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

Reviews

MOM (Meet Our Mum)

10/8/2016

Comments

 
Picture

​Laura Ferguson

MOM - Meet Our Mum is performed and devised by the Third Year students of Applied Arts at Whitireia and it is a challenging and thought-provoking performance. It covers a plethora of main issues we have in our world today, using interesting and unique ways to discuss them.
​

Its tone covers the inferior aspects of our reality, while using a mixture of direct narrative, surrealism and outright absurdity. To expand, the show ranges from being interpretative to direct in how it conveys its various messages, these changes are well executed.

The opening night was full and from where I was sitting the audience reactions were intense in nature, laughing at jokes, leaning forward when things on stage got heated and outright revulsion at certain times, which were intended and absolutely hit their mark.

The show starts with an interpretative representation of our Mother: the planet Earth (Finn McCauley). I was highly impressed with the lighting and sound for the start of this piece, they accompanied the opening speech perfectly. The sound and lighting designers, James Dunlop and Tony Black, respectively, should be commended for their unobtrusive, yet captivating work. The narrative spoke of Earth in her time of ice and cold, the bare bones of a planet, and this was accompanied by musculature imagery. A signifier of Earth, which from where I was sitting at least, hauntingly shadowed itself into the form of a skull; a touch of foreshadowing the potential future that the performance is constantly warning us about.

Moving on from this is an interplay between various characters all with differing stories, each illuminating aspects of the difficulties facing us today. From gender equality, to racism, the rising gap of have’s and have-not’s to political corruption. Some of the issues raised are tongue-in-cheek, but then they cleverly segue in order to address a larger issue. For example, the pervasive Internet rumour that New Zealanders cannot have a garden without a license is twisted into a skewering of the dairy industry and its rampant degradation of the environment, even though we rely on it for our economy.

In between these segments, the Mother Earth figure stalks the stage, now encumbered by paper and plastic all about her. Stumbling and limping, hunched over and barely recognisable as her former self. The constant rustling of the rubbish surrounding her acts as an apt reminder of the white noise we harbour around World Issues, the capitalisation meaning as a singular person, we are helpless to stop them. McCauley’s performance shines here, doing a brilliant job at conveying the story through movement alone and I really enjoyed these moments that represent the bigger picture, we are watching individual stories, but collectively these issues span the globe over. 

One of my favourite parts of this performance was the trio who made up the news show. Unfortunately, I am unable to fully credit the actors as the programme only listed those involved, but not specific characters. However, the three were ridiculous, absurd, over-the-top and all in the best ways possible. They start out relatively sane and escalate their freneticism as the show goes on. Their lightning-fast dialogue was especially impressive and begins as if it might really be from a daytime newscast, but slowly the inappropriateness starts to shine and rhyme. This doubly served to highlight how pathetic it appears to keep ignoring these problems as they get worse and also to show, at one point visually, that they can keep vomiting words at a captive audience who choose to swallow it rather than explore what else could be done. All three did a fantastic job and I loved the change from structured narrative to syllabic rhyming. I would interpret the rhyming to represent how the news is intended to be sold and as easy as possible to consume, all the better to remember, my dear. Wolf’s teeth and all.

This show is provoking, the rhetoric is surprising and intriguing and the performers are engaging. The music and lighting are subtle and excellent. I may be biased because I believe in the message they convey, I still however, encourage others to go and either challenge your beliefs or reinforce them. MOM will be something that sticks with you and will give you a lot of excellent talking points to bring up with friends.

MOM – MEET OUR MUM is playing at BATS theatre from the 9th- 13th of August and tickets can be found at the BATS website: https://bats.co.nz/whats-on/mom-meet-our-mum/ or at the theatre.

​
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