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LADIES FOR HIRE at Centrepoint
reviewed by John Ross 9 Nov 2009
Hits the spot
It’s well-crafted, has plenty of strong and amusing lines (some of them laugh-out-loud), and adequately differentiated characters, each with their own lesser stories. It moves along effectively, with sufficient incident and interesting twists. [more]

MACBETH at Nikau Grove, behind the Children’s Playground in Victoria Esplanade
reviewed by John Ross 8 Mar 2010
Paranoia and ruthlessness in theatre of war
Mounting Macbeth with a mainly student cast, in an outside venue (risky in itself, around here), and more-or-less in modern dress, is a huge challenge for a director; and all credit to Paul McLaughlin for making it happen. Quite interesting stuff occurs along the way. [more]

HIGHLIGHTS – THE BLONDES & THEIR SONGS at Centrepoint
reviewed by John Ross 15 Mar 2010
Good show
If you seriously love pop, and the singers who sing it, you’ll love this show. Georgia Wood is impersonating a string of famous females, from Mae West to Madonna, either born blonde or with blondeness thrust upon them. [more]

FOUR FLAT WHITES IN ITALY at Centrepoint
reviewed by John Ross 12 Apr 2010
Challenging and rewarding acting roles
One goes along to a new-ish Roger Hall comedy wondering just how well the acknowledged master will bring it off this time. Gladly, I find this to be one of his more strongly coherent plays, with a character-disclosure-and-development action that runs through its episodes which is complex and twisty enough to sustain interest. [more]

UP NORTH at Centrepoint
reviewed by John Ross 6 Jun 2010
‘Promising’ rather than fully achieved
Being sent ‘up north’ somewhere used to be what often happened to pregnant teen-age girls so they could have their babies quietly born and adopted out without wrecking their eventual marital prospects, or shaming their families. [more]

DEAD TRAGIC at Centrepoint
reviewed by John Ross 12 Jul 2010
Revealing the morbidity of Americans’ fantasy-lives
Knifings, shootings, hangings, drownings (suicidal or accidental), being run over by a train, fatal stock car or motor bike crashes, other miscellaneous or less specified modes of untimely dying - they all seem to have had a macabre yet undeniable fascination in the realm of popular song writing and reception. [more]

FOUR WOMEN at Centrepoint
reviewed by John Ross 28 Feb 2011
A lovely, heart-warming show
Pasifika girls!! You want to, sure, you really can be a Big Brown Barbie (or not so big), a beauty princess, and whatever else you choose to be! That’s the key message of this feisty show ... [more]

CONJUGAL RITES at Centrepoint
reviewed by John Ross 3 Apr 2011
An easily enjoyable production of a fine play
Take one middle-class bedroom and one middle-aged, professional, urban, Pakeha couple, doing the various kinds of stuff you do in bedrooms over a chunk of time. Fancy making a lively full-length comedy (with a bit of drama mixed in) out of that, as Roger Hall has. Amazingly, it works. [more]

LE SUD at Centrepoint
reviewed by John Ross 17 Jul 2011
Often very funny romp nearly always entertaining
So, the French established sovereignty over the South Island, in 1838, and have managed to defend the island state of Sud-Zélande, or should it be Zealand-Sud, against the Poms, and the forces of North Zealand, for about 170 years. Now, what with the North Zealand government desperately needing to negotiate an affordable price for the electricity it needs to import, the Sud government has got the whip-hand. [more]

YOU CAN ALWAYS HAND THEM BACK at Centrepoint
reviewed by John Ross 16 Apr 2012
Good value
Getting old is not a lot of laughs, and those there are can be fairly wry. As for getting seriously old, creeping Lear-like towards death ... ah well. The upside of it, generally, can be enjoying the company of your grandchildren, in manageable-sized chunks of time. But if you’ve taken on baby-sitting, pushchair-pushing, or, later, child-minding for, maybe, days on end, it can be a scary responsibility, for each chunk. [more]
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