though it lacked spectacle, the company had great enthusiasm and familiarity with Shakespeare’s work. I was curious to see what they’d pull off this time, bringing The Life of Henry the Fifth to the (arguably better-suited) Dome at BATS.
Sean Burnett Dugdale-Martin Ration the Queen’s Veggies is a solo(ish) play written by Te Wehi Ratana and Tainui Tukiwaho, directed by Tainui Tukiwaho and performed by actor Ngahiriwa Rauhina. Brought to us by Te Pou Theatre, it is an unreal retelling of real happenings. It shares the remarkable experience of the abseiling activist Te Wehi Ratana during his 48 hours at Rimutaka Prison.
Sean Burnett Dugdale-Martin 50 years ago, ABBA released their self-titled album that homed the single: Mamma Mia! To celebrate is this season of Mamma Mia! at the St James Theatre, directed by Maya Handa Naff, choreographed by Catherine Reid and musical directed by Hayden Taylor. If you haven’t been to the St James yet, this is your invitation.
Alia Marshall My Puppet Who Sighs in Pearl Shavings is a multidisciplinary trans allegory brought to us by Landfish Productions, a collective of new and emerging practitioners in Pōneke. This intimate solo work, written and performed by Raven Harvey-Lomas, promises to take us on a journey of the self: “one of its origin, and one of its end.”
Brie Keatley The Story of Hansel, Gretel and Little Red is a show by children, for children and is about the many fairy tales and fables we grew up with. Co-Directed by Devin Stilton and Jamie Byas (Byas also wrote the script.) I am enamoured by the performances of the young cast but unfortunately not much else.
Campbell Wright The Sound Inside is an enigma. I came into The Sound Inside knowing absolutely nothing about the show, and I would recommend that you do the same. However, in order to give some context for the review, the play follows a writing professor, Bella Baird (Dulcie Smart), and her student Christopher Dunn (Kieran Charnock). Their relationship develops as Bella struggles with cancer while Christopher writes his first novella. Entering the theatre, I am immediately struck by Meg Rollandi’s set. A slight haze roiled between the shadows cast by a simple desk, table, and chairs, spilling onto the bed opposite. This initial stage image set the scene for the most impressive theatre design work I’ve seen in recent years.
Brie Keatley At 11:30 am on a brisk Wellington Tuesday, the Circa foyer is filled with parents, grandparents, and children. This can only mean one thing - it’s kids show time. This time around it’s the wonderfully goofy All the Things I Wish I Could Be, featuring the lovable dads Tom Knowles and Jed Parsons (as Jeff Parsnips)
Brie Keatley As the in-house children’s reviewer for Art Murmurs, I am honoured to dust off my title for The Home Inside. Directed by Timothy Fraser, written/starring Emma Rattenbury and lead/produced by Kerryn Palmer, The Home Inside is a reflective piece of theatre about the importance of finding emotional resilience (mostly through focused breathing.) as a child.
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