Art Murmurs - Reviews

Inquiet Moments

11/3/2020

Jenny Nimon

Inquiet Moments, written and directed by Campbell Wright, is a physical theatre piece that explores anxiety and its impacts on relationships. Caught in a panic attack, Riley (Abby Lyons) is haunted by Wisp (Tom Hughes) and Nightmare (Emily Griffiths), the personifications of her anxiety, as she navigates memories of her relationship with Rowan (Prea Millar). It is a fast-paced and non-consecutive collection of vignettes that seems to draw its inspiration from plays like Constellations by Nick Payne, giving the audience snippets of the story to piece together as they go.

Transhumance

10/3/2020

Lilli Margaret

Transhumance explores gender and what it means to exist between locations. What’s it like to take your best guess at womanhood, or at manhood? How do we get treated by society when we occupy these spaces? And how does this make us feel? This clown show slowly unpacks these concepts, uncoiling in front of the audience, showing us what it might feel like to not quite belong in one, or the other. Ania Upstill takes a train of sorts, between each experience of gender, and endeavours to follow a map of “female” and “male” at each destination. Upstills’ physical struggles to maintain these genders and their larger than life attempts to occupy them provokes both laughter and empathy.

Enough

9/3/2020

Lizzie Murray

Four dancers step into the void. Light slowly creeps on to the stage. Three of the dancers are masked. Delicate music builds with the light. The masked dancers stalk our protagonist. They latch on to him like ghoulish parasites. He cannot escape.

Oddacity

9/3/2020

Kate Norquay

Oddacity is delightful, hysterical, and ridiculous. The show is a collection of circus, cabaret, and comedy sketches, each more silly than the last. It’s one of those shows that when you try to explain, you have to preface your description with ‘it sounds stupid but…’. Oddacity is the definitive ‘you had to be there’ show, and you do not want to miss out.

Hello Darlings! with Pamela Hancock

5/3/2020

Lizzie Murray

She has the wardrobe of Mrs Doubtfire, a heart of gold and the frightening energy of Suzanne Paul. She is Pamela Hancock, proudly brought to you from the vibrant city of Bulls.

Declarations of Love (And Other Useless Things)

5/3/2020

Lilli Margaret

If you’ve ever wondered how 50 Shades of Grey would go down if Anna was a pragmatic Gisborne born lass, what it would be like to live in a world where Sex Bots join the union, and if you tend to enjoy a healthy serving of interpretive dance, then Declarations of Love (And Other Useless Things) will be right up your alley. Written by Emma Maguire and co-directed by Anastasia Matteini-Roberts and El Yule, Declarations of Love (And Other Useless Things) plays with concepts of love, lust, sexual expression and gender in an eclectic menagerie of scenes.

Cockroach

2/3/2020

Jenny Nimon

Cockroach, written and directed by Melita Rowston and performed by Leah Donovan, sets high expectations with its full belt of accolades. The show was nominated for Best Performance in Melbourne Fringe, as well as Best Sound Design, Best Director, Best Cabaret Performer and Best Cabaret Performance in the Broadway World Awards in Sydney — quite the list. It describes itself as ‘an amoral revenge tale for the #MeToo generation’, and in its exploration of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Cockroach reclaims some of society’s better-known rape cases by rewriting the events in favour of the victims.

Stupid Bitch Wants a Puppy

13/2/2020

Annabella Gamboni

Claire Waldron is the sole performer (the only stupid b*tch?) in this Six Degrees Festival show, a suite of productions by Victoria University’s Master of Fine Arts – Theatre programme.

The Newlyweds: Double Date

19/10/2019

Jenny Nimon

Photo credit: Katie Hill

Real life newlyweds Eleanor Stankiewicz and Marcel Blanch-de Wilt invite improvisors from NZIF to join them each night for an improv-filled double date in their New Zealand debut of The Newlyweds: Double Date. For their Wellington premiere on Thursday evening, they were joined by none other than Jennifer O’Sullivan and Matt Powell.

Mild West: Draw

17/10/2019

Jenny Nimon

Photo credit: Alex Rabina

Dunedin-based improv troupe Improsaurus take the Random Stage in the second week of New Zealand Improv Festival. Their show is a longform, character-based narrative where the story is in the hands of a coin-flipper. So improvisors, gamblers, and Westerners alike: saddle yourself up for the wild ride that is Mild West: Draw.

Off Book: The Musical

12/10/2019

Jenny Nimon

And we’re back with another NZIF instalment. Impulse Theatre graced the Random Stage on Thursday evening (and will until Saturday 12 October) with their touring show Off Book: The Musical, which is exactly what it sounds like: an improvised musical. For this season, however, the cast of six is joined by Wellington’s very own Bethany Miller, who adds a dose of cheery optimism to the mix.

Here's a Thing: NZIF Kickoff

11/10/2019

Jenny Nimon

New Zealand Improv Fest officially opened on Wednesday night, spearheaded by Here’s a Thing: NZIF Kickoff, MC’d by Jennifer O’Sullivan. This show was jam-packed with the kind of audience anticipation that any kickoff performance should hope to earn. It felt like I was back in high school, attending my first ever theatre fest.

'Elevation'

24/5/2019

Jenny Nimon

Uther Dean’s ‘Elevation’ is a piece of classic, warm stand-up comedy that lifts the room. Its lightness is exactly what Dean says he is aiming for, following a heavy season of his 2018 NZICF show My Fat/Sad, and while ‘Elevation’ does dip into some serious content, its playfulness is what makes it most memorable. Over the next hour, Dean takes us on a surprising journey with the oddly thorough dissection of the U2 song ‘Elevation’.

The Good Guys: the Goodest Show in Town

21/5/2019

Jenny Nimon

The Good Guys: the Goodest Show in Town is an annual NZICF charity event featuring a line-up of some of the Fest’s best to fundraise for Spinning Top. This year’s diverse range of comedy features MC Ben Hurley and comedians Jeremy Elwood, Brynley Stent, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, Raybon Kan, Rhian Wood-Hill, and Justine Smith.

Best of the Fest

12/5/2019

Jenny Nimon

Best of the Fest, a Festival award winning show, opens this year to a sell-out audience. The queue to San Fran blocks the door to Floridita’s, and the energy is high. In the late show to end all late shows, NZICF brings us the works of Li’i Alaimoana, Jadwiga Green, Guy Montgomery, Melanie Bracewell, Tony Lyall, and Phil Nichol.