From February 2010, The Lumière Reader will publish from its all-new website. This existing website will remain online in an archival capacity until we relocate its content.
Circa TheatreMay 26-June 23 | Reviewed by Helen Sims
FINALLY this year a play that is challenging and confrontational in terms of its subject matter and as a piece of theatrical performance, yet still feels entirely complete. Plays that present difficult moral questions with an accompanying refusal to present easy answers seem to be popular recently, but the production of Blackbird at Circa reaches a new level through its beautiful script, intelligent direction and performances, and astute design. All of these elements combine together for an unsettling yet satisfying experience. I was gripped for the entire hour and a half.
Te Whaea TheatreMay 25-June 2 | Reviewed by Shruti Navathe
Infinite Thread, currently on at Te Whaea theatre, is a performance comprising thirteen short dance pieces choreographed and danced by second and third year students. The NZ School of Dance students have worked in collaboration with entertainment technology students of Toi Whakaari NZ Drama School, to impressive result.
San Francisco BathhouseMay 23-26 (Wgtn) | Reviewed by Nick Henry
A THREE comedian show was a good bet I thought. Even if one’s terrible, there’s two more to go. This show did turn out to be a bit of a mixed bag, but overall a good night.
Ben Hurley opened the show with a good demonstration of why not to sit in the front row at comedy gigs. Lured by the comfy couches, these punters got the piss systematically taken out of them. The usual small talk of introductions: “what’s your name?”; “what do you do?”; “where are you from?” became an opportunity to make fun of people for being an accountant, coming from South Africa, or calling themselves by their initials. Nothing too flash, but it warmed things up.
Bodega; The Classic StudioMay 15-19 (Wgtn); 21-26 (Akld) | Reviewed by Jacob Powell
THE CLASSIC STUDIO is a great wee space with a brick wall along one side and a smallish corner stage facing the L shaped room. Into the midst of the full-ish, idly chatting crowd burst the concentrated ball of energy that is Jamie Bowen. Talk about getting the audience going, this guy has enough dynamism to get two rooms going and perhaps power a small town on the leftovers! Although seemingly gob smacked by this insane twig of a man, the audience got onboard for a frenetic hour long exploration of the truncated life and times of Jamie Bowen esq.
Academy Cinema; Paramount TheatreMay 11 (Akld); 21 (Wgtn) | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst
CANADIAN Lonny Goosen, who has almost $3,000 in unpaid parking fines, sets out to make a documentary about parking enforcers. He is obviously coming from an extremely biased standpoint and intends to lampoon the institution, but the humanity of some of the people he meets alters his opinion; soon he is involved in their plight to keep the streets safe from motor vehicle infringements.
The ClassicMay 21-26 (Akld) | Reviewed by Jacob Powell
HOW DOES someone with their mouth taped shut make you laugh? Is it through the kind of physical comedy reminiscent of old-time silent movies? God, please don’t let it be an hour or so of straight mime!
Silo Theatre May 17-June 16 | Reviewed by Imogen Neale
IT’S FAIR to say that most people have some sort of reaction to their partner’s ex-partners. It could be shock as ‘my god, but s/he is so average/mad/stunningly beautiful/hideously rude... or it could be disbelief ‘but he’s a she and I’m a he’... Whatever it is, it’s really hard to imagine that other, not-you person, fitting with your partner (who, hopefully, now fits so perfectly well with you).
Downstage TheatreMay 12-June 9 | Reviewed by Ewan Kingston
AT THE CLIMAX of Shakespeare’s Othello, the Moor muses aloud on his plan to kill Desdemona. He kisses her while she sleeps, ceases, then utters “one more, one more” before kissing her again. When some of the school students watching Jonathon Hendry’s production at Downstage saw that action, they chuckled, rather than wept. I had sympathy for them. I was not emotionally hooked by this play. All night my attention had periodically wriggled free of the action on stage. It was no wonder Othello’s struggle between devotion and rage didn’t hit us where it hurt.
Paramount Theatre; Auckland Town HallMay 18-19 (Wgtn); 23-26 (Akld) | Reviewed by Jessica Manins
Heavenly Burlesque took away the award for the Best of the Fringe in 2006, and there has been a lot of hype surrounding the show. Needless to say, last night’s performance was sold out and the Paramount Theatre was full of eager audience members struggling to find a seat in time for the night of devilish decadence.
Gryphon TheatreMay 16-26 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst
THE PRESENTATION of these two one-act plays, both with a wartime theme, is a spectacle of two halves. Both plays make us reassess our values, as today’s attitudes differ greatly from those presented of 60 years ago. The crackling recording of wartime melodies helps set the scene as we are transported back to a time when life was precious but precarious.
San Francisco BathhouseMay 10/17/24 (Wgtn) | Reviewed by Jess Manins
Best of the Fest was a whole lot of good old naked entertainment. The San Fran was spilling out of its seams with eager punters ready for some highlight performers from the Comedy Festival.
The DrakeMay 16-19 (Akld) | Reviewed by Jacob Powell
THERE WAS a buzz, albeit somewhat muted, as the miniature throng settled into their seats upstairs at The Drake in Auckland’s Victoria Park. A small venue and an even smaller, Wednesday night, crowd didn’t bode well for the opening performance of A Russian Guide to Culture. Don’t be fooled, however, by the title of this gig, as you’ll get three ‘culture guides’ for the price of one, the line up consisting of a Russian, Tongan, and English immigrant each sharing their own unique take on life and culture in New Zealand and beyond.
Bodega; The Classic StudioMay 15-19 (Wgtn); 21-26 (Akld) | Reviewed by Ewan Kingston
IF YOU WANT to be cool, guys, you know what to do. Talk in a slow, suave voice, move with the speed of a narcoleptic snail, and maintain that passive, slightly bored face. Not like Jamie Bowen. Avoid mentioning the following: that you live with your parents, you are afflicted with impotency at crucial times, you beat up kids. Not like Jamie Bowen. Cool Schmool. Auckland’s Jamie Bowen is entertaining, talented and hilarious.
Westpac St. JamesMay 9-13 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon
Maui: One Man against the Gods is a storytelling spectacular in which the legends of Maui are interpreted through dance, music and theatricality. The effect is an evening of powerful and visceral beauty and emotion, as well as a too rare opportunity to view a professional show presented mostly in Te Reo Maori.
San Francisco BathhouseMay 11-12 (Wgtn) | Reviewed by Ewan Kingston
STANDING in a line; Lovegrove in T-shirt and black undies, Messrs Gonzales-Macuer, Wrigley and Henwood starkers but for the cylindrical advertising hoardings they clutched.
Late Laughs has shifted venues. Last year it was at Downstage. This year there was a large queue outside the San Fransisco Bathhouse for the sold-out Late Laughs: Week 1, 2007. They were expecting the raunchy and the raw. They were not disappointed.
Circa TheatreMay 10-15 (Wgtn) | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst
IMPROVISATION is never easy, and relies largely on audience participation. This was evidenced last night as the barely half-full theatre didn’t manage to encourage a stellar performance from the cast of The Improvisers.
Opera HouseMay 11-12 (Wgtn) | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst
Ed Byrne is a classic stand-up comic; he doesn’t tell jokes as such, but relates humorous anecdotes. Touching on a wide range of the typical comic’s armoury he discusses religion, homosexuality, porn, class, relationships, and alcohol, amongst other things. He says the things that you want to but daren’t because of the era of political correctness we live in. This is fairly straightforward but immensely popular, as the audience at his sell-out performance verifies.
BATS TheatreMay 8-12 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon
They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;
They pursued it with forks and hope;
They threatened its life with a railway share;
They charmed it with smiles and soap.
SkyCity; San Francisco BathhouseMay 11-12 (Akld); 15-19 (Wgtn) | Reviewed by Imogen Neale
MIKE KING first built his reputation by telling scandalous jokes involving Maori. Thing was, as Mike King is Maori and as the jokes were therefore self-depreciating, our society seemed to think it was okay to let him get away with it just this once.
San Francisco Bathhouse; Auckland Town HallMay 9-12 (Wgtn); 23-26 (Akld) | Reviewed by Helen Sims
APPARENTLY Brendhan Lovegrove doesn’t like opening nights. They have a weird awkward “vibe”. If he hadn’t told us this at the end of his one hour show, I would never have known. Lovegrove is a confident, if self deprecating, stand up performer. He was more than up to the task of keeping the (full) audience at the Bath House amused. He did settle into the performance as time went by – and interestingly his use of expletives diminished as a result!
St James Theatre; Westpac St JamesMay 9-10 (Akld); 15-16 (Wgtn) | Reviewed by Darren Bevan
SOME COMEDIANS have an art of making the perfectly absurd seem perfectly normal. One of these is Dylan Moran, star of TV’s Black Books and erstwhile raconteur on stage, who hit Auckland for the first of three shows last night. At the same time, Moran’s absurdism is also the sign of a highly polished show which threw curve balls to the packed crowd left, right and centre.
BATS Theatre; The Classic StudioMay 9-12 (Wgtn); 14-19 (Akld) | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst
Jeremy Elwood comes across as the kind of nice bloke you could have a good laugh with down the pub. His material is interesting, if safe, and pitched expertly at his audience – he works out where they’re all from with a clap-o-meter at the beginning. Fortunately there were no Americans in the full house, or if they were, they were keeping quiet, because they came in for a good bit of bashing. As did everybody.
Auckland Town HallMay 8-12; 15-19 (Akld) | Reviewed by Jacob Powell
AND THE WINNER is... England.
Australia – 6; Canada – 1; New Zealand – 7; England – 9; The Big Show – 7.
That’s about how I score the show now that the dust has settled.
Paramount TheatreMay 8 (Wgtn) | Reviewed by Melody Nixon
THE 2007 New Zealand International Comedy Festival opened last night in Wellington, with the frantic annual mêlée of stand-up that is First Laughs. “Vagina” was the word of the evening, rivalled only by “Racist” and “Americans”. What is it about kiwi comedy that means the most debased and puerile humour gets the most laughs?
St JamesMay 5 (Akld) | Reviewed by Darren Bevan
THIS YEAR’s International Comedy Festival is seeing a return of comedians to our shores, with Ed Byrne back after four years away and now Ardal O’Hanlon back for just one night after a 12 year absence.
With no support (I never really understand why comedians have a support act) Ardal heralded his own entrance and walked onstage to rapturous applause. To that, he retorted people had better lower their expectations and in a curious way, he was right.
Circa TheatreApril 28-June 2 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst
CHEKHOV is known as one of those playwrights whose work you feel you really ‘should’ see. Susan Wilson directs a performance that you actually want to see, as she encourages the cast to bring out the humour in the melancholy. The small audience (the theatre was less than a quarter full on the night that I attended; a testament to the perception of the playwright) appreciated the shades of relief, laughing at the self-indulgent characters and the lighter moments.
Bruce Mason, SkyCity + Opera HouseMay 3-10 (Akld), 11-12 (Wgtn) | Reviewed by Darren Bevan
Ed Byrne is an angry man – well, in an affable sort of way. Returning to New Zealand after 4 years absence, the show was a prelude to his residency in Auckland as part of the International Comedy festival. After a fairly average warm up by Paul Ego – a man whose act never really got going – Ed came out on stage to rapturous applause, and it never really stopped from there.
Bruce Mason, SkyCity + Opera HouseMay 3-10 (Akld), 11-12 (Wgtn) | Reviewed by Jacob Powell
A LONG-TIME favourite, I remember seeing Irishman Ed Byrne when he was in New Zealand a number of years back and he was doing his “travelling the world and apologising for Riverdance” and “Alanis Morissette” routine. He was bloody clever and bloody funny then so I was keen to see how he was going to go over this time around.
BATS TheatreApril 27-May 5 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon
IN THIS adventurous play by Gavin McGibbon the ultra talented Erin Banks teams up with the self-possessed Robert Lloyd to bring a tale of real love, kiwi style. That means emotional repression, manipulation, and a not unbefitting alcoholism. As Freddie (Lloyd) battles with his need for love versus his fear of opening up, his girlfriend Anna (Banks) struggles to accept that their love is doing them both harm. All this is conveyed via a series of domestic scenes and stand up routines in which the jokes ring increasingly hollow.
Circa TheatreApril 28-June 2 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon
THE CIRCA crew who brought us Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard in 2005 are back this year with a production of the Russian master’s challenging and problematic comedy Uncle Vanya. Full of wry remarks, frantic speeches and seething desperation, Uncle Vanya is an unsettling comedy about the search for meaning in life, via a thread of old age and destruction. In true Chekhovian style it is also a story about love in which ardour never actually occurs, but is left floating in the space somewhere between two hapless lovers.
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