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Photo: Matt Grace
GOOD NIGHT - THE END at Downstage Theatre
reviewed by Uther Dean (Salient) 24 Sep 2009
Not pitched or paced for the space
Harvester of Sorrow (Jo Randerson) is not happy. She is either a grim reaper or at the very least is paid to portray one. Over the course of Good Night – The End, she mopes around her workplace’s staff room. [more]

POSTAL at BATS
reviewed by John Smythe 23 Sep 2009
Entertaining comedy-of-anguish
There is much to commend this premiere production of Lucy O’Brien’s first full-length play. A variety of clearly-drawn characters with strongly-rooted back-stories are united only in their mutual desire to gain or maintain control of their lives. Well-wrought dialogue and superb performances generate many memorable moments. [more]

TWO DAY PLAYS (NZ) – DRAFT TWO at BATS
reviewed by Michael Wray (3) 22 Sep 2009
Heat Three wrap up
The third weekly heat of Two Day Plays – Draft Two has provided the final two contestants for the grand final ... The three design elements from which to choose this week were 60 seconds of stage-generated music, a character who cannot speak English and a strangulation. [more]

Photo: Jane Ussher
EUGENE ONEGIN at Aotea Centre at THE EDGE®
reviewed by Kate Ward-Smythe 21 Sep 2009
Absorbing, thrilling, intimate, vast …
A strong cast and a vigorous Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra under the flawless command of Russian conductor Alexander Polianichko, guarantee a memorable production of Tchaikovsky’ s Eugene Onegin. [more]

RUBEN GUTHRIE at Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, The Edge
reviewed by Janet McAllister (New Zealand Herald) 21 Sep 2009
Smart, entertaining production generates committed performances
This is the One About the Alcoholic – but it’s less predictable or painfully emotional and far more entertaining than such a description promises. [more]

Photo: Stephen A'Court
FOUR FLAT WHITES IN ITALY at Circa One
reviewed by John Smythe 21 Sep 2009
More than one kind of journey
The All Blacks were playing the Wallabies at the Cake Tin the night we went so I assumed the full house would largely comprise women whose men were at the rugby. Wrong. The gender-split was only marginally in favour of women. And the biggest laughs of the night came in the scene where the Tuscany-lodged quartet suffered watching the ABs lose to France at Cardiff in the World Cup ... [more]

GLORIOUS at Fortune Theatre Studio
reviewed by Terry MacTavish 19 Sep 2009
Warmly affectionate backward glance
“I like the way you hold your drink, and the way you look at me with fascination and contempt.” Fair enough reason for a beautiful American heiress to determine to marry an impoverished writer. Well, in the wonderful world of Screwball Comedy at least. [more]

RUBEN GUTHRIE at Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, The Edge
reviewed by Nik Smythe 19 Sep 2009
The pitfalls of a disaffected creative exec
“Hello, my name is Ruben Guthrie and I’m in advertising”; scene one line one has the title character introducing himself at his initial 12 steps support group meeting. With all his nervous fidgeting and snappy talk, Ruben’s like someone we’ve all met – at the far end of youth, a success story in the vice-ridden world of promotional media, tried everything twice and beginning to show the strain. [more]

Photo: Jane Ussher
EUGENE ONEGIN at Aotea Centre at THE EDGE®
reviewed by William Dart (New Zealand Herald) 19 Sep 2009
An Onegin not to be missed
The eternal ironies of Pushkin's tale were played out on spectacular yet sleek sets that betrayed Genevieve Blanchett's architectural background, especially in a ballroom scene where characters waltzed between towering walls that might have reached to Heaven itself. [more]

THE POHUTUKAWA TREE at Maidment
reviewed by Frances Edmond (New Zealand Listener) 19 Sep 2009
Deep roots
It is surprising, and indicative of a serious omission, that Auckland Theatre Company’s revival of Bruce Mason’s groundbreaking The Pohutukawa Tree is the play’s first-ever fully professional production staged in Auckland. Written in 1955, when the assumption was that we were a peaceful integrated society and Maori were “happy natives”, the play peels back the easy surfaces to explore the fraught and complex reality of New Zealand’s race relations. [more]
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