New Zealand

One Story, Two Languages: Sign And Spoken Language Share The Theatre Stage

Posted by Andreea S. Calude, Laura Haughey, and Kellye Bensley | 15th Jul 2018 | Essay, New Zealand, Theatre and Disability |

Would you go and see a bilingual or multilingual show if you only spoke one of the languages...

Through A New Zealander’s Eyes: The Subjunctive World, Notes From Venice Beach

Posted by Hilary Halba | 21st Jun 2018 | Acting, Essay, New Zealand, United States of America |

After a thirteen-hour flight from Auckland, New Zealand, I am in Jim Morrison country–or so I...

Welcome To The Murder House

Posted by John Smythe | 8th Jun 2018 | New Zealand, Review, United States of America |

In Welcome to the Murder House, Alfred’s story is told, in the popular vaudeville style of the day, by a group of prison inmates. For them, Southwick is a hero, given their shared belief that execution by electrocution will be more humane than hanging. And, as with the development of all high quality theatre, it takes a lot of trial and error to get it right.

“Still Life With Chickens:” New Samoan Play Confronts Loneliness Through Comedy

Posted by David O'Donnell | 20th May 2018 | New Zealand, Puppetry, Review, Theatre and Age, Transcultural Collaborations |

Samoan playwright David Fa’auliuli Mamea’s Still Life With Chickens won the 2017 Adam Award for...

Dreams And Reality: Fortune Theatre, Dunedin, New Zealand Closes

Posted by Hilary Halba | 19th May 2018 | Management, New Zealand, News |

The mid-morning phone call I receive from a colleague brings bad news. The Fortune Theatre–the...

A Genre-Bending Pasifika Collaboration -“The Naked Samoans Do Magic”

Posted by David O'Donnell | 29th Apr 2018 | Festivals, New Zealand, Review, Transcultural Collaborations |

The Naked Samoans Do Magic Commissioned by the Auckland Arts Festival and co-produced with The...

“Dark Dunedin: Heaven Looks On” Excavating Layers Of The Real And The Imagined

Posted by Hilary Halba | 14th Apr 2018 | Festivals, Immersive Theatre, New Zealand, Review, Transmedia |

An audience assembles on the grassy margins of Prospect Park in Ōtepoti/Dunedin, New Zealand, on a...

The Politics of Child Abuse in Searing Māori Theatre: “Bless the Child” by Hone Kouka

Posted by David O'Donnell | 5th Apr 2018 | New Zealand, Review, Theatre and Politics |

Bless the Child by Hone Kouka. Co-produced by the New Zealand Festival, Auckland Arts Festival and...

Dunedin’s Arcade Theatre Company And “Fold:” An Absurdist Production For A Post-Truth Era

Posted by Hilary Halba | 15th Mar 2018 | New Zealand, Review, Theatre and Politics |

The newest theatre company to emerge from Dunedin, New Zealand’s funky, eclectic arts scene is...

Celebrating Oceanic Voyaging In Spectacular Site-Specific Theatre: “Kupe” And The “Waka Odyssey”

Posted by David O'Donnell | 2nd Mar 2018 | Festivals, New Zealand, Review |

Wellington, a portside city famed for its turbulent seas and hurricane-force winds, turned on a...

A Mountain of One’s Own: “Taking the High Ground” by Jan Bolwell

Posted by David O'Donnell | 29th Dec 2017 | LGBTQ Theatre, New Zealand, Theatre and Gender |

Since Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first to climb Mount Everest in May 1953,...

Female Desire In Experimental Postdramatic Theatre: “Body Double” Directed By Eleanor Bishop, BATS Theatre, Wellington

Posted by David O'Donnell | 23rd Dec 2017 | Directing, New Zealand, Review, Theatre and Gender |

Merriam-Webster has recently named “feminism” as the 2017 “word of the year” and feminist issues...

A Pacific Production Of “The Mountaintop” By Katori Hall

Posted by David O'Donnell | 7th Dec 2017 | New Zealand, Theatre and Politics, United States of America |

For the past two years, Samoan playwright Victor Rodger has been tireless in bringing plays by...

“A Doll’s House” at Circa One

Posted by John Smythe | 12th Nov 2017 | New Zealand, Theatre and Gender |

POTENTLY RELEVANT Warning: I’m about to give the (well-known) ending away because the play can’t...

Mei-Lin Te Puea Hansen’s “The Mooncake and the Kumara” Explores the Māori-Chinese Cultural Experience

Posted by John Smythe | 1st Aug 2017 | New Zealand |

It captures a time when Māori were increasingly dispossessed of their lands and Chinese immigrants were subjected to appalling discrimination – not least (and I didn’t know this before) by the government.

Avignon: Symphonies of Pain Part 2 – Lemi Ponifasio’s “Standing in Time”

Posted by Yana Meerzon | 22nd Jul 2017 | Festivals, New Zealand, Theatre and Gender |

Standing in Time. texts by Rasha Abbas. Direction, scenography by Lemi Ponifasio; sound design...

Revisited 27 Years Later, “Weed” Plays as an Astute Critique of Neoliberal Economics

Posted by John Smythe | 18th Jul 2017 | New Zealand, Theatre and Politics |

Revisited 27 years later, Weed plays as an astute critique of neo-liberal economics.

Mad, Wilde Party of Midwinter Misrule

Posted by Terry MacTavish | 15th Jul 2017 | New Zealand |

“Hand to God” at Circa Theatre

Posted by John Smythe | 30th Apr 2017 | New Zealand, Puppetry |

If there is such a thing as typical Circa Theatre fare, Hand to God is certainly not it, yet the...

“Peer Gynt” [recycled] by Auckland Theatre Company

Posted by Leigh Sykes | 5th Apr 2017 | Adaptation, New Zealand |

The concepts of the self and the troll are at the heart of this adaptation by Eli Kent, alongside an investigation of the nature of theatre itself. This is a resolutely post-modern, meta-theatrical play that tackles themes that resonate powerfully with the currently very prevalent culture of narcissism and self-interest.