Circa Theatre
Sept 9-Oct 7 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon

VIEWERS of Ken Duncum’s latest work, Picture Perfect are welcomed by a smooth, salubrious set. Not a sign of things to come. The wood panels and homely curves of carpet do not serve as a setting for peace and healthy dialogue. Rather, they are juxtaposed against an obsessive and unhappy family that is bitterly searching for wholeness.

Herald Theatre
Sept 19-30 | Reviewed by Imogen Neale

OFTEN WHEN you go to the theatre your experience, your enjoyment and your engagement can de gauged from your reaction when someone asks you (some version of) “how was it?”

The way you meet that question says more, perhaps, than anything else you actually go on to say.

Now, this is a make-believe scenario of course, but pretend you just asked me “how was it?” My reply – which is the most important part of this review I’d suggest – would be “I was completely surprised, completely enthralled and completely entertained.”

Bats Theatre
Sept 12-16 | Reviewed by Joan Fleming

THE JAVA Dance Company delivers a buzz with its retro celebration of New Zealand’s best-dressed decades in Snapshots—A Blast from the Past. As part of the Dance Your Socks Off festival, this variety show come politico-feminist statement on the 40s-50s-60s woman pairs the Java dancers with Wellington comedians The Improvisors.

Bats Theatre
Sept 6-9 | Reviewed by Shruti Navathe

Beautiful City is a multimedia work using improvised dance, live music and video images. It is the latest offering from Robert Appierdo, and is playing at BATS as part of the Dance Your Socks Off festival.

Studio 77
Sept 6-9 | Reviewed by Ewan Kingston, Melody Nixon

Moment Gone is the second in this year’s season of short plays by undergraduate students at Victoria University. Greatly varied in theme, style and content, the three plays on offer – Time Flies, Hypnagogis and Act Without Words 1 – showcase third year directing talent from the university’s Theatre Programme. All plays creatively engage the audience; the first two physically, the third in a more expressive way. The plays are appropriately ordered, leading us from comedy to personal drama to surreal mime.