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SPAZNUTS at Fortune Theatre - Hutchinson Studio
reviewed by Louise Jakeway 8 Aug 2009
Ballsy comedy delivered with wit, pride and insight
From the very first moments an all singing, all dancing initiation extravaganza puts the audience in an invigorated mood, only slightly negated by the ominous little plastic specimen cup they are now grasping. Spaznuts is the story of Callinan’s infertility ... [more]

STRIKE SESSION WITH ADAM PAGE at Downstage Theatre
reviewed by Michael Oliver (Salient) 20 Jul 2009
Vivacious rhythyms
Adam Page must be some kind of superhero. His capacity to soothe rabid beats with lapping loops and pugnacious poise borders on the extraordinary. The Australian improv musician has sauntered his sax from Adelaide all the way to Edinburgh, and finds himself grounded—and on form—at Downstage with local percussion ensemble Strike. [more]

Photo: Michael Smith
NEIGHBOURHOOD 3: REQUISITION OF DOOM at Telecom Playhouse Theatre, WEL Energy Trust Academy of Performing Arts
reviewed by Gail Pittaway (Waikato Times) 21 Aug 2009
Virtually exciting
Imagine a world in which young people don’t talk to their parents and choose to escape from the monotony of their suburban landscapes into virtual worlds of games. Worlds where virtuality becomes more exciting than reality. Not so difficult is it? [more]

STUCK UP THE ALLEY at Telecom Playhouse Theatre, WEL Energy Trust Academy of Performing Arts
reviewed by Gail Pittaway 5 Jul 2010
Humorous, fanciful, short on tension and climax
Not content with serving as the Butler in the eponymous other show by Joe Bennett in this Fuel festival, Tom Trevella follows it with this small delicacy for dessert: Stuck Up the Alley, by the same author. [more]

HAMIL TOWN OF HORRORS at Gallagher Concert Chamber, Wel Academy of Performing Arts, Waikato University
reviewed by Gail Pittaway (Waikato Times) 5 Jul 2010
Surprisingly funny, impressively coherent
FUEL FESITVAL 2010 Hamil Town, 2025. Karapiro Dam has burst its banks and washed away the bridges, gardens and fountains and left the inhabitants of the once proud Fountain City stranded on opposite sides of the vast river, unable to trade or eat ... [more]

KING LEAR at Meteor Theatre
reviewed by Gail Pittaway (Waikato Times) 8 Aug 2011
Great play done exceptionally well
Full House Productions deserve full houses for this gripping, fast-paced performance of one of the most complex plays Shakespeare ever wrote. Michael Switzer’s direction is imaginative, yet makes clear the many factions and rival jealousies that arise when aging Lear decides to divide his kingdom between three daughters ... [more]

THE WORD BECOMES ME at Meteor Theatre
reviewed by Gail Pittaway 27 Sep 2011
The heart is still a lonely hunter
Two in the Hand theatre company presented a tidy package of three short plays which, though not the first night or opening show, gave a great kick start to the Fringe Festival in Hamilton and a reminder of the joys of fringe – offering so much more freedom in style and experimentation for the players than more conventional theatre. [more]

DESPERATE ANTICS at Meteor Theatre
reviewed by Gail Pittaway 4 Oct 2011
Satirical humour in ‘peach’ of a play
Desperate Antics is a highly entertaining satirical piece, attributed to NZ writer and actor Kevin Keys, but in fact owing a great deal of credit to the Christian creed which he parodies relentlessly – both in text and ritual. [more]

IN THE NEXT ROOM OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY at Playhouse, Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts
reviewed by Gail Pittaway 14 Nov 2011
Good vibrations bring sexual and emotional emancipation
It’s hard to avoid dreadful puns for this unusual comedy by contemporary American writer Sarah Ruhl, when the subject is the use of an electrical vibrator used by doctors in the late nineteenth century to cure women of hysterical illnesses by inducing physical release, a paroxysm; an orgasm, by any other name. [more]

COW & FOLD at Gallagher Concert Chamber, Wel Academy of Performing Arts, Waikato University
reviewed by Gail Pittaway 2 May 2012
Bovine absurdism and a tragedy of manners
Silly or true? Through the unpredictable action and laughs, which are many in Cow/Fold, runs a strong theme about caring and listening. [more]
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