The Orderly
Herald Theatre | Reviewed by Imogen Neale

I HAVE AN aversion to most things medieval. I think it was Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath that did it for me, that and the fact it took me two whole days to decipher one, rather lackluster, paragraph. Thus, when I waked into the foyer of the Herald Theatre and found myself surrounded by all things medieval and old-English like, including men in tights, I felt, immediately, that I was in for a sixty minute reminder of why I never took that branch of English literature study any further. Unfortunately, however, as much as I may dislike the entire Medieval ‘lets play dress up and pretend to fight’ reenactment routine, it is a very strong feature, if not entire reason for being, for The Orderly.

Theatre
Mar 11-Mar 18 | Reviewed by Brannavan Gnanalingam

IT'S SO EASY to go into something and expect it to be great. As a result, you think it is great afterwards. As a reviewer I'm not averse to pre-judging things – I sure as hell did that for Robert Lepage. It was brilliant – it was theatre at its highest that I didn't even care about some missteps.

Music
Mar 17, Mar 19 | Reviewed by Pascal Harris

THE TWO performances of Wagner's Parsifal over the past few days were both momentous occasions, for not only the length of this four and a half hour opera was overwhelming but also the sheer power and fine quality of the singing and orchestral playing. It was particularly significant in this all New Zealand cast that Donald McIntyre as Gurnemanz sang what may be one of the last chances to hear him in a major role. His voice was finally nuanced and warm, his presence imposing.

TOM FITZSIMONS interviews former American poet laureate Robert Hass, guest of the Writers & Readers Week at the New Zealand International Arts Festival 2006.

Dance
Mar 15-Mar 18 | Reviewed by Catherine Bisley

Aterballetto, performing choreography by Mauro Bigonzetti, couples the grace and suspension of balletic style with the grounded idioms of contemporary dance.

The performance begins with lights held in the dancer’s hands being concealed and revealed to illuminate fragments of the body: while the aesthetic possibilities of this excited me, it was clumsily executed. My heart started to sink – the last opening to a festival show I had seen was the hollow pyrotechnical rhetoric of The Holy Sinner.

Writers & Readers Week
Mar 18 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon

ARE MINORITY writers well known because they’re of a minority, or because they’re writers? Are gay writers scandalous because they’re gay, or because they’re scandalous? When Peter Wells takes the stage these questions, and more, excitedly churn through us.

He is gay, and he’s also scandalous, but is he a writer?

He’s certainly a reader. He spends most of his ‘meet the writer’ session reading a randy passage from Iridescence and a test passage from his current work-in-progress, a faux memoir.

An intrepid JOE SHEPPARD grills award-winning comic journalist Joe Sacco, guest of the Writers & Readers Week at the New Zealand International Arts Festival 2006.

Writers & Readers Week
Mar 14 | Reviewed by Amy Brown

LISTENING to a line up of four internationally acclaimed writers, each with a different accent, is a particular pleasure. Simon Armitage, with that sexy Northern burr; Louise Erdrich, sounding exactly as I’d hoped, with that velvety Chippewa lilt; Nurruddin Farah with his dramatic use of silence, and finally Michael Cunningham – as smooth and American as they come.

Writers & Readers Week
Mar 15 | Reviewed by Tom Fitzsimons

I LOST track of Nurrudin Farah’s reading on the opening night of Writers & Readers Week, so I was a bit worried about this session.

Then there’s the fact the Somalian-born author has been given so many impressive labels it’s like he’s a decorated war veteran – the most important this, the best African that, the most prolific this, the likely Nobel winner that, and so forth. So there was also this feeling that something brilliant was eluding me.

Writers & Readers Week
Mar 15 | Reviewed by Tom Fitzsimons

IT’S A wonderful and almost relieving thing to read someone who’s completely in command of a language. It’s better still when they do it without ostentation, peppered with humour and verve. When you find out it’s not even their first language, well, it’s just damned frustrating for an aspiring writer.

A Sarajevan by birth, American by circumstance, and all sorts of other things besides, Aleksandar Hemon is such a writer, and thus a very welcome member of this year’s Writers & Readers line-up. I was looking forward to hearing him.

Theatre
Mar 7 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon

FROM THE moment a karanga welcomes audience members into the theatre, Battalion is a enchanting and emotional experience. It is a play that implores us to acknowledge the past and the atrocities our tupuna have endured, while successfully linking history with present issues and people. Battalion serves as a reminder of the power and healing theatre can evoke.

PASCAL HARRIS reconsiders Parsifal, Wagner's ultimate opera, presented by an all-New Zealand cast in partnership with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at the New Zealand International Arts Festival.

Writers & Readers Week
Mar 15 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon

THIS PUN on the title of Kate Atkinson’s novel is an apt description of what it’s like to spend an hour listening to novelist Nigel Cox. You get in ‘behind the scenes’ and almost feel as though you are exploring an interesting museum. Old relics of themes and threads are brought into the light, hummed and hared over, and put away again. Musty drafts sit in cases. Narrative devices are gazed upon in their glass display cabinets and crafty flow diagrams made of memories and thoughts link plot to plot. Viewers debate possible relationships between one artifact and the next. Encased, in all their splendor, are the landmark works of Cox’s writing life: Dirty Work, Skylark Lounge, Tarzan Presley and Responsibility.

Theatre
Mar 10-Mar 13 | Reviewed by Kiran Chug

The Holy Sinner returned to the stage last night, sixteen years after first winning critical acclaim in Auckland. Based on Thomas Mann’s novel, the play was heralded as an innovative landmark in the history of New Zealand theatre when the distinguished Mike Mizrahi and Marie Adams first realised it.

Dance
Mar 8-Mar 12 | Reviewed by Kiran Chug

WITH A flick of her wrists and a roll of her shoulders, Eva begins her flamenco. Her short, opening solo catches the imagination of the audience and wins rapturous applause. It is the start of a memorable performance and the highlight of the Festival so far.

Theatre
Mar 8-Mar 12 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon

Page 8 has a rare, ethereal quality that marks it as a truly unique piece of theatre. Like much theatre it haunts and provokes us emotionally. At times however it transcends emotion and thought, to stir guttural and indefinable feelings.

Theatre
Mar 3-Mar 7 | Reviewed by Catherine Bisley

ON FRIDAY night, as the elements lashed the outside of the Opera House, Kneehigh Theatre Company warmed up the sheltering crowd with their vigorous performance of Tristan & Yseult.

Dance
Mar 4-Mar 8 | Reviewed by Kiran Chug

TWO VERY different solo performances from Carol Brown and Charles Koroneho take shape before audiences of Aarero Stone. Brown’s contemporary choreography is set against a carefully designed performance space and riveting sound score, which both form an intrinsic part of the show.

Theatre
Mar 1-Mar 5 | Reviewed by Ewan Kingston

INTRODUCING multimedia material into a piece of live theatre is risky. One of the strengths of the stage is that it is fundamentally independent of technology. So will the addition of projected images and sounds distract from or confuse, rather than enhance the overall effect? In the case of Super Vision, luckily, the answer is "no". In fact, to characterise this piece as theatre with audio-visual material as an added extra would be misleading. The piece is produced through the partnership of tech-heads dbox and thespians The Builders Association and is a true fusion of digital technology and traditional stagecraft.