A Genre-Bending Pasifika Collaboration -“The Naked Samoans Do Magic”
The Naked Samoans Do Magic Commissioned by the Auckland Arts Festival and co-produced with The...
Read MorePosted 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...
Read MorePosted 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...
Read MorePosted 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...
Read MorePosted 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...
Read MorePosted 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...
Read MorePosted by David O'Donnell | 29th Dec 2017 | LGBTQ Theatre, New Zealand, Review, Theatre and Gender
Since Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first to climb Mount Everest in May 1953,...
Read MorePosted 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...
Read MorePosted by David O'Donnell | 7th Dec 2017 | New Zealand, Review, Theatre and Politics, United States of America
For the past two years, Samoan playwright Victor Rodger has been tireless in bringing plays by...
Read MorePosted by John Smythe | 12th Nov 2017 | New Zealand, Review, Theatre and Gender
POTENTLY RELEVANT Warning: I’m about to give the (well-known) ending away because the play can’t...
Read MorePosted 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.
Read MorePosted 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...
Read MorePosted 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.
Read MorePosted by Terry MacTavish | 15th Jul 2017 | New Zealand
Yoicks and tally-ho, what a fabulous, breathtaking ride! The initial fun of this exuberantly, almost ludicrously joyful production is that you feel as if you have arrived at the tail end of a fantastic party: everything topsy-turvy, room a mess, bottles emptied, chaps sleeping it off minus their trousers; but your disappointment is quickly alleviated […]
Read MorePosted 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...
Read MorePosted 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.
Read MorePosted by John Smythe | 24th Mar 2017 | New Zealand, Theatre and Politics
“Afghanistan is exactly like Gallipoli!” shouts Ben, well into the action of Anzac Eve. “All the...
Read MorePosted by David O'Donnell | 24th Feb 2017 | Design, Interview, New Zealand
The light fades to a darkness more intense than a starless night on a country road. As the eyes...
Read MorePosted by John Smythe | 7th Feb 2017 | New Zealand
When I reviewed the development season of The Ragged – the first play in what has evolved into THE...
Read MorePosted by Dione Joseph | 23rd Jan 2017 | Dramaturgy, Essay, New Zealand
This is Part II of the series on dramaturgy in New Zealand. For Part I, click here. Dramaturgy is...
Read MorePosted by Dione Joseph | 17th Jan 2017 | Dramaturgy, Essay, New Zealand, Participatory Theatre
Playwright and dramaturge Gary Henderson points out that classic rugby analogies, although...
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