MARIANA ISARA is a poet who subsists in Otautahi/Christchurch. Her poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Trout, Sport, and Blackmail Press. Here she quotes Rod McKuen, pop lyrics, and a local: John, she calls him, ‘though that is not his name’.

DESH BALASUBRAMANIAM is a young poet. He was born in Sri Lanka and grew up in both the war torn Northern and Eastern provinces. He fled to New Zealand at the age of thirteen with his family on humanitarian asylum. His work has appeared in Mascara Literary Review, Blackmail Press, Lines Magazine, The Big Issue, Blue Giraffe, Electronic Poetry Network, Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) Online, Auckland Poetry and further work will appear in the next editions of Overland and Indigo Dream Anthology – And Again Last Night. He is currently working on his first poetry collection.

Vic Chesnutt (with Victoria Williams) tour New Zealand this July. He talks to BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM about recording his debut album Little, and being alive nearly twenty years later to tell the tale.

The Basement, as part of STAMP at THE EDGE™
June 15-20 | Reviewed by Renee Liang

OFFERING a fresh if slightly macabre take on the Great Kiwi Road Trip, Carol & Nev is a 60 minute ride through both public and private landscapes. Nev is a disillusioned office worker who is driving down country to his daughter Sam’s wedding. Everything is going to schedule until… his wife Carol, who died 25 years ago, pops up in the passenger seat.

NZSO, Made in NZ 2009; Wellington Town Hall
June 12-13 | Reviewed by Samuel Holloway

THE ARRIVAL of Finnish clarinetist Kari Kriikku in New Zealand gave dual reasons for celebration. Not only did we have one of the world’s foremost clarinetists performing here, but he had convinced the NZSO to programme two substantial contemporary pieces by fellow Finns Magnus Lindberg and Jukka Tiensuu. These two works were without doubt the highlights of the concert series, but were sandwiched between standard concert repertoire that came off looking a little banal by comparison, in spite of consistently excellent playing by the NZSO.

Circa Theatre
May 29-June 27 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

All the World’s a Stage is billed as a “round-the-bard trip in 90 minutes with Ray Henwood”. According to the programme, Henwood conceived of the one man show as “a way to introduce the playwright to those who felt he was not for them, and also to offer to those who knew the work a chance to revisit some of the highlights.” He was also inspired by John Gielgud’s Ages of Man. Henwood presents an engaging ‘greatest hits’ of Shakespearean speeches. It is a highly accessible work that will satisfy most, although those with a greater depth of knowledge of the Bard’s work will perhaps hunger for some of the richer, darker fare that they know lurks within the folio pages.

BATS Theatre
May 27-June 6 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

Charm Is Not Enough marks the fourth devised offering from Babyshads and is consistent with their quirky, multi-faceted style. They explore their overtly political topics though monologue, dance and song. This time around multimedia technology also plays a big part in the show, and the costumes and set have been upgraded from their previous efforts. The result is an entertaining and varied show and represents a significant progression for the devising technique of the company, although I do still think the ‘Shads have way to go before they fully synthesise their politics with their art.

NZSO, Made in NZ 2009; Wellington Town Hall
May 29 | Reviewed by Lynley Edmeades

PART WAY through the performance, Ross Harris, contemporary New Zealand composer, was invited on stage by conductor Hamish McKeich, to take on a question and answer session. Although he stood with arms crossed, a warmth emanated off him as his facial expression provided a bridge between Douglas Lilburn and what had just been performed: Landfall in Unknown Seas, a collaborative project between Lilburn and literary comrade Allen Curnow, written to commemorate the tercentenary of New Zealand’s discovery by Abel Tasman.

The Basement
June 8-13 | Reviewed by Rosabel Tan

CHINESE New Year is about new beginnings. It’s about forgetting old grudges, and beginning the year with hope for the future. It’s this hope that frames the action in Renee Liang’s Lantern. Intertwining the stories of two generations, it opens with Henry (Andy Wong) pleading with his wife Rose (Li-Ming Hu) to come back home to him. She tells him she can’t, and the rest of play is devoted to explaining why. Their children Jen and Ken have problems of their own, ranging from their experiences of prejudice on a day-to-day basis to the more ubiquitous problems of finding love and deciding what to do with their lives.

SAPNA SAMANT recently caught up with Mohammed Hanif, author of ‘A Case of Exploding Mangoes’, following the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival in May.

IT WAS TOWARDS the end of the interview that I thanked Mohammed Hanif for not writing a book that had the smell of spices. “What do you mean?”, he said. You know the books that Indian writers of English do so well. Ancient mansions in villages, landlords and upper caste types, grandmother crushing spices with her mortar and pestle, dabbing her tears with the corner of her crushed silk saree pallu, the smell of spices pervading the olfactory senses of the reader...that stuff. “Oh, I would love to read this book,” he declared. He was taking the piss. Exactly like in A Case of Exploding Mangoes. I could not stop laughing from the moment I started it. The era of Zia-Ul-Haq in Pakistan and how he forever changed the face of this subcontinental nation by imposing Sharia and other Islamic laws. God, sorry, Allah spoke to Zia much before he changed his avatar for George W. But if every word in the book formed an image, then it was dark and depressing because those years changed the world. Those years of covert U.S. operations in Pakistan, backing mujahideen, the Pakistani army and a man called Osama Bin Laden. Of course I had to tell him how much I enjoyed it. Imagine comparing Nancy Reagan’s face to an old cat’s arse! Or the imagery of Mrs Zia’s massive buttocks quivering as she turned in her sleep! “You remember all the naughty bits don’t you?”, Hanif said. Well yes, if the metaphors are so original and wild.

Phil Ormsby and Alex Ellis, founders of Flaxworks theatre company, and director Anna Marbrook are working together for the first time to bring Carol & Nev to the stage, premiering at The Basement theatre in Auckland, from June 15. RENEE LIANG talks to Alex and Phil about creative coupling.

By Darren Glass
Self-published, NZ$40 | Reviewed by Andy Palmer

EXPECTATIONS. Often they can be the undoing of you; they can throw you completely.

I picked up A Field Guide to Camera Species and the first thought I had was that it was smaller than I expected. It’s not often art books come as a 100 page, A5. Flicking through, I realise that there aren’t the photos I had expected. Then it hits me. The book that I’m holding and confounding my expectations is actually a field guide. In the truest sense.

Silo Theatre, at the Herald Theatre
May 29-June 27 | Reviewed by Renee Liang (contains spoilers)

“WHEN YOU scratch the surface, is there just another surface beneath?” asks the tagline for The Scene. At first glance, the latest in a line of high-octane North American dramas brought to the Auckland stage by Silo is indeed glittery but shallow. It’s full of witty but inconsequential word play, attention-grabbing behaviour and satiric observations, all too familiar from imported TV. But like all good sitcoms, we are hooked despite ourselves. And right at the end, there’s the payoff.

Circa Theatre
May 9-June 6 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

FROM THE MOMENT you walk into Circa’s main auditorium for the Willem Wassenar directed English language version of Lorca’s play Blood Wedding you know you are in for something different. First to strike you is how the stage is stripped back – even the black curtains on the back walls are tied back, as if the designer (Andrew Foster) is laying the theatre bare. The cast sit on assorted chairs or mill about in a loose semi circle – the sense that they are waiting for the performance to begin just as much as we are is heightened by the circle dramatically drawn in sand before the play itself commences. Outside the ring the actors wait and watch casually, but once they step into the ring you are assaulted with passionate and raw performance. Part theatre, part flamenco, part violent passion of the bull ring, Wassenar, the designers and the actors in this production offer an incredibly dramatic, non-naturalistic, and incredibly Spanish show, despite the English translation.

ALEXANDER BISLEY speaks to Michelle Johansson and members of her Black Friars troupe ahead of bringing their acclaimed Othello Polynesia Shakespeare adaptation to Wellington this June.

Actor, writer, director and teacher Glen Pickering is staging a “Mocumentative play” called Kairoa Glory: A Top Town Story. RENEE LIANG talks to Glen about making plays from real-life childhood memories.

San Francisco Bathhouse
May 28 | Reviewed by Brannavan Gnanalingam

THE SOUTHERLY winds that have purged Wellington over the last week got some respite at the San Francisco Bathhouse, where two local bands threw out melodies which danced around like fur coats. Both bands seem to be able to write catchy pop hooks in their sleep, throwing them out with the ease of drunken taunts. The bands were having considerable fun during their performance, and the audience threw themselves around on the dancefloor in support (particularly during Family Cactus’ set). The two bands are another sign that Wellington’s indie pop scene is as healthy as ever.

Conrad Keely chats to BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM about Trail of Dead’s latest album, The Century of Self, before the band touch down in New Zealand for two dates in early June.

VAUGHAN GUNSON lives in Hikurangi, Northland. He tries to juggle being an art teacher, writer, activist, unionist and parent of young children. More of his poems can be read at fallingawayfromblue.blogspot.com.

Comedy Festival 2009
Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst

THREE KIWI women walk into a pub. No, it’s not a joke, but it is a great night of comedy. The Comediettes (Fringe Bar, May 19-23) are book-ended by Jim Stanton and Emma Olsen, with Sarah Harpur thrown into the middle for contrast. Both have a fairly dead-pan delivery and have managed to master the art of saying truly random statements with a straight face.

Mel Parsons discusses her moving debut album, Over My Shoulder, with BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM.

Comedy Festival 2009
May 19-23 | Reviewed by Melody Nixon

NATALIE MEDLOCK and Dan Musgrove present us with a twinkling, silly and gorgeous hour of entertainment in their one couple show A Song for the Ugly Kids. As they state in their curiously childish programme, this show is about “the things in life that are a little bit wrong” – wrong, but totally funny, that is.

Edited by William McAloon
Te Papa Press, NZ$130 | Reviewed by Andy Palmer

OVER the last few years a number of New Zealand museums and art galleries have released books detailing their collections. In Art at Te Papa, we have a mighty tome showing off the art collection of our national museum.

Like the recently reviewed Seen This Century this is essentially a list book, albeit on a larger scale. And as with any list book readers will probably disagree with those included and those excluded. Not being one with a great knowledge of the Te Papa art collection, a quick flick through suggests that this is a pretty comprehensive survey.

Comedy Festival 2009
Reviewed by Sums Selvarajan

WATCHING Austen Found (The Drake, May 7-27) was more about appeasing my curiosity than anything else. Having been introduced to Jane Austen in college and not being that avid a fan of musicals, I was rather keen to see how an improv comedy take on the two would pan out. The intimate setting of The Drake along with the polished talents of ConArtist’s Penny Ashton, Greg Cooper, Lori Dungey, Stacyi Taylor, Nigel Burrows and Ross Devereux heralded more than a pleasant surprise. Swept into the fantastically fictional improvised world of “Greed & Generosity”, Jane Austen’s once-lost-but-now-found musical extravaganza, I was particularly impressed at how Andrew Herby-Bottom (Cooper) managed to work in Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Cecilia’ when disingenuously ballading about the protagonist, Ms Cecillia Gardener to her bon-bon crazed mother. The incongruous hilarity of the YMCA human-alphabets in a period ballroom dance also bear mention. Even if musicals and the country living in the Regency period isn’t your thing, Austin Found is well worth a watch. I for one think my aversion to musicals just might be cured.

Created by Fleur Elise Noble
Reviewed by Catherine Bisley

A TROUPE of puppets get their clumsy fingers onto a packet of cigarettes and some matches: Puppets + Fire = Trouble. Within minutes, 2-Dimensional Life of Her, a paper based show, roars up in flames. Projected flames, I should say. Black and white turns to colour and boy is the illusion powerful; I sat nervously eying the piles of paper strewn about the set, lest two dimensions leapt into a third. Concealing its own virtuosity with a beguiling improvised feel, this exceptional show explores the labyrinthine space between images.

Bodega
May 13 | Reviewed by Brannavan Gnanalingam

WATCHING a band you’ve seen before and drooled over is a bit of a challenge. Hype can be, after all, cruel. It’s like watching something with a towel wrapped around your face. Endless comparisons waft in-between songs, images from previous experiences vie for prime attention. But the disappointment that it didn’t match up to last year’s incredible performance, is in hindsight pretty minor. To use a bad analogy, it’ll be like saying since Canada is not as big as Russia, Canada’s a small country. Will Sheff and co. put on another excellent show, showcasing the overdriven melodrama and good old-fashioned rock n roll that their live shows are legendary for. The intensity with which he sings is enough to show he’s not faking it, the amount of spit that bellows from his mouth (given his recent arrival from the US) would have had health officials concerned if they still cared about swine flu.

Circa Theatre
April 18-May 16 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

Year if the Rat is set on the Scottish Hebridean island of Jura in 1948 – when an ill George Orwell was finishing his novel 1984. A quick spot of googling reveals that 1948 was a year of the rat in the Chinese Zodiac – and so was 1984 and the last Chinese calendar year (February 2008 to January 2009). Despite his tuberculosis, Orwell has secluded himself in a damp and cold cottage to finish the novel – and it seems to have taken a toll on both his mental and physical wealth. His isolation is interrupted by a motley group of characters, both real and fictional.

Comedy Festival 2009
Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst

Wayne Brady (Wellington Town Hall, May 4) performs cabaret shows in Las Vegas and you can tell. He’s slick, sharp and competent with his improvisation routines, comfortable patter and rhythm and blues songs. He is accompanied by a two-piece band and a couple of dancers, who are also slick, sharp, competent and male. This is a variety show.

Comedy Festival 2009, Michael Fowler Centre
May 9 | Reviewed by Alexander Bisley

NOTED 2005 television poll The Comedian’s Comedian gathered three hundred top comics’ all-time favourites. The excellent, versatile Steve Coogan clocked in at seventeen, ahead of Ricky Gervais, Charlie Chaplin and Larry David! There’s no doubting Wellington’s round of Steve Coogan Live was well entertaining, but I was a bit disappointed.

RENEE LIANG chats to Lori Dungey, member of improvisor group ConArtists and co-creator of Austen Found, which presents the ‘undiscovered works of Jane Austen’ at the Comedy Festival this week.

Finn Andrews tells BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM about the making of The Veils’ third album, Sun Gangs.

BATS Theatre; The Basement (Return Season)
April 21-May 2; June 8-13 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

NEW PLAYWRIGHT Renee Liang’s* two hander Lantern subtly traverses a range of binaries: male vs female; East vs West; young vs old in a general exploration of a Chinese-New Zealand family. Clearly in the mould of Bare and Niu Sila (I read in the programme afterwards that these are explicitly cited as influences) the play at once seeks to be culturally specific and universal in its themes. It is perhaps not as humorous or energetic as its predecessors, but it is still an absorbing and at time intimate play.

Circa Theatre
April 29-May 7 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

I enjoyed The Intricate Art of Actually Caring so much in the Fringe that I was at something of a loss for words to describe it. I practically bullied people into going to see it. While the re-mounting of it at Downstage demonstrated that The Intricate Art is an excellent show, I felt something was missing from the original.

Circa Theatre
April 4-May 9 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

IT IS FUN to watch very good actors behave very badly. It is even better when they are doing so in a Yasmina Reza play – her incredibly sharp writing gives them so much to work with as the comfortable veneers of two middle class couples are peeled away. Although the play operates on an intellectual level (it’s often a battle of words and wits) it also has a primal undertone to it, as parents spring to defend their cubs. As with her previous plays, Life x 3 and Art, Reza takes a group of middles class characters and exposes them as no better than the battling playground savages they have met to discuss.

Comedy Festival 2009, Opera House
May 3 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst

ONCE AGAIN the New Zealand International Comedy Festival began in Wellington with First Laughs – a pick and mix of the talent to be showcased over the next three weeks. Local and international acts shared the stage at the Opera House competing for audience attention and hoping to woo them along to their forthcoming full-length show.

Downstage Theatre
April 29-May 7 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst

THE OTHER DAY some friends and I were pondering what we did to entertain ourselves before the techno-You Tube generation. We all admitted we made up skits which we forced our parents and elderly neighbours to come and see, as we performed song and dance routines, ‘gymnastics’ (at best a handstand and a forward roll) puppet shows, or, at a push, poetry.

Downstage Theatre
April 29-May 7 | Reviewed by Kate Blackhurst

THE OPENING gambit of A Most Outrageous Humbug sets the scene for the entire play. Artfully designed piles of books and sombre mood lighting (Marcus McShane) form the backdrop to Edgar Allan Poe’s parents’, Elizabeth (Jean Sergent) and David (Adam Donald) ferocious and theatrical argument which ends in tears and blood.

Enjoy Public Gallery
April 23-May 16 | Reviewed by Thomasin Sleigh

I WAS A bit late for John Ward Knox’s artist’s talk which was programmed promptly for 5:15 to 6:00pm, followed by the opening celebrations proper. It turned out that this was okay, because Knox didn’t speak linearly about the work in the show but tangentially and openly about thoughts and experiences which had occurred to him over the days leading up to the exhibition. The space of the artist’s talk was democratic, in the sense that it was opened up intellectually to chance encounters, private musings and loosely connected happenings. These thoughts could be tied tentatively to the actual physical work of Knox’s exhibition, or they could be left shifting between the physical and the philosophical – not quite catching fully on either.

The nomaic Jacob Perkins, hailing from Portland, currently in New Zealand, and about to move to Paris, talks to BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM about his EP, The Birds and the Beasties.

Six man vocal and percussion ensemble Lo Còr de la Plana, hailing from Marseille, featured at this year’s glorious WOMAD. CATHERINE BISLEY’s words and images captured their performance.