 reviewed by John Smythe 20 Nov 2006 |
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Theatre of enigma and intrigue An audience walks into a bar. They’ve come alone, in pairs or in small groups, expecting a play. So as they buy drinks and gather at small tables in the space beyond one end of the basement bar, they become an audience, in waiting ... [more] |
 reviewed by John Smythe 17 Dec 2006 |
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Brilliance and confusion in turbulent work When radical change causes emotional turmoil, the journey through turbulence towards some sense of equilibrium makes for classic SEEyD Theatre Company drama and comedy. [more] |
 reviewed by John Smythe 17 Jan 2007 |
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Does obscurity make it Art? When a show feels longer than it actually is and the audience doesn’t realise when it has finished, its makers must know there’s more work to be done. [more] |
 reviewed by John Smythe 17 Jan 2007 |
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A liberating experience ... Little wonder, then, that Geraldine Brophy has tackled the abiding mystery of men by writing 15 monologues for diverse male characters, from toddlers through childhood and adolescence to adulthood; from brotherhood through parenthood to grandparenthood; from a gay man who sells his body to women to a celibate priest; a self-absorbed wanker to a lonely veteran; a taciturn Kiwi bloke to a robust European septuagenarian ... [more] |
 reviewed by John Smythe 20 Jan 2007 |
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A 'false' life delightfully distilled in truth ... Danielle Cormack becomes Katherine Mansfield, with a luminosity and lightness of being that belies the exacting craft work behind it. She delights in the role and delights us in the process – of being a writer, an actor, a New Zealander, a free spirit, then and now, in reality and in imagination ... [more] |
 reviewed by John Smythe 24 Jan 2007 |
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Intriguing, insightful and moving Neatly crafted to engage us in each present moment while tantalising us with mysteries – what exactly has happened? when? why? who is the patient and who is his caregiver exactly …? – Leilani Unasa’s His Mother’s Son heralds a playwright to watch. [more] |
 reviewed by John Smythe 27 Jan 2007 |
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Too much of a good thing Once more a welter of words is the weapon choice for this new Flaxworks production: a relentless flow of dense, rich comedy, more bitter than sweet, that proves how more can be less entertaining. [more] |
 reviewed by John Smythe 1 Feb 2007 |
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Celebrating the unmentionable You can’t argue with a standing ovation and hoards of Baby Boomer women storming the stage to bop to ‘This Is Your Day’ (tune: ‘YMCA’). Come to that, you can’t argue with a menopausal woman ... But assuming the key perpetrators of Menopause the Musical are post-‘the change’, I might just venture a fearless observation or three. [more] |
 reviewed by John Smythe 4 Feb 2007 |
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Visceral new work should grace stages around the world While the bio-chemistry of human behaviour may be inevitable, blending the intellectual, emotional, academic and dramatic elements of a Stuart Hoar play to achieve bio-chemical fusion is not to be taken for granted. That director Rachel More and her team make the alchemy work with Backwards in High Heels is cause for celebration. [more] |
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AS YOU LIKE IT at Botanical Gardens: The Dell reviewed by John Smythe 5 Feb 2007 |
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The power of love and forgiveness Trumpeted as the natural home of Summer Shakespeare, The Dell – and this year’s production, As You Like It – stood up to a rigorous test at the Sunday afternoon performance. Despite a large party of picnickers having no idea how much their chatter intruded, and despite being directly under the flight path of jets and helicopters, The Dell’s acoustics and the cast’s vocal projection proved equal to the challenge. [more] |
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