Alia Marshall Hone Kouka’s latest play Ngā Rorirori (or the idiots in te reo pākehā) is returning to the stage two years after a smash hit season at Circa. I missed it last time, so I’m stoked to finally get to see this piece of mahi from a playwright whose plays sit on my bookshelf full of notes. As the doors are about to open, we are welcomed by one of the ushers with a pōwhiri, who cheekily adds at the end that we’re in the perfect place tonight as the rain buckets down above us.
Guy van Egmond  Photo credit: Josh Hopton-Stewart A good theatre adaptation is one that retains the core of the original piece; one that culminates in the same emotional revelation, leaving an audience feeling altered and not wanting. Director Josh Hopton-Stewart hit it bang-on with Stagecraft’s production of The Seagull, by Anton Chekov.
Abby Lyons Oh That Theatre Company is a multi-award winning young theatre company whose work focuses on creating “fun, wild, camp, ridiculous while also sincere theatre’; and with the horrendous weather in Pōneke currently, this is right up my alley and I’m looking forward to a cozy piece of theatre.
Zoe Christall  There are parts of my girlhood that shape who I am today. Things like Girlfriend Magazine quizzes (✨Does Your Crush LIKE You Back??✨), asking mum if Gemma can come stay tonight (I PROMISE we’ll be good!), blanket forts, insecurities whispered underneath the covers at midnight, cuddles and promising to be best friends forever. I have never seen my girlhood accurately reflected back at me by any piece of media. Something was always missing. The girls on TV didn’t look the way I did when I was 16. The unique safety and silliness of female friendships was always trivialised. The girls
Tadhg Mackay It has been a long time since I’ve seen a piece of art without having learnt about it beforehand. The Body Politic, written by Elspeth Sandys and directed by Andrew Foster, is a dramedy about four people living in an apartment block in Thorndon. How much can these people take before they need to take a stand? I went into The Body Politic blind beyond the name, when I needed to be there, and that it was at Circa. I left having watched an excellent piece of theatre that would have passed me by if I hadn’t agreed to review it.
Julia Bon-McDonald There is something about knowing you’re going to a show with three Tony awards behind it that invites you to relax. This year, the Musical Theatre Course of Whitireia & WelTec present: Urinetown the Musical. I don’t know much about the show going in, but Urinetown sells itself as a ‘satire of greed, love and revolution’. The moment I see Michael Trigg’s piss-yellow lighting, I know we’re in for some laughs.
Jack McGee Jo Marsh and The Magnificent Weirdos’ ambitious new staging of Hamlet with its striking tagline (One Hour. Three Actors. Denmark will never be the same) and techno-thriller poster (designed by Hamish Boyle based on Marsh’s outlines), promises a take on the prince that's more Ethan Hawke than Kenneth Branagh. Set in a “crumbling, dystopian world filled with surveillance and conspiracies”, projection design (by SPLITelevison) is infused into the very core of the show. It’s as ambitious as it sounds. Pushing a shoe-string BATS budget to its limit, Marsh and her team are shooting for the moon, without cutting any corners for accessibility. It’s a hard show not to root for, even if it doesn’t always rise to its lofty goals.
Guy van Egmond In their first Wellington show, Shakespeare’s North takes a stab at The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Not a show I was all too familiar with, but the promise of intrigue, sabotage and bloodshed, as well as mysterious interactive seats, had me excited as I took the lift up to two/fiftyseven on Willis Street.
Mia Oudes Absurdist theatre is a movement that, in essence, agrees with the idea first coined by philosopher Albert Camus, absurdism. In short, it is that the universe is inherently absurd and life is pointless. Here we are, emotional human creatures, trapped in this nonsense without the ability to change it. I am a Camus fan and I love this idea. As a consequence, I really enjoy the genre and I am excited to see this show.
Zoe Christall It’s a Friday night as I walk into the electric atmosphere of Circa One. Everyone’s had a long week and we are ready for some sexy rock n’ roll as boasted in WITCH Music Theatre’s downright (if you’ll excuse the pun) bewitching poster. Seriously, props to Roc Torio’s photography and WITCH’s marketing. If the poster is anything to go by, I’m prepared to be amazed (and possibly seduced) by Lizzie.
Alia Marshall Seasonal depression is alive and well in Pōneke, but never fear, the Guru of Chai is here to fix all of our problems, or so he says. After scooping up ‘Composer of the Year’, ‘Actor of the Year’, and ‘NZ Play of the Year’ at the 2010 Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards, Indian Ink’s Guru of Chai is once again gracing our stages on a nationwide tour. Real ones will remember that my first ever review was for Krishnan’s Dairy (lucky duck, I know), and I have admired this company’s mahi since I first saw Kiss the Fish when I was 16. Safe to say, I’m excited.
Alia Marshall Two Girls One Gun is Comedy Gold’s latest addition to their CGTU (Comedy Gold Theatrical Universe), which promises us sexy spies, boobs, legs, and friendship. This company is known for their genre-parody shows jam packed full of stunts and cheeky slapstick comedy, subverting expectations by placing women at the centre of these traditionally male dominated narratives. Naturally, my interest is piqued.
Sean Burnett Dugdale-Martin When We Were Us is a new musical from Playwright and Composer Catherine Zulver, directed by Helen Mackenzie Hughes and produced under Red Scare Theatre Company by the company's very own Cassandra Tse. I have high expectations going into the show as I’m aware of the many talents onboard. As I enter BATS Theatre’s Dome stage I take in the pre-show state: Kevin Orlando’s Dylan resting under a blanket centre-stage and Julia McDonald's Claire to the right, looking out and up. She seems hopeful, and so am I.
Austin Harrison Limbo is the b4 25-shortlisted, return season of a sellout hit in this year’s 6 Degrees Festival produced by Keane As and Believable Arts Management. It’s inspired by Dante’s 1321 epic poem Inferno and has all the hallmarks of a young company full of ideas. They’ve thrown everything at this production; some sticks and some doesn’t.
Jack McGee One of the great joys of Sense and Sensibility is that Penny Ashton and her team consistently take things one step further than you’d expect. There’s a giddy delight in watching the show's stage manager (Fay Van Der Meulen) rush on stage with an industrial sized fan to ensure that Austen’s hills are appropriately windswept. The show’s many big reveals are made bigger by cartoonishly exaggerated lighting (Marcus McShane) and sound (Ashton), and whenever there’s an opportunity for a great one-off gag, the designer (Ian Harmann) has never shied away from sourcing a beautiful prop. Even the electrical tape, used to mark prop locations for transitions, has been coloured to look like little flowers on the beautifully painted meadow-green floor. Sensibility feels big. It feels maximalist. It’s a work that fills a room, and is accessible without feeling shallow. In short, it’s a real success as a Circa One show.
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