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.
Fringe 2009, Garden ClubFeb 25-28 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst
Tick, Tick... Boom! begins with the main character, Jon (Sam Benton), explaining over a metronomic ticking sound, “The sound you are hearing is not a technical problem. It is not a musical cue. It is not a joke. It is the sound of one man’s mounting anxiety. I... am that man.” From there on we are taken deep within his self-indulgent, navel-gazing, pre-mid-life crisis, which he describes to the audience in detailed neurotic New York fashion that Woody Allen would admire. But it’s good!
Fringe 2009, BATS TheatreFebruary 22-25 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst
THE THREE VIGNETTES – two solos and a duet – in this evening’s entertainment are united by the rural theme. In his director’s note, Adam Donald states, “There is a thin line between mocking and commenting on rural New Zealand. We aim to be respectful and true to this sector whilst making a comedy which is largely at their expense.” I’m not sure this is entirely achieved as derision certainly outweighs compassion and there is a healthy dollop of typecasting served up.
Fringe 2009, Waimapihi ReserveFebruary 20-28 | Reviewed by Helen Sims
GOING to a Three Spoon Theatre production is a theatrical treat – intelligent, creative and unabashedly dramatic. A Most Outrageous Humbug, while being a very different offering to their past productions (March of the Meeklings, The Storm, The Eiffel Tower Wedding Party) continues to maintain the very high standard this young company is setting.
Downstage TheatreFeb 18-March 7 | Reviewed by Helen Sims
NEW ZEALAND has one of the world’s best wind resources. Wind farms seem to be on the ‘side’ of moral ‘good’ – a relatively clean way to generate electricity. However, harnessing this resource is not without impacts that can be severe on local communities and the environment. These impacts can be overlooked by the ‘drivers’ of wind farms – commercial power companies. The moral conundrum of the good of the many versus the welfare of the few is given life through the family drama at the heart of the SEEyD Company’s production Turbine.
Fringe 2009, BATS TheatreFebruary 14-18 | Reviewed by Helen Sims
Words Apart is a simple and sweet show, combining spoken English with New Zealand Sign Language. It loosely draws on Romeo and Juliet for its plot, with a slight twist – Ryan (Romeo) is deaf and Jules (Juliet) is hearing. Their fledging relationship faces prejudice from both of their families – interestingly comprised on both sides of siblings raising their bother/sister due to absent parents. As the programme notes, Ryan and Jules face a battle of proving that their love can overcome the language barrier between them – that it is ‘more than just words’.
Fringe 2009, BATS TheatreFebruary 13-17 | Reviewed by Helen Sims
Poly-zygotic is a play about Samoan triplets. Two are the same, one is different – is it the boy contrasted with his two sisters? Or the short one contrasted with her two tall siblings? This question is never really resolved, but it emerges that all of them are outsiders – as a group and individually. Although the play bills itself as following the triplets’ attempt to find their ‘uniqueness’, it seems that they have been unique from birth – not only because they are triplets, but because they come from a ‘black sheep’ family that has been marked by tragedy. Although the triplets are the subjects of neighbourhood pity, they are far from feeling sorry for themselves.
VUW, Studio 77 AmphitheatreFebruary 13-28 | Reviewed by Helen Sims
Henry V is a theatrical testament to the titular King’s victory at Agincourt over the French and subsequent unification of the English and French Crowns bringing a (short as it turned out) period of peace. It’s a play that takes war as its central theme – although whether it glorifies war or is critical of it has divided scholars and audience members alike. David Lawrence’s spirited Summer Shakespeare production revels in the battle, but also highlights the grim consequence of war and the moral struggles it produces in the formerly carefree King. Despite a slight anti-war whiff (or just an encouragement towards gaining wisdom out of a querulous time?), Lawrence stays true to form and never strays from a full illumination of the text for his audience, often through ingenious means.
Fringe 2009, ‘Eli’s Bedroom’February 10-28 | Reviewed by Helen Sims
‘GIFTED’, ‘talented’ and ‘fresh’ are the terms that come to mind when trying to describe this brilliant production by the Playground Collective. This is particularly amusing given the play is a ‘comedy about apathy’ and a portrait of disaffected youth in search of a “living, breathing exclamation mark.”
Fringe 2009, Kapito CafeFebruary 12-18 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst
ESTHER ROSE GREEN and Sara Marlene Allen are excellent in The Mountain. I’m not entirely sure what the play was all about, but the acting by these two was phenomenal, as they inhabited several different characters with conviction.
Fringe 2009, Gryphon TheatreFebruary 11-14 | Reviewed by Helen Sims
WHEN A company names Ubu Roi as its patron saint you know you are in for something out of the ordinary. Faust Chroma certainly was that. This extravagant piece of avant garde theatre is thrilling and best enjoyed if you sit back and don’t try too hard to understand every moment (although reading the programme notes in advance might help, especially for the opening scenes).
Fringe 2009, BATS TheatreFebruary 11-19 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon
Drowning Bird, Plummeting Fish succeeds in being a rare instance of a sketch of apathy that is moving. (I would say unlike The Intricate Art of Actually Caring, currently playing in another part of the Fringe, which is very moving but is not so much about apathy as fear and the overcoming of fear – two quite separate forms of stasis.) Plummeting Fish taps into the zeitgeist of the disenfranchised teenage spirit, sets this in Wellington, and finds there ambivalence, hopelessness and a barren narcissism. Deciding who or what is to blame for that narcissism and hopelessness is left up to the audience.
Fringe 2009, Performing Arts CentreFebruary 6-9 | Reviewed by Helen Sims
THE FRINGE FESTIVAL sees the welcome return season of both Colony! And GRIMM – two short pieces devised by the Long Cloud Youth Theatre group under the capable direction of Willem Wassenaar. Both showcase excellent young talent, although they are far from mere vehicles for exhibiting acting skill. Both shows are entirely entertaining in their own right, and surpass some of the professional (and more generously funded) work seen on Wellington stages in recent times for sheer originality and energy.
Fringe 2009, BATS TheatreFebruary 3-9 | Reviewed by Helen Sims
UPON ENTERING BATS to see Buddha Boy one takes in first a shirtless, slim Asian man meditating under what appears to be a tall tent (actually a stylised tree), who unsurprisingly turns out to be the title character. Then you notice the bed to the side of the tree, surrounded by rubbish and alcohol. The play begins with the disheveled Sophie sitting up in this bed. It seems she has been there for some time, passing in and out of lucidity. You realise fairly early on that she is seriously depressed, following an unspecified disappointment. Sophie reads about the ‘Buddha Boy’ in a newspaper article – a 17-year-old who has been meditating under a tree for 10 months, without eating, drinking or sleeping. She travels to meet him in her alcohol-induced dreams (or possibly on some other plane of reality?) Janu, the ‘Buddha Boy’ is far from spiritually enlightened – he is also trying to escape from the world and more particularly, his childhood friend Maya. The rest of the play charts their healing influence on each other.
Fringe 2009, WaterfrontFebruary 2-21 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon
THE PLAY with what could be the biggest heart in the Fringe opened on Monday for a lucky group of 25 rapt audience members. The Frogs Under the Waterfront is a highly ambitious and creative take on Aristophanes’ BC work, spiced with topical commentary; snippets of poetry, singing and – unbelievably – swimming; and much care and enthusiasm. While the overall working of the piece is patchy in parts, and could be shortened by at least half an hour, the pure novelty of the experience, the courage of the actors (some of whom brave the tepid Wellington waters for nigh on two hours) and the eloquence of the opening and closing scenes make this work truly worthwhile.
Circa TheatreJan 24-Feb 21 | Reviewed by Helen Sims
Betrayal is arguably the most accessible of Pinter’s works. Emma betrays her husband, Robert, a publisher, by conducting a seven-year affair with his best friend, Jerry, a literary agent. Although the plot is seemingly simple, it is told (mostly) in reverse – beginning with a meeting between Emma and Jerry several years after their affair has ended, and ending with the beginning of the affair (although who knows how long the feelings have been latent within them). Its themes become both clear and complex due to the retrospective construction – love, lust, memory, and of course, betrayal. Pinter ruthlessly pursues the point at which love begins to end – and the deceit begins.
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