Bats Theatre
June 16-July 1 | Reviewed by Nick Henry

IN ITS TWELFTH year running, Young and Hungry brings us a fresh series of one-act plays for young actors. The three plays; How to live in a world full of terrorists, Generator and Butt Ugly are performed in sequence each night at Bats Theatre. This intrepid reviewer did the marathon and went to all three.

Downstage
June 10-July 8 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon

COMPLEX IN structure and the level of engagement it expects from viewers, Edward Albee’s The Goat or Who is Sylvia? may be rewarding for some and disappointing for others.

In an almost full house on opening night, (in which only one member of the audience was snoring) this awarding winning play confused and quizzed, and ultimately caused the more outspoken viewers to comment “Well, what on earth was that all about?”

Singapore Arts Festival 2006
June 16-18 | Reviewed by Imogen Neale

WALKING up the neatly clipped path, my Filipino companion fixed his little boy eyes on me. As brightly beady as they were it was hard for him to hide his growing apprehension. ‘Ahh-mm’ he coughed, once, twice; ‘ah, where are all the people, the crowds, the fans? You know; the people?’ With my toasty, and thus completely inappropriate jacket slung over my right arm (which had grown by three inches during the day as press kit upon press kit had been thrust into its ever shrinking hold) I quipped, ‘we’re in Singapore, they’re probably in a mall somewhere nearby watching it live on a screen.’ His left knee buckled slightly, ‘a mall? Surely...’

Edited by Paul Callaghan and Bill Manhire
VUP, NZ$29.95 | Reviewed by Kate Orgias

WRITER Jo Randerson puts it perfectly: “If this confuses you, don’t think about it too much. It might be easier to understand just by looking at a bowl of sugar.”

Recent Victoria University Press book release Are Angels OK? is a book that, unless you are a physicist, or understand the way their minds/equations work, you are going to look at parts and go “what the!?”, and move on.

Singapore Arts Festival 2006
June 15-16 | Reviewed by Imogen Neale

WITHOUT restrictions we can not experience enlightenment, freedom or some existential state of creative absolutism. It’s an ironic concept; given that your arguing that something can, or does, come from the existence of its opposite. Indeed, the concept plays directly back into Hegel’s Master Slave dichotomy; without the slave there is no master, without the master, there is no slave. They need each other to exist.

Bodega
June 15 | Reviewed by Brannavan Gnanalingam

THE NIGHT was a night of contrasts. Hip indie kids dancing to hip-hop. Followed by a twee-pop band. Followed by those aforementioned hip indie kids playing hip indie music. Well maybe that’s not a contrast but it ended up being an enjoyable night of lesser known Wellington music.

Singapore Arts Festival 2006
June 13-14 | Reviewed by Imogen Neale

GHASSAN ZAQTAN, a Palestinian writer and academic once told a visiting American academic, Chris Keulemans, that if he wanted to understand Palestine (and thus Israel and Palestine and Israel), he would have to come and visit. Seeing it seems, is still believing.

By David Beach
VUP, NZ$24.95 | Reviewed by Imogen Neale

THERE ARE several reasons I got the giggles when reading my way through David Beach’s poetry collection Abandoned Novel. Which, I have to say before I go any further, is one of those titles you wish you’d come up with yourself; satirical, self-reflexive and sardonic – how many of us believe we are potentially grand novelists? How many of us do anything to find out? How may of us get anywhere with our attempts? True. It’s one of those titles you also then go and try to find for yourself by staring up at the ceiling counting cracks until two thirty in the morning.

DAVID LEVINSON canvases Auckland’s contemporary art scene. This month: Sara Hughes, Crash @ Gow Langsford; Jim Allen, Poetry for Chainsaws @ Michael Lett; Nick Austin, In a room @ Starkwhite.

Herald Theatre, THE EDGE®
June 7-23 | Reviewed by Imogen Neale

CHEKHOV in four parts; sound exciting? Perhaps not. But, before you put that down to the simple fact that it’s a Chekohvian play, or quartet of plays, and therefore dry and dramatic, pause a second and try this; perhaps Chekhov was actually a comedic script writer. Perhaps he wanted you to chuckle rather than cry. Perhaps he wanted extroverted laughter rather than introverted self-reflection. Or, maybe, perhaps he was very ambitious and aimed to achieve both.

Marama Hall, Dunedin
June 6 | Reviewed by Pascal Harris

DESPITE the fact that John Chen is only 20, the prospect of a piano recital by him is already attended with considerable excitement. The young Malaysian-born, New Zealand- bred pianist is currently studying in LA, but has recently undertaken an extensive tour of Australia and now a 14 series concert-tour of New Zealand.

Lumière's Associate Editor ALEXANDER BISLEY talks reviews, drinking, Arnie and symbols with DBC Pierre.

Downstage
June 2-3 | Reviewed by Ewan Kingston

Late Laughs is an ingenious idea: the audience receives four comedians plus an MC all warmed up rather than worn out by their shows that were being performed earlier in the night. The comedians get a near-full house, containing the receptive sort of audience one might expect on a Friday night after 10pm. Not a show for the children or those that believe South Park and the "bugger" ad on television have threatened our souls.

fiffdimension.co.nz
2006 | Reviewed by Simon Sweetman

After Maths & Sciences was recorded by Dave Black (some may know him as David A. Edwards, and if you don’t, then check his website, or the compilation of earlier recordings, Gleefully Unknown 1997-2005) in two parts: From May-July of 2005 in Melbourne, during the winter. And then from December of last year to January of 2006 in New South Wales; summer. The album is a travel-document; a response to relocation, a series of sound-sketches and sonic-manipulations designed to confront (and possibly unhinge) the listener; a reflection of several journeys – an aural diary of events from time spent in Australia, evoking the mood of the place (geographically) and the mood of the time (politically).

Opera House
May 25 | Reviewed by Steve Pepper

SOME comedians have a message to communicate in their comedy. Jimeoin is the first to admit he doesn’t have a message: he just tells jokes. And yes his jokes are unique and hilarious but his show missed the oomph of a polished and structured routine.