The Auckland Performing Arts Centre
December 12-20 | Reviewed by Renee Liang

THE FIRST THING you should know about The Sexy Recession Cabaret is that it’s potluck. Along with items from the core cast, a rotating list of guests (some very recognizable) means there are new surprises every night. According the programme notes, the Depression-styled show aims to “be relevant to how we are living now and how we are dealing with our own recession”. It’s a big theme that doesn’t quite deliver, but that doesn’t seem to matter.

Maidment Theatre
Sept 30-Oct 8 | Reviewed by Renee Liang

THE WHO’s Tommy (1969) was one of those iconic pieces of rock which I missed out on as a teenager. For a start, I was a teenager twenty years too late. Secondly, I was nowhere cool enough. But finally, in 2009, Stage Two productions has enabled me to see this rock musical up close and very, very live.

Tempo Festival of Dance 2009
Leigh Sawmill Café; Ascension Vineyard, Matakana
Oct 16-17; 24-25 | Reviewed by Renee Liang

THE RUSTIC timber surrounds of the Leigh Sawmill Café at first seems an unlikely place for a show described as “an opulent and flamboyant avant-garde burlesque cabaret”, but during the efforts involved in getting there something of the intent of the producers starts to dawn. For Birds of Paradise is not so much a show as an experience. It provided an opportunity to escape Auckland on a warm and sunny Friday afternoon (we got away well before the traffic jam started on the Bridge) and laze into a glass of rose at Matakana before claiming a front row table for a preshow dinner at the Sawmill Café.

BATS Theatre
Sept 22-Oct 3 | Reviewed by Matthew Fairhurst

LOOSELY based on Lucy O’Brien’s time spent in a miserable mail-sorting centre, there is much in Postal that will be recognisable to anyone who has subjected themselves to the mind-numbing routine of public sector employment. Wisely, O’Brien avoids over-dependence on customer service in-jokes, and chooses instead to focus on the characters – the effect their incredibly mundane job has on their self-respect, and the coping strategies they bring in the attempt to maintain their identities despite the emptiness of their careers and their lives in general.

BATS Theatre
August 5-15 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst

Measure for Measure is known as a ‘problem play’, as it holds comedy and tragedy in unequal balance, and director Alexandra Lodge certainly seems to be confused. Having seen the Three Spoon Theatre production at BATS, I am no clearer as to what she considers this play to be about.

Gryphon Theatre
August 5-15 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst

I’VE NEVER liked those inspirational teacher stories. Sure, we’ve all had one, but do they have to be so nauseating? Trudy White as the eponymous character in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie doesn’t break the mould so much as shatter it and proves that influential educators are not always a good thing.

The Basement (Akld), BATS Theatre (Wgtn)
July 10-25 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst

THESE THREE PLAYS are performed one after the other each night. You can get a decent serving of up-and-coming drama and feel quite satiated after a night out or you can choose individually from the smorgasbord. They present an intriguing pick and mix of styles and themes with an overarching element of seeking a place and a sense of self. If you can afford a plane ticket, they are being presented concurrently in Auckland and it would be well worth seeing the different interpretations.

The Basement (Akld), BATS Theatre (Wgtn)
July 10-25 | Reviewed by Renee Liang

FIFTEEN years after the Young & Hungry Festival of New Works was set up in Wellington, it has finally come to Auckland – and it is set to be a valuable addition to an already lively youth theatre scene. Over sixty young theatre practitioners aged 15-25 are involved in acting and production roles in the two centres, mentored by some of the most respected names in NZ theatre. In Auckland, a partnership with the Auckland Theatre Company gives these fresh young artists access to some enviable resources, clearly shown in the production values for these three plays.

Alexandra Park, Auckland
July 9-August 23 | Reviewed by Renee Liang

ENTERING the Grand Chapiteau, I’m unexpectedly buzzed by a feeling of excitement. We’ve walked in from a cold wet bastard of an afternoon, bad even for Auckland in winter. We’ve been funneled through the souvenir tent, sneering slightly at the poor sods who are already buying. And now we have been shown to our seats, and the atmosphere in the near-capacity tent is crackling.

Circa Theatre
June 13-July 11 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon

THE STRUGGLE of women trying to live life in the right way – “clean,” successful, happy or passionate – is played out over two chaotic Acts in Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House, closing this week at Circa theatre. Ruhl’s contemporary exploration showcases the lowlights and highlights of the Western way of life for modern women. Isolation, extreme demands, longings and insecurities are played out through the mix of North and South American women who converge in quotidian circumstances that grow more and more bizarre as the play progresses. The Clean House’s self-deprecating humour is a good match for Susan Wilson’s dead-pan directing style. There is much to relate to in the oftentimes insightful and very entertaining script, which, perhaps just as much tragedy as comedy, leaves a lingering touch of darkness.

The Basement, as part of STAMP at THE EDGE™
June 15-20 | Reviewed by Renee Liang

OFFERING a fresh if slightly macabre take on the Great Kiwi Road Trip, Carol & Nev is a 60 minute ride through both public and private landscapes. Nev is a disillusioned office worker who is driving down country to his daughter Sam’s wedding. Everything is going to schedule until… his wife Carol, who died 25 years ago, pops up in the passenger seat.

Circa Theatre
May 29-June 27 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

All the World’s a Stage is billed as a “round-the-bard trip in 90 minutes with Ray Henwood”. According to the programme, Henwood conceived of the one man show as “a way to introduce the playwright to those who felt he was not for them, and also to offer to those who knew the work a chance to revisit some of the highlights.” He was also inspired by John Gielgud’s Ages of Man. Henwood presents an engaging ‘greatest hits’ of Shakespearean speeches. It is a highly accessible work that will satisfy most, although those with a greater depth of knowledge of the Bard’s work will perhaps hunger for some of the richer, darker fare that they know lurks within the folio pages.

BATS Theatre
May 27-June 6 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

Charm Is Not Enough marks the fourth devised offering from Babyshads and is consistent with their quirky, multi-faceted style. They explore their overtly political topics though monologue, dance and song. This time around multimedia technology also plays a big part in the show, and the costumes and set have been upgraded from their previous efforts. The result is an entertaining and varied show and represents a significant progression for the devising technique of the company, although I do still think the ‘Shads have way to go before they fully synthesise their politics with their art.

The Basement
June 8-13 | Reviewed by Rosabel Tan

CHINESE New Year is about new beginnings. It’s about forgetting old grudges, and beginning the year with hope for the future. It’s this hope that frames the action in Renee Liang’s Lantern. Intertwining the stories of two generations, it opens with Henry (Andy Wong) pleading with his wife Rose (Li-Ming Hu) to come back home to him. She tells him she can’t, and the rest of play is devoted to explaining why. Their children Jen and Ken have problems of their own, ranging from their experiences of prejudice on a day-to-day basis to the more ubiquitous problems of finding love and deciding what to do with their lives.

Silo Theatre, at the Herald Theatre
May 29-June 27 | Reviewed by Renee Liang (contains spoilers)

“WHEN YOU scratch the surface, is there just another surface beneath?” asks the tagline for The Scene. At first glance, the latest in a line of high-octane North American dramas brought to the Auckland stage by Silo is indeed glittery but shallow. It’s full of witty but inconsequential word play, attention-grabbing behaviour and satiric observations, all too familiar from imported TV. But like all good sitcoms, we are hooked despite ourselves. And right at the end, there’s the payoff.

Circa Theatre
May 9-June 6 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

FROM THE MOMENT you walk into Circa’s main auditorium for the Willem Wassenar directed English language version of Lorca’s play Blood Wedding you know you are in for something different. First to strike you is how the stage is stripped back – even the black curtains on the back walls are tied back, as if the designer (Andrew Foster) is laying the theatre bare. The cast sit on assorted chairs or mill about in a loose semi circle – the sense that they are waiting for the performance to begin just as much as we are is heightened by the circle dramatically drawn in sand before the play itself commences. Outside the ring the actors wait and watch casually, but once they step into the ring you are assaulted with passionate and raw performance. Part theatre, part flamenco, part violent passion of the bull ring, Wassenar, the designers and the actors in this production offer an incredibly dramatic, non-naturalistic, and incredibly Spanish show, despite the English translation.

Comedy Festival 2009
Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst

THREE KIWI women walk into a pub. No, it’s not a joke, but it is a great night of comedy. The Comediettes (Fringe Bar, May 19-23) are book-ended by Jim Stanton and Emma Olsen, with Sarah Harpur thrown into the middle for contrast. Both have a fairly dead-pan delivery and have managed to master the art of saying truly random statements with a straight face.

Comedy Festival 2009
May 19-23 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon

NATALIE MEDLOCK and Dan Musgrove present us with a twinkling, silly and gorgeous hour of entertainment in their one couple show A Song for the Ugly Kids. As they state in their curiously childish programme, this show is about “the things in life that are a little bit wrong” – wrong, but totally funny, that is.

Comedy Festival 2009
Reviewed by Sums Selvarajan

WATCHING Austen Found (The Drake, May 7-27) was more about appeasing my curiosity than anything else. Having been introduced to Jane Austen in college and not being that avid a fan of musicals, I was rather keen to see how an improv comedy take on the two would pan out. The intimate setting of The Drake along with the polished talents of ConArtist’s Penny Ashton, Greg Cooper, Lori Dungey, Stacyi Taylor, Nigel Burrows and Ross Devereux heralded more than a pleasant surprise. Swept into the fantastically fictional improvised world of “Greed & Generosity”, Jane Austen’s once-lost-but-now-found musical extravaganza, I was particularly impressed at how Andrew Herby-Bottom (Cooper) managed to work in Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Cecilia’ when disingenuously ballading about the protagonist, Ms Cecillia Gardener to her bon-bon crazed mother. The incongruous hilarity of the YMCA human-alphabets in a period ballroom dance also bear mention. Even if musicals and the country living in the Regency period isn’t your thing, Austin Found is well worth a watch. I for one think my aversion to musicals just might be cured.

Created by Fleur Elise Noble
Reviewed by Catherine Bisley

A TROUPE of puppets get their clumsy fingers onto a packet of cigarettes and some matches: Puppets + Fire = Trouble. Within minutes, 2-Dimensional Life of Her, a paper based show, roars up in flames. Projected flames, I should say. Black and white turns to colour and boy is the illusion powerful; I sat nervously eying the piles of paper strewn about the set, lest two dimensions leapt into a third. Concealing its own virtuosity with a beguiling improvised feel, this exceptional show explores the labyrinthine space between images.

Circa Theatre
April 18-May 16 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

Year if the Rat is set on the Scottish Hebridean island of Jura in 1948 – when an ill George Orwell was finishing his novel 1984. A quick spot of googling reveals that 1948 was a year of the rat in the Chinese Zodiac – and so was 1984 and the last Chinese calendar year (February 2008 to January 2009). Despite his tuberculosis, Orwell has secluded himself in a damp and cold cottage to finish the novel – and it seems to have taken a toll on both his mental and physical wealth. His isolation is interrupted by a motley group of characters, both real and fictional.

Comedy Festival 2009
Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst

Wayne Brady (Wellington Town Hall, May 4) performs cabaret shows in Las Vegas and you can tell. He’s slick, sharp and competent with his improvisation routines, comfortable patter and rhythm and blues songs. He is accompanied by a two-piece band and a couple of dancers, who are also slick, sharp, competent and male. This is a variety show.

Comedy Festival 2009, Michael Fowler Centre
May 9 | Reviewed by Alexander Bisley

NOTED 2005 television poll The Comedian’s Comedian gathered three hundred top comics’ all-time favourites. The excellent, versatile Steve Coogan clocked in at seventeen, ahead of Ricky Gervais, Charlie Chaplin and Larry David! There’s no doubting Wellington’s round of Steve Coogan Live was well entertaining, but I was a bit disappointed.

BATS Theatre; The Basement (Return Season)
April 21-May 2; June 8-13 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

NEW PLAYWRIGHT Renee Liang’s* two hander Lantern subtly traverses a range of binaries: male vs female; East vs West; young vs old in a general exploration of a Chinese-New Zealand family. Clearly in the mould of Bare and Niu Sila (I read in the programme afterwards that these are explicitly cited as influences) the play at once seeks to be culturally specific and universal in its themes. It is perhaps not as humorous or energetic as its predecessors, but it is still an absorbing and at time intimate play.

Circa Theatre
April 29-May 7 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

I enjoyed The Intricate Art of Actually Caring so much in the Fringe that I was at something of a loss for words to describe it. I practically bullied people into going to see it. While the re-mounting of it at Downstage demonstrated that The Intricate Art is an excellent show, I felt something was missing from the original.

Circa Theatre
April 4-May 9 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

IT IS FUN to watch very good actors behave very badly. It is even better when they are doing so in a Yasmina Reza play – her incredibly sharp writing gives them so much to work with as the comfortable veneers of two middle class couples are peeled away. Although the play operates on an intellectual level (it’s often a battle of words and wits) it also has a primal undertone to it, as parents spring to defend their cubs. As with her previous plays, Life x 3 and Art, Reza takes a group of middles class characters and exposes them as no better than the battling playground savages they have met to discuss.

Comedy Festival 2009, Opera House
May 3 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst

ONCE AGAIN the New Zealand International Comedy Festival began in Wellington with First Laughs – a pick and mix of the talent to be showcased over the next three weeks. Local and international acts shared the stage at the Opera House competing for audience attention and hoping to woo them along to their forthcoming full-length show.

Downstage Theatre
April 29-May 7 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst

THE OTHER DAY some friends and I were pondering what we did to entertain ourselves before the techno-You Tube generation. We all admitted we made up skits which we forced our parents and elderly neighbours to come and see, as we performed song and dance routines, ‘gymnastics’ (at best a handstand and a forward roll) puppet shows, or, at a push, poetry.

Downstage Theatre
April 29-May 7 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst

THE OPENING gambit of A Most Outrageous Humbug sets the scene for the entire play. Artfully designed piles of books and sombre mood lighting (Marcus McShane) form the backdrop to Edgar Allan Poe’s parents’, Elizabeth (Jean Sergent) and David (Adam Donald) ferocious and theatrical argument which ends in tears and blood.

BATS Theatre
April 15-May 2 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

WILD DUCK Productions, under the direction of David Lawrence, have updated and revised Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler for their production at BATS to place the characters in current day Wellington. As part of this re-visioning Hedda becomes a bored and somewhat unstable housewife with strong colonial roots – and a pair of pistols to match. The essentials of Ibsen’s original are all there – the recent marriage of Hedda to a kind but boring and naive intellectual (Jörgen/George Tesman), interrupted by the appearance of her mousy school acquaintance, Thea Elvsted who has been assisting Eljert (Eliot) Løvberg, Hedda’s former love and Jorgen’s, rival with the follow up to his acclaimed book. George’s interfering but well-meaning Aunt Julia is present (although changed to his sister) and so is Max Brack, the slippery lawyer who lives next door (a judge in the original).

Aotea Centre
April 8-12 | Reviewed by Renee Liang (contains spoilers)

EXPECTATIONS were again high on the opening night of The Winter’s Tale, the next offering from the Bridge Project. Once again, they did not disappoint, serving up a nuanced and intelligent interpretation.

Downstage Theatre
March 26-April 11 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon

THE RETURN SEASON of My Brilliant Divorce at Downstage is bolstered by previous reviews which praise the show almost ubiquitously, except for Lumière’s own gentle criticism of course. Lynn Freeman described Ginette McDonald’s performance in the first run of My Brilliant Divorce as “brilliant, McDonald,” and in this run the praise still does hold up. It is McDonald’s portrayal of every-woman divorcee Angela Kennedy Lipsky that gives this show its broad appeal. The disaster-ridden divorcee is an English version of the Americana novel Eat Pray Love’s hapless Liz; and the show has the same best selling, low and loud, humour and anguish-laden grace.

BATS Theatre
April 1-9 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

IN Bud we are offered a lone male performer on stage, Jean Genet’s long banned film Un Chant d’Amour (A Love Song) projected onto the back wall of BATS and a voice over written by the director, Roanl Trifero Nelson about a man named Bud. The narration, projected film and on stage performance seem to play loosely around the idea of the taboo, erotic (homosexual) gaze. The connection is never really established beyond this. What emerges is a piece that has excellent constituent parts – but they are just not well combined.

BATS Theatre
March 31-April 9 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

Dolores deals with dual themes of domestic violence and the tension in a sibling relationship in adulthood. Sandra is enjoying her day off, rocking out to Pat Benatar and relishing small treats like a magazine and cupcakes. The arrival of her sister Dolores, with a black eye from the latest in a long line of abusive husbands, is a totally unwelcome intrusion on her ordered life – as well as what she sacrifices to achieve it.

Aotea Centre
April 4-5 | Reviewed by Renee Liang

THE BRIDGE PROJECT is such a good idea that it’s a wonder that is isn’t done more often. Collect eighteen of the best stage actors from the UK and the US, and arrange to tour two classic plays in repertory across centres in Asia, the Pacific, the US and the UK. That Auckland was chosen to be one of these centres is perhaps a credit to the persistence and network building of the programming people at The EDGE. It was certainly a boon to the capacity audience that turned out for the opening night.

BATS Theatre
March 17-28 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

I AM usually incredibly generous and forgiving towards the production of plays by first time playwrights. The Sri Lankan conflict has recently been in the media again, so a play that examines its impact on a group of characters from New Zealand and Sri Lanka should be highly relevant. However, Serendipity was so flawed that I don’t think even the most generous of viewers could have forgiven its faults. It easily qualifies as one of the worst productions I have ever seen – and that includes a Czech version of Hamlet in which the Ghost of Hamlet’s father was a computer virus and Hamlet was on rollerblades.

Auckland Festival, Musgrove Studio
March 12-28 | Reviewed by Renee Liang (contains spoilers)

A MAN sits slumped in a chair, his face hidden from the audience. Around him two ramshackle cottages are on the brink of collapse. A jumble of old chairs is glimpsed backstage and transparent blue netting seems to shroud the whole scene.

Auckland Festival, Herald Theatre
March 18-April 11 | Reviewed by Renee Liang

WHAT HAPPENS when you send actors out into the city to collect stories? Backstory is an illustration of the idea that the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts. It’s a weaving together of stories that are not quite Auckland and not quite not Auckland, if you get what I mean. The result is a play that easily and deliciously embraces the universal.

BATS Theatre
March 11-28 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

AH, teenage angst. I usually find it so funny. Mark Schultz’s treatment of it in A Brief History of Helen of Troy is so sharply observed that it is often hilarious. But substantial tragedy underpins the bratty behaviour of main character Charlotte, and the result is a rich production imbued with myth and pop culture, deftly delivered by Playground Collective and GladEye Productions.

Auckland Festival
March 5-22 | Reviewed by Alexander Bisley

ROBERT LEPAGE’s wondrous The Seven Streams of the River Ota was a transformative experience. The Andersen Project (Aotea Centre, March 19-22) demanded I got on a plane to the Auckland Festival and I highly doubt I will see better theatre this year.