THREE performers, a live television broadcast, a real time Skype connection to a sister in London at 6.15 am and an intriguing and totally empathetic musical score by Marika Pratley are the substance of young choreographer Oliver Connew’s look at a family-his- in transit and a collapse of connections in both personal and global reality.
The starting point of many dilemmas and the resulting unsatisfactory compromises made in the journey that is our daily life, both socially and politically, is inherent in  the title of this work. At times the three dancers, Gareth Okran, Fleur Cameron and Connew himself seem in harmony and agreement with some energised vocabulary and much use of rebound off each other, the walls and the ‘news’. At other times the individuality of purpose rings true and there is an unfortunate willingness to agree!
A little more clarity and development of movement phrases and a concern that as a statement of a generation they seem to find no fun in being, but their commitment to explore and go beyond their own personal creative comfort zones made for an intriguing time spent contemplating their world.
An impressive grasp of a theatre space and an evident commitment by the artistic team to find a cohesion shows promise and a new choreographic voice emerging that is young and strong. Well done. And Bravo also as I write I have just heard that An Unfortunate Willingness to Agree won Best Dance in the Fringe Festival that has just ended.

Set in the Astoria Café where you could combine theatre with a set dinner, Freeze Dried Reaction Strategy was set as a surprise 21st birthday party for Sally. The audience were the guests and got to make decorations and sign Sally’s birthday card. The first attempt to hide in the dark in readiness to surprise Sally is thwarted when we learnt Sally is running 40 minutes late. The show had moments of fun, but wanderered somewhat and went well over time.

At the Academy of Fine Arts, the cast of Hurai delivered a strong performance, particularly Tama Kirikiri. They told the story of a conflict between Christian missionaries, led by Thomas Keene, and Papa, the local Maori religious leader who blends the Old Testament with Maori lore.

Space Bitches at Bats was the story of Honey Laser, Venus Sparkle, Glitter Storm, and Misty Shimmer, four super heroes who have various magical gifts. One of the group starts to lose her powers and without all four the rest must retire. It’s a light piece of girl power fun, with singing and dancing thrown in for good measure.

At Babylon, what promised to be an interesting sensory extravaganza did not deliver. A few minutes before start time the audience was led by dim lantern light into the crypt of St Mary’s of the Angles in small groups and seated around the edge of the small, dark performance area. The set-up is exciting, but the 30 minute show was then a mixture of repetitive noise that provides no discernable story or theme.

Echolalia at Gryphon Theatre, created and performed by Jen McArthur, featured Echo as a woman desperately trying to leave the confines of her house and her rigid routine. Jen drew us into her world with expressions and gestures, taking us through several days of her life; answering her phone, trying to make a job interview, to a “practice makes perfect” role-play of the interview with help from the audience. A delightful play and a stunning performance.

Puppet Fiction is Fringe at its fringiest. Anya Tate-Manning, James Nokise and Jon Coddington indulge their love of the Tarantino film Pulp Fiction, converting it into a puppet format. I understand a different character is chosen each night to be the central figure of the abridged version of the film. The night I saw was Butch’s story. Scenes from the film are re-interpreted with allusions to Wellington, improvised to fit the odd puppet malfunction and the overall result is hilarious.

In Confessions, also at Gryphon Theatre, five performers present separate monologues, each confessing to a macabre crime. There’s no sense of repetitiveness as each performer grips us with a disturbing sense of normality while confessing their act of horror. Apart from needing to lose a little length – cutting the unnecessary dance number in the middle would help – it’s gripping stuff.

The Show Must Go On at Whitireia Performance Centre was a devised work from a group of teenagers, about the performers in a small circus (Le Petit Cirque). While the young performers are to be applauded, their inexperience showed as they spent most of the time acting too hard leaving the performers no way to raise the tension for the more dramatic moments.
Eleanor Strathern was the exception, presenting a natural style that allowed the audience to connect with her character. The flow of the show was continually interrupted by fade-to-black scene changes that, despite no set change, lasted too long. With the many short scenes this becomes a particular distraction, but overall it is an impressive work from such a young troupe.

PLAYWRIGHT Phil Braithwaite also performs in Be Glad You’re Neurotic at Gryphon Theatre. Braithwaite uses the material found in a psychology book of the same name written by Louise E Bisch  to take us on a tour of his troubled life, using Powerpoint. Braithwaite often reads the slides to us, something we’re capable of doing for ourselves, and that sums up the problem. The material would make an entertaining read as a single or series of articles and its language is pleasingly eloquent. As a performance piece, it fails to deliver.

SHOULD We Stay or Should We Go? (Bats) Nancy Kniveston and Brad McCormick are in love but there is a problem. One is a Brit and the other a Kiwi and they each want to settle as a couple in their homeland. They need help and are asking audiences to make the choice for them. In return we see a show that is utterly charming, laugh out loud funny and makes us think about why we aren’t among the one million New Zealanders who are now expats.

The cast and audience have to have their wits about them watching The 37th Situation (Bats). George Polti described 36 dramatic situations that he believed categorised all dramatic stories. This play portrays each of those situations, from Rivalry of Kinsmen and Involuntary Crimes of Love, to An Enemy Loved. Some of the vignettes last seconds, others minutes, and the order is decided randomly which keeps the cast on their toes especially with the multitude of props used.  It’s ingenious and a thought provoking look at the role and possibilities of theatre.

Words are overrated and mime underrated is my conclusion having laughed myself silly watching Moving Stationery (Bats). A new office presents a minefield of challenges to Sigmund, but he overcomes them all with lateral thinking and some help from the audience. There is something Chaplinesque in the performance but even the master didn’t think up the balloon and tea bag trick. Brilliant and utterly delightful.

At the Museum of City and Sea, a refreshingly different theatre space in this year’s Fringe, Sea of  Stories, a folk tale feeling story uses different areas of the museum as a set. The idea is excellent and full of possibilities. At times that potential is realised – when young Freya’s fisherman father is thrown overboard their use of sound, space and puppetry is superb. Unfortunately the story itself just isn’t compelling enough, and moving around just to be crammed into small spaces is uncomfortable and distracting.

A lot of work, heart and effort was put into Energy Theatre’s Hot Toxic Love, 36 of the more warped or twisted “love” songs from a selection of classics and more recent Broadway shows.
The eight singers and five-piece band all performed with high energy and commitment.
Design and lighting was simple and costumes enhanced the effect. Matt Bentley’s direction kept everything moving and Sam McLeod’s choreography gave flow, excitement and momentum.
The show is too long for the stamina of amateur performers, and there was room for editing and reducing the length and excising the least effective songs. Having done a 3pm show there was evident fatigue and tiredness in the vocals I heard, not helped by sound balance problems with recessed vocals and often too prominent drums and guitars, but the band and keyboards and piano generally were spirited and did well.
The show was raunchy, enjoyable fun and the singers gave their all in energy terms.

Arthur Meek’s new work is the story of Irving Sayles, an African-American vaudeville star of the late 19th century, who finds more acceptance in Australia than his homeland. Jonathan Council, also an African-American, portrays Sayles and combines the story with his own experiences of leaving America for down under. A funny and moving production, presented with an original twist.

Paul Rothwell’s new work. Three characters are portrayed by Alex Greig, Elle Wootton and Rothwell himself. It’s a surreal take on writers writing about writing, with the whole set within a dream – but whose? Unfortunately, the production is more concept than substance. The hook of trying to determine who’s imaginary and who’s real is somewhat lost in scenes that feel more like acting lessons than story-telling.

Literally what it says. Polly Filla lip-syncs to a range of songs, such as Mother’s Little Helper, Loving You and Love your Vagina. The comedic interludes are also lip-synced and the performance, while certainly kitsch, is not enough to turn a recorded audio show into a theatre production.

Written by recent Toi graduates Jennifer Martin and Moana Ete, it features a line-up of recent Toi graduates (Simon Leary, Kenneth Gaffney, Bianca Seinafo and Jennifer Martin). The play presents the story of Wendy, a young girl whose childhood is overshadowed by her mentally handicapped brother and the imaginary friends she creates as a coping mechanism. It’s an engaging story-line, which allows the audience time to work out its intricacies without being spoon-fed the plot points.

The Museum Hotel provides an elegant venue for this production.  Jan Bolwell has written a beautifully paced play around the life of Lucia Joyce: troubled soul, dancer, daughter of writer James Joyce and one-time lover of Samuel Beckett. Jan Bolwell and John Smythe share the main roles, as old Lucia, James Joyce and Beckett, while Sacha Copland brings us the young Lucia and her love of dance. Director Deborah Pope has selected a varied soundtrack that complements the show well. ...more

THIS NEW PLAY was written by Jan Bolwell and based on the life of Lucia Joyce, the daughter of writer, James Joyce and the struggle she has living in the shadow/wake of her famous and notorious father. The sumptuous and perfect Tambarini Room at the Museum Art Hotel was a venue simply asking for this play to happen there. The use of interesting and appropriate music was excellent also. Lucia a dancer, was diagnosed with schizophrenia in her mid twenties. Three players take us through an episodic series of scenes that unfold stages of her life, her infatuation for Samuel Beckett, Beckett’s own relationship with both father and daughter, the tension between Nora Barnacle and James Joyce as parents with conflicting views on their children and the role of parenting. Contrasts and contradictions abound and the underlying conflict between sex and the Catholic religion, between dreams and duty, between driving and being driven all end tragically for Lucia. Effective costuming that suggests time, place and style is used and Sacha Copland as the young Lucia pursuing a career and happiness as a dancer at a time when both were unacceptable uses a range of dance styles well and with technical clarity. Her heartbreak was inevitable and I would have been more hooked in if there had been more variety and some engaging joy in her delivery for the story to unfold from? As a dancer who trained with the legendary Isadora Duncan, worked for show madam Josephine Baker in her La Revue Negre and who carries the story of her relationships with father, mother and lover in her dancing I wanted more emotional involvement and a range of expression to play out? A tendency to over-act and over state the case ran through the performance of both women, but John Smyth was excellently pitched as were as all the male roles. Costume changes, scarves, coats and glasses as well as accent changes delivered assured male characters with their lines clearly drawn (and a bit of smart footed dancing in there too!) Smyth was James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Carl Jung and a New York journalist and to his credit I came away with clear pictures in my mind of each of these men. Jan Bolwell played Lucia Joyce and gave us the memories which were by turns magical and muddled as well as the strongly negative personality of Nora, mother, caregiver, wife, agent of distress and disapproval and a chronic worrier. Dominant, demanding and deliciously irreverent by turns Bolwell relished her involvement in this well researched story of intriguing discoveries. Did the upbringing of Lucia in this family cause her illness? Was it inevitable? Who were the truly mad? This was a theatrical experience that posed questions, was fun and frightening and left us wanting to know more about the truth or not of the whole experience. Voyeurism of the most satisfying kind and well worth a longer life, bravo. ...less