 reviewed by John Smythe 30 Jan 2008 |
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Objective awareness fails to engage Having seen the third performance of this show, as an adjunct to Thomas’s review (and Laurie’s, Helen’s & Lynn’s), I offer a theory: that Ground was initially written as a radio play. As such, the constant and often repetitive dialogue is designed to feed the listeners’ imaginations and keep reminding them were the characters are and what’s happening. [more] |
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reviewed by Laurie Atkinson (The Dominion Post) 28 Jan 2008 |
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Paradise found – and lost amid a welter of words Fiona Farrell’s Ground is, in effect, a comic précis of anthropologist Robert Ardrey’s The Territorial Imperative. Ardrey’s opening sentence of his 1966 work states that “A territory is an area of space, whether of water or earth or air, which an animal or group of animals defends as an exclusive preserve.” [more] |
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reviewed by Lynn Freeman (Capital Times) 30 Jan 2008 |
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Entertaining yet unsatisfying So what would you do if you pulled out all the stops to get the best pitch at the camping ground – panoramic views, privacy, full sun – only to have a blasted huge campervan park in front? How far would you go to claim back what was rightly yours? [more] |
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reviewed by Thomas LaHood 27 Jan 2008 |
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Cross-purposed script, performances and design Ground is the tale of a couple of ‘kiwi battlers,’ forced to share their perfect camping spot with an unwanted caravan that obscures their view and destroys their portable TV reception ... Fiona Farrell’s script is described by the director as ‘a playful and light-hearted nudge’, which intimates the lack of depth that is its major weakness. [more] |
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reviewed by Helen Sims (The Lumiere Reader) 28 Jan 2008 |
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Entertaining, if a little light weight ... The play is light hearted in tone, but prompts a consideration about our possessive tendencies towards property, particularly land ... [more] |
 reviewed by Lindsay Clark 10 Mar 2013 |
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Ordinary folk recall that extraordinary day This collection of quake stories, as told by survivors, may seem a particularly appropriate confirmation that the new Forge, The Court's studio theatre, is back in the business of bringing us new work, especially from New Zealand writers. Without the event, The Forge would probably be wedged in its Arts Centre corner still. [more] |
 reviewed by Laurie Atkinson 9 Sep 2010 |
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Menopausal hen party cackling fun There’s no plot, just jokes that the audience obviously couldn’t get enough of. Grumpy Old Women ... is a here-today-gone-on-tour-tomorrow show. [more] |
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reviewed by Ngaire Riley 10 Mar 2010 |
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A good talking to for a laugh Here is a world for women: the lounge or the boudoir. And when Geraldine, Pinky and Lyndee-Jane arrive in floor length cream Balmoral gabardine coats, scarves tied tightly to the chin and clutching Warehouse red, New World turquoise and Countdown green bags, we are treated to a slick, witty comic romp. [more] |
 reviewed by John Smythe 29 May 2008 |
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Voyeurism without empathy A play of many words, that often plays on words, Guardians compares and contrasts an English ex-Guardian journalist, now a columnist, with an American woman ex-prison guard, once of Abu Ghraib, now incarcerated herself in a state penitentiary. She featured in the infamous photos of prisoner abuse. He perpetrated the subsequent fraudulent sequel. [more] |
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reviewed by Laurie Atkinson (The Dominion Post) 3 Jun 2008 |
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Marvellous tales of morality Intercut monologues are the theatrical fashion overseas. The American playwright Peter Morris joins Neil La Bute, Conor McPherson, and others, including John Donnelly whose excellent Bone is now playing at Circa, with an extremely powerful and provocative play about Iraq, or, as the young American prison guard in Guardians known as ‘American Girl’ says, “Eye-rak”. While we follow her story we also follow the story of ‘English Boy’, a caustic, cynical, amoral and thoroughly loathsome public school/Oxford educated young journalist who has aspirations of working as a columnist for The Guardian newspaper. [more] |
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