A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including I Love You Bro, One by One, and When the Rain Stops Falling.

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

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A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including I Love You Bro, One by One, and When the Rain Stops Falling.

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

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Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, The Edge, Auckland - I LOVE YOU BRO: Tale of chat room fantasy rooted in reality

- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

The first offering from Silo Theatre’s second-cousin programme emphatically delivers on its promise of edgy and engaging theatre. I Love You Bro plunges us into the underworld of internet chat rooms where we follow a teenager's retreat into a virtual world and witness how an innocent pastime spirals into dangerous obsession.

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Musgrove Studio, Maidment Theatre, Auckland - ONE BY ONE: Totally entrancing entertainment, enlightenment and ecstasy

- reviewed by Lexie Matheson

Every now and again something comes along that’s just that little bit special. One by One is one of those things. These ‘special things’ often put other special things – and sometimes frighteningly mundane things – into perspective and One by One also does that. Well, it did for me.

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Circa One, Wellington - WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING: Splendid, inspiring, engrossing

- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

Susan Wilson seems to be able to pull out all the stops when it comes to casting and staging large scale, engrossing family dramas such as Joyful and Triumphant, Angels in America and August: Osage County. Along with her marvellous ensemble cast she has triumphed yet again with the dark, layered, but always fascinating and moving When the Rain Stops Falling.

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Basement Theatre, Te Whaea National Dance & Drama Centre, Wellington - HAMLET: A quirky Hamlet, but it grabs attention

- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

Nearly every production of Hamlet is a curate’s egg: Melanie Camp’s is no exception. Set in the bleak Basement Theatre with the audience seated in a single U-shaped row, the play has an unusual intimacy.

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Circa One, Wellington - WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING: Powerful parable; domestic in detail, biblical in scale

- reviewed by John Smythe

Andrew Bovell’s sparse yet epic script plays out like a symphony, with recurring themes and motifs – both verbal and visual – causing the tale to fold back on itself even as its protagonist tries to fling himself to the farthest reaches of the globe in order to shake off the truth; and even as his son and great-grandson find their ways to Australia’s ‘dead heart-cum-red centre’, because they need to know why their fathers abandoned them.

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Metro Theatre, Mangere, Auckland - PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE: A cause for celebration

- reviewed by Margi Martin

Ten dancers flow out in a semi-circular formation, casually smiling and waving. A mixed gender group is the first surprise. The lava-lava is still present, but one young woman has long tights peeping out from under hers. One man wears sneakers. They sit and begin a Sasa inspired dance, but the hand movements include new vocabulary and before long the sneakered male is on his feet in the middle of the formation...

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Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, The Edge, Auckland - I LOVE YOU BRO: True cautionary tale disturbs and stretches credulity

- reviewed by Nik Smythe

While this twisted tale dramatised by a Melbourne playwright is based on an actual occurrence in Manchester some years ago, actor Tim Carlsen plays the protagonist as a Kiwi. It does seem appropriate to cast the character in the nationality of wherever it’s being performed, given the cybernetic medium at its basis makes it a story that could take place anywhere that has internet.

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Old Folks Association Hall, 8 Gundry St, Newton, Auckland - HEAR ME : THE PRODUCING PROJECT LIVE SERIES: Hear Me offers a rich melange

- reviewed by Raewyn Whyte

Becca Wood's in-the-round Instructions for re-membering (forwards): a slide show is arguably the most experimental work of the evening, dealing as it does with the absence of the expected, the way sound conjures presence for us, and the way our memories of places are embodied in the movements we share with others. It is also the least traditional in its relationship of sound and body, demonstrating their disjunction.

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St James Theatre, Wellington - SOAP THE SHOW: Soap, with a dash of opera, revels in making a splash

- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

Once you’ve seen Soap you might be forgiven for thinking that this brilliant hybrid of circus, theatre and vaudeville was an expensive ad for a club not a stone’s throw from the St James.

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Hawkes Bay Opera House, Hastings - 3 SHORT PLAYS: Unique and challenging

- reviewed by Kirsty van Rijk

Presented on the stage of the magnificent Opera House, this year’s performance thus forms the second in what Richards and Peacock hope will be an annual event in the Hawkes’ Bay theatre calendar. Let me say now that I am also hoping for this ...

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St James Theatre, Wellington - SOAP THE SHOW: Delightful, enthralling, provoking awe

- reviewed by Greer Robertson

Bath time will never be the same again! Frothy and frivolous, sensual and exciting, this cleansing theatrical experience had me truly absorbed.

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Concert Chamber - Town Hall, THE EDGE, Auckland - CIRCUS INCOGNITUS: Fabulous, fluid and charming

- reviewed by Kate Ward-Smythe

Circus Incognitusis a fabulous affordable hour of holiday fun for both grown ups and kids. With plenty of impressive tricks and humorous antics, one-man-circus-show Jamie Adkins is a multi-talented likable guy to whom kids of all ages can easily relate.

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BATS, Wellington - YOUNG & HUNGRY FESTIVAL OF NEW THEATRE (WELLINGTON) 2011: Coming of age and (un)death

- reviewed by Lynn Freeman & Adam Burgess

Even those of us who were relatively young when Young & Hungry started are getting on, but still this annual festival delights and often surprises. There are recurrent themes too, especially ‘coming of age’ stories where friendships are tested and the young actors experience painful life lessons.

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Pull Bar, K Rd Ballrooms. 214 K Rd, Newton, Auckland - SEXY BUDDHA: Called to the bar for some fine, lively sparring

- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

Wry humour and great character studies make life-affirming show

A basement bar in Karangahape Rd provides an appropriate venue for a highly original variation on the classic ‘man walks into a bar’ scenario.

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Maidment, Auckland - OTHELLO: Dream team’s Othello a treat

- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

Director Jesse Peach has pulled off a remarkable coup in enticing New Zealand’s most acclaimed choreographer to join an Othello dream team that includes composer Gareth Farr, screen star Robbie Magasiva and a superb company of actors.

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Pull Bar, K Rd Ballrooms. 214 K Rd, Newton, Auckland - SEXY BUDDHA: Enlightenment at the bar

- reviewed by Craig Wilson

So a Buddhist walks into a bar . . . It sounds like the start of a joke but is in fact the point when this play gets really interesting.

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

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