The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of  Rangitahua... The Stopping Off Place, Acquisitions '15, and Moose Murders.

See more recent reviews at theatreview.org, the NZ Performing Arts Review & Directory

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The latest Theatreview Weekly includes reviews of  Rangitahua... The Stopping Off Place, Acquisitions '15, and Moose Murders.

See more recent reviews at theatreview.org, the NZ Performing Arts Review & Directory

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SHORT + SWEET DANCE 2015 - SHOW 1: No stand outs but plenty of entertainment
TAPAC - The Auckland Performing Arts Centre, Auckland
- reviewed by Briar Wilson

The Show 1 programme for 2015 entertains a full house with a wide range of 14 short (ten minute and under) works. There are professional, or budding professional, dancers, community groups and trapeze artists – and no one piece really stands out as being the best. Works are chosen by audience vote and by the judges to go to the Gala Final at the end of the week, and may win $500 cash prizes - the Judges’ Award, or the Peoples’ Award or a special award as an Emerging Artist.

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THE WHITE GUITAR: Brave, generous and unconditional
Hannah Playhouse, Wellington
- reviewed by John Smythe

The constant presence of Fa’amoana on stage as the stories unfold, often casting him in a very negative light, speaks volumes: his ability to witness his sons telling their separate and collective stories with such generous humanity, and to own his own part in what happened, proves how powerfully the truth can set you free.

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BLACK FAGGOT: Powerful humanising of initially stock characters
TVNZ Festival Club, Arts Centre, Christchurch
- reviewed by Erin Harrington

Two actors, Haanz Fa'avae-Jackson and Shimpal Lelisi, play between them nearly a dozen characters, ranging from children and teenagers to effeminate urban queers and young Samoan men on the pull. The play rapidly switches between monologues and duologues, and the actors’ rapid shifts in movement and physicality, directed sharply by Roy Ward, are executed with precision.

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30FORWARD- FOOTNOTE NEW ZEALAND DANCE: Long may it continue
Court Theatre, Bernard Street, Addington, Christchurch
- reviewed by Julia Harvie

30 Forward is a celebration of movement and move-makers. Dance is a temporal art form but really great work will burn into your retinas, force you to think differently, change ideas of what you thought you knew, and ultimately move you. Thank you to Footnote and the 150 dancers and choreographers who have contributed to the Footnote repertoire and dedicated themselves to making dances for New Zealanders for the past 30 years. Long may it continue.

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MAMIL: MIDDLE AGED MAN IN LYCRA: Indefatigable Hadlow entertains with total sincerity
Court Theatre, Bernard Street, Addington, Christchurch
- reviewed by Lindsay Clark

It sets out to entertain through frank insights into the male psyche and its tricky physical consequences. Women have long smiled to themselves about some of these, but to have them enacted in full technicolour is often even funnier. Certainly the audience on opening night is happy and relaxed ...

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THE MAN WHO PLANTED TREES: Gentle and meandering
Theatre Royal, TSB Showplace, New Plymouth
- reviewed by Holly Shanahan

Based on the novel by Jean Giono, The Scottish Puppet State Theatre’s production of The Man Who Planted Trees is a piece of simple storytelling and puppetry. It is a tale of selflessness, patience and commitment to a cause greater than yourself: a relevant and touching theme to present to children.

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30FORWARD- FOOTNOTE NEW ZEALAND DANCE: Shifting every which way
Opera House, Wellington
- reviewed by Anna Bate

Malia Johnston’s Flip Pivot Boom steps outside the classic repertoire format to produce a work that shifts every which way. Here, time is not linear. Moves from the eighties are spliced with the noughties. The process is undeniably generative. Material is sourced from a multitude of mediums from the full 30 years. Archives are embodied, inverted, spliced, projected, mashed, contorted and occasionally left to be. Ambitious. Yes! Exciting. Yes!

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FARLEY’S ARCADE: THE WILDEST PLACE IN TOWN: Visceral, entertaining, indescribable
Athenaeum Building, The Octagon, Dunedin
- reviewed by Jennifer Aitken

Mounted in honour of the 150th anniversary of Dunedin becoming New Zealand’s first city, and presented in association with the Dunedin Heritage Festival, Farley’s Arcade is an immersive, multi-media, multi-faceted and multi-layered theatrical extravaganza.

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RANGITAHUA... THE STOPPING OFF PLACE: Fascinating and quite disturbing
The Whangarei Art Museum, Whangarei
- reviewed by David Stevens

Originally, just a stopping-off place for rest, water and ship repairs, with human beings came rats, which none-too-gradually almost overcame the native fauna. There were attempts at creating a community, most notably by Thomas Bell and his family, and this, perhaps, is the most disturbing part of the history.

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THAT BLOODY WOMAN: Vibrant, feisty, compelling
TVNZ Festival Club, Arts Centre, Christchurch
- reviewed by Lindsay Clark

The drive and vision of the eponymous Kate Sheppard is celebrated in diverse ways apart from the ballot box ... This most recent tribute, the premier production of a stirring rock opera, eclipses them all for sheer spirit and dash, worthy of that remarkable woman.

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THE VODAFONE SEASON OF A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM: Enveloping the audience in a magical fairyland
Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch
- reviewed by Sheree Bright

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by the Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB) and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, is a delightful experience for all ages. It is originally a comedy play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1597. One of A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s most important themes is, “The course of true love never did run smooth.” It is filled with a light hearted humour that reassures the audience that even amidst the chaos, everything is likely to work out. The RNZB version has stunning visual effects and glorious dancing. If it is coming your way, go see it!

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DAFFODILS [INSPIRED BY TRUE EVENTS]: Exquisite
TVNZ Festival Club, Arts Centre, Christchurch
- reviewed by Erin Harrington

Daffodils is a rare treat – a perfectly formed bloom that marries the profoundly personal with the quintessential. It is presented with clarity and the utmost integrity, bringing together two actors, three musicians, five voices rough with emotion, and a room full of witnesses in an outstanding opening to the Christchurch Arts Festival.

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ACQUISITIONS '15: Box set collaborates to unite choreography and performance
Te Whaea National Dance and Drama Centre, 11 Hutchison Rd, Newtown, Wellington
- reviewed by Sam Trubridge

he last work brings to life the whole array of the cubes that have been arranged around the larger ‘home’ box. It is a playful work of acrobatic engagement with the architectural arrangement on stage. The dancers spring through small openings, pace around the larger ones, they slide through hatches, emerge from the ceiling, twist under the elevated flooring, and glide over another’s own bodies. Gravity, a sense of up and down, beneath and above, is often inverted, rotated, and unsettled by this tumbling weave of movement through the compartments and contained spaces.

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THE DAISY THEATRE - RONNIE BURKETT: Creative play leads to deeper places
Fletcher Construction Festival Studio at The Arts Centre, Christchurch
- reviewed by Lindsay Clark

The much acclaimed puppetry of Ronnie Burkett proves yet again that theatre magic has little to do with size or razzmatazz and everything to do with audience engagement. From the moment he steps out to front the appropriately-scaled puppet stage, it is clear that this will be an evening of shared imaginations, where we will help shape what happens and where together we'll have fun.

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BAND OF MAGICIANS: Nimble, cheeky, astounding
TSB Showplace, New Plymouth
- reviewed by Ngaire Riley

The thing about watching magic tricks is that you kind of know how it happens, yet you are intrigued and duped again. In this show there are no shiny costumes, black wands, magic spells or slinky girls.

Instead punchy music like ‘Dead and Gone’ by The Black Keys and superb lighting of steely silver and blue fractured beams, penetrate the murk and support four skilled, youthful magicians in jeans, t-shirts and bare arms (no stuff up the sleeves here).

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EDINBURGH FRINGE 2015 – WRAP #1: One-note and lacklustre | Engaging and endearing | Outstanding | Confronting
Various Fringe venues, Edinburgh, Scotland
- reviewed by Sarah Tuck

The first in a series of wraps from the Edinburgh Fringe.

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MOOSE MURDERS: Preposterous, baffling, fantastic
BATS Theatre, The Propeller Stage, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
- reviewed by Shannon Friday

The script itself defies description aside from saying it is preposterous. Moose Murders was meant to be a murder mystery /farce, but as far as I can tell, not a single action within the play is dictated by the logic of murder mystery or farce.

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LORD OF THE DANCE: DANGEROUS GAMES: Production elements dazzle
St James Theatre, Wellington
- reviewed by Lyne Pringle

Two scenes are the most successful – when the bad boy chorus meet the good boy chorus in a kind of West Side Story meets the Irish in a dance-off. And the final curtain call – after Michael Flatley is projected holographic-ally to tantalize us with his virtuosity – where the whole chorus are dressed in tuxedos and dance in the more traditional way. Rhythms and passion are unleashed as the immensely percussive, precise beats of these generous performers fill the auditorium; pure dance, pure energy, pure skill and power. You can’t beat that. The crowd is happy to be milked.

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See more recent reviews at theatreview.org.nz, the NZ Performing Arts Review & Directory

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