 reviewed by Jack Gray 19 May 2010 |
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Expressing and questioning our society and generation Purlieu (Malia Johnston) begins with cascades of piano (Eden Mulholland) and a square of light. Spinning legs and muscular arms of guest dancer Yanhou Du, lofting, shifting from corner to corner with fast, supple arms and release. [more] |
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reviewed by Bernadette Rae (New Zealand Herald) 19 May 2010 |
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From small spaces emerge grand ideas Four very different works conclude sterling season by this company In the first moments of Purlieu, Malia Johnston's new work opening this programme and soon bound for exhibition at the World Expo in Shanghai, small and precious performance spaces are first defined by light, as one neat little square, then two, three, four. [more] |
 reviewed by John Smythe 19 May 2010 |
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Negotiating the “practical joke” of life in the face of death At last Wellington gets to see Simon Ferry’s extraordinarily rich yet accessible evocation of his father’s life, in a performance so fluid and flexible in its transmutations you have to blink and think to realise how very accomplished it is. [more] |
 AVENUE Q at The Civic – THE EDGE® reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton (New Zealand Herald) 17 May 2010 |
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Cute glove puppets hold nothing back Opening with the eternal question – ‘what do you do with a BA in English?’ – Avenue Q dispenses a bright and breezy antidote to the pressures of life in the big city. [more] |
 reviewed by Laurie Atkinson (The Dominion Post) 17 May 2010 |
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Roman musical comedy needs dialogue to really sparkle On a vast, opulent Hollywood-like setting dotted about with well over a dozen working black-and-white TV sets a sleek TV chat show host called Seneca (Louis Solino) introduces us to The Nero Show in which we discover that Ancient Rome has been transported to Kennedy’s Camelot. [more] |
 reviewed by John Button (The Dominion Post) 17 May 2010 |
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Superb staging of Figaro sets new standards for Mozart opera Having missed the last Marriage of Figaro done by New Zealand Opera in 2002 – and the outside performance during the summer in Eastbourne – it is a while since I have experienced a local production of the opera, but I still suspect that this thought-provoking, and stunningly realised production directed by New Zealand Opera’s general director, Aidan Lang, is a benchmark for Mozart opera in New Zealand. [more] |
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reviewed by Sharon Talbot 17 May 2010 |
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Aidan Lang, take a bow! This is what opera is meant to be. The usual laughter, slapstick, sexy romps and lively music are all there in buckets, in NBR New Zealand Opera’s wonderful new production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. But my lingering memories of the production are of single, almost still singers commanding the stage through the sheer emotional intensity of focussed soft singing. [more] |
 reviewed by Lindsay Clark 16 May 2010 |
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Artistic vision crystallised Anticipation of one sort or another always builds strongly before the staging of a great classic. Those who envisage Chekhov’s The Seagull as a slow ‘intellectual’ experience should make it their business to see Stoppard’s lively translation fleshed out by a master of theatre with all his contemporary wits at work. [more] |
 reviewed by Maryanne Cathro 16 May 2010 |
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Warm and generous atmosphere It’s 34 years since I warbled ‘Fernando’ into my ABBA pillow case, and yearned for a mini dress with a sequinned cat on it. And it’s over 25 years since ABBA put out a new album. However, this hasn’t stopped two more generations falling in love not only with their music but also their whole “ABBAness”. [more] |
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reviewed by John Smythe 16 May 2010 |
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A splendid artistic and theatrical achievement The conceit that underpins this new Paul Jenden / Gareth Farr ‘popera’ is that Nero’s Rome (circa AD 54-68) is relocated in JFK’s Washington DC circa 1963. Thus parallels are drawn between those two eras and some elements of more recent international politics. Sic transit gloria mundi: thus passes the glory of the world. Given this, Farr’s choice of Latin American rhythms to underpin most of his score is a pertinent pun in itself. [more] |
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