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.
Laura Ferguson“I hope that Alex Love comes back for the next Fringe Festival so I can learn How To Win A Pub Quiz again.” That was the closing line for my review of How To Win A Pub Quiz at last year’s Fringe Festival. I was pretty excited to go back and see Alex Love and find out if my memory retained the knowledge learned last year to hopefully win this time.
Jenny NimonCockroach, 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.
Austin HarrisonPoe’d is an improvised play paying homage to gothic horror and it’s most well-remembered foreparent Edgar Allan Poe. The Wellington Improvisation Troupe (WIT) tackle a challenging form with gusto and courage and create a night of interesting theatre made up on the spot.
by Laura Ferguson Stepping into the world of The Mournmoor Murders by Alice May Connolly and Maria Williams already feels intimately familiar to me. I grew up in a small town in North Otago which is mighty close to where the fictional town of Mournmoor is set in South Canterbury. I know where Fairlie and Washdyke are. I know that despite its burgeoning rockabilly scene, the “big smoke” of Timaru can be a bit of a shithole. Yet despite that, I know “Feel, Touch, Taste, Timaru” is still the best town slogan I have ever heard. Taking inspiration from many tropes from various murder mystery pop culture institutions such as Midsomer Murders, Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple stories, and Twin Peaks amongst others, The Mournmoor Murders delivers crime mixed in with a hefty dose of hilarity.
Jenny NimonWritten and performed by Damien Warren-Smith, and directed and cowritten by Cal McCrystal, Garry Starr Performs Everything is riot of a show that will delight theatre-makers and casual audience members alike. Having won awards in the Adelaide, Brighton, and Manchester 2018 Fringe Festivals, and having been nominated for both Best Newcomer and the Golden Gibbo Award in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2018, I was intrigued to say the least. Let me break down this must-see of Wellington Fringe Festival 2019.
Harry GibbonsThe promotion for Imposter Child describes it as contemporary (which it certainly is) fresh (which again it very much is) and hilarious. Well it was certainly genuinely funny and there were a number of very funny moments in what proved to be yet another great Fringe Festival contribution.
Jenny NimonAs someone who has never had a bent for movement, it always astounds me to see the way that dancers can tell a story with their bodies alone. Flying Down Sand Dunes is the first full-length work by Well Fare State—recent graduates of contemporary dance at the New Zealand School of Dance. Created as part of the Toi Pōneke Choreographic Residency, it explores the human condition, addressing themes of love, fragility, strength, and loss.
Jenny NimonWaste Not Want Not: Bethany’s Guide to the Thrift Life, Bethany Grace Miller’s debut solo show, is a piece of comedy that thrives off a thrifty Wellington audience. It is witty, imaginative, and strangely close to home.
Jenny NimonBlonde Mountain Wolf Man, a piece of solo physical theatre by Craig Geenty, is an exploration of family history with strong emphasis on name, place, and identity. In an hour, the audience is taken on a journey that is both lighthearted and oddly intimate.
by Laura FergusonJessica McKerlie has travelled Fringe circuits across the globe and has landed in Wellington to give us her new show, Go To Bed, Jessica! McKerlie is a queer musical comedian and I count myself lucky to finally be able to catch one of her performances. I settle myself in, ready for a night of winking at clichés while simultaneously subverting them. I was not disappointed.
by Laura FergusonAmber Topaz is on stage, sequinned skirt hiked up around her waist, knickers around her knees. She warbles in a drunken Irish tone about drinking more beer, her red hair falling into her eyes haphazardly. She mimes alleviating herself in a public street. It is hilarious and undignified. I love it.
by Laura FergusonI have been eagerly anticipating Three Dead Dogs since last Halloween. The Wellington theatre company Horse With No Name is back, bringing with them this funny, uplifting, heartwarming, tear-jerking show. The title is self-explanatory and anyone who has felt that unconditional heartstring tug for a pet, family member or even stuffed animal will be able to empathise with the love and care shown in this play.
by Laura FergusonConfession time: my knowledge of Don Giovanni, is limited to the fact that it is, in fact, an opera. Probably one by Mozart or Beethoven. The former turned out to be correct.
Performer Stuart Coats and director Lyndee-Jane Rutherford have wrestled Mozart’s epic tale of debauchery and regret into a one-man, one-hour jaunt of Don Giovanni. Beautifully synchronised with the amazing pianist Thomas Nikora, Coats energetically flings himself into the story of Don Giovanni, who, after a lifetime of dueling and sleeping with anyone who will have him, is dragged into hell for refusing to repent . by Laura FergusonGeorge Fenn’s G+Force begins with onomatopoeic sounds, forming an ASMR-like experience. Gluts and stuttering send a tingle down my spine. I’m already jittery and bright-eyed, eagerly awaiting the start of my first Fringe show of 2018, and the effect of this perceptual phenomena easily transmutes into the relaxing buzz of endorphins once the show begins.
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