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THE FACTORY – A PACIFIC MUSICAL at Mangere Arts Centre
reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton (New Zealand Herald) 15 Aug 2011
Emotional Journey hits high notes
It was a big night in South Auckland – while David Tua was seeking redemption in his battle with Monte Barrett, the Kila Kokonut Krew delivered a knockout blow with the opening of a musical celebrating the joys and disappointments of the Pacific Island immigrant experience. [more]

Photo: Michael Smith
CALENDAR GIRLS at Civic Theatre
reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton (New Zealand Herald) 15 Aug 2011
One to mark on your calendar
Superb cast have great fun breathing life into their sharply drawn characters The Auckland Theatre Company should be fairly confident it has hit on a winner with a production that might be described as Coronation Street meets The Girls of the Playboy Mansion. [more]

THE GRUFFALO at Bruce Mason Centre
reviewed by Lexie Matheson 14 Aug 2011
Your kids will have a blast
The dilemma for anyone staging such a well-known story, particularly one with such evocative illustrations, is to fulfil the expectations of an audience deeply entrenched in the lyricism of the text and the extraordinary imagery of the book. Either that or they must enable us to suspend our disbelief and simply accept what is being presented for what it is. [more]

Photo: Michael Smith
CALENDAR GIRLS at Civic Theatre
reviewed by Candice Lewis 13 Aug 2011
A nice play with a soothing effect
The audience are lapping it up, and the couple on my right are laughing in all the right places. A subject that could have been milked for misery is treated with a light yet respectful touch, and there are moments when my mum and I do get tears in our eyes ... [more]

MACHOMER at Opera House
reviewed by John Smythe 12 Aug 2011
Stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once
Was this (just) one actor we saw before us – in 50 different personae? By the upping of my thumb, something ‘wicked’ here has come. What a show! And he makes it all look so easy. [more]

Christchurch Arts Festival 2011
RAISING THE TITANICS at Fletcher Building Dome, Hagley Park
reviewed by Lindsay Clark 12 Aug 2011
An irresistible charmer
It was shiver down the spine time when the opening ‘Haere Mai’ number announced two hours of one of ‘our stories’ – the rise, fall and afterglow of a Maori showband beginning with the glorious romp that was 1960s and 70s entertainment. [more]

INTIMACIES: SWEET THING & I’D RATHER BE THE POPE at Victoria Theatre (The Vic), 93 Victoria Rd, Devonport
reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton (New Zealand Herald) 11 Aug 2011
Sinclair boldly pushes the limits
A premiere of work by Stephen Sinclair is always eagerly anticipated and the two short plays presented at Devonport's Victoria Theatre reveal an intriguing new direction while confirming Sinclair's reputation for provocative writing that is finely attuned to the quirkiness of the Kiwi psyche. [more]

THE TERRIFIC TALE OF TABATHA TALMUS at The Basement, Lower Greys Ave
reviewed by Stephen Austin 10 Aug 2011
A play around with well known tropes and images creates a cracking story
It is Tabatha’s thirteenth birthday. She receives a book as a gift. Reaching for the highest shelf on her bookcase, it falls on top of her and she tumbles into a netherworld of her own imaginings that are at once whimsical and darkly troubled. [more]

THESE ARE THE SKELETONS OF US at The Basement, Lower Greys Ave
reviewed by Stephen Austin 10 Aug 2011
Fully formed, well realised, very funny
Theatre about relationships can often be fraught with traps. It is so easy to fall into angst-ridden clichés and well-worn stereotypes to get the point across and it can quickly fall into a conjugal bore. How to make material like this work well and still make an attempt at being original? [more]

INTIMACIES: SWEET THING & I’D RATHER BE THE POPE at Victoria Theatre (The Vic), 93 Victoria Rd, Devonport
reviewed by Nik Smythe 10 Aug 2011
Watchable if somewhat abstruse black comedy
Two new thematically linked one-act plays show something of a conceptual departure from playwright Stephen Sinclair’s previous celebrated works, with mixed results. [more]
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