Theatre’s highs and lows
Lynn Freeman22/12/2010 10:38:00 a.m.
SOME years you just know will stick in your mind, no matter how many more hundreds of shows you will see in the future. 2010 is one of those magic years.
Most of the Chapman Tripp Theatre Award judges went into the voting process with over subscribed lists of potential nominees – for me, it was most of the acting and the set design categories which caused most anguish. We were however rapt to be able to present our long hoped for Wild Card Award for practitioners whose work is top class but doesn’t fit neatly into any of the existing award categories.
Three of the most memorable shows from 2010 came to us from Auckland – The Arrival which rightly cleaned up at the Chapman Tripps, 360 which was unlucky not to win Most Original at the CTs in my view, and Gene Pool. They were all shows that were commissioned, by the Auckland and Wellington Festivals and Bats’ Stab. That always helps. But Wellington’s theatre community was gracious at the awards and we should encourage more interaction between the Super City and our equally super city.
There were more than 110 shows in 2010 - remarkable even in a NZ International Arts Festival year. The Fringe accounts for a sizeable chunk, though this year’s event didn’t quite match last year’s in originality and OMG productions, especially those seeking out new venues. One of the exceptions was the delightful and disturbing Who’s Neat? You where we were trapped in a container with characters who seriously needed to chill out.
Aside from the award winning shows, there are several others that were outstanding. A Love Tail from Toi grads Matariki Whatarau and Aroha White was a personal favourite, Distraction Camp was deliciously strange, John Bach’s performance in Branwen Millar’s Father Familiar and all three actors in Parlour Song were knock outs, there was a lot of food for thought in For Real written and performed by the Original Scripts Youth Company, as one of three sisters I thought Yael Gezentsvey captured the dynamics beautifully in Paper Scissors Rock, and Vernon God Little from the Long Cloud Youth Theatre simply blew me away.
There were disappointments too, with Auntie and Me doing Kate Harcourt and David McPhail a disservice with its poor direction, STAB show Everying is OK starting out with a hiss and a roar then fading away, Salon not being a patch on its predecessor Hotel, and What’s in a Man? was a shocker.
And to all those who voted for Jackson Coe and I to win the coveted Pash of the Year Award (Chapman Kips) – thank you, it was my first and consequently my most treasured theatre award, along with the Comeback of the Year Award. This was for the critics who put on The Real Inspector Hound in November as a thank you to the theatre community.
Lynn Freeman
Most of the Chapman Tripp Theatre Award judges went into the voting process with over subscribed lists of potential nominees – for me, it was most of the acting and the set design categories which caused most anguish. We were however rapt to be able to present our long hoped for Wild Card Award for practitioners whose work is top class but doesn’t fit neatly into any of the existing award categories.
Three of the most memorable shows from 2010 came to us from Auckland – The Arrival which rightly cleaned up at the Chapman Tripps, 360 which was unlucky not to win Most Original at the CTs in my view, and Gene Pool. They were all shows that were commissioned, by the Auckland and Wellington Festivals and Bats’ Stab. That always helps. But Wellington’s theatre community was gracious at the awards and we should encourage more interaction between the Super City and our equally super city.
There were more than 110 shows in 2010 - remarkable even in a NZ International Arts Festival year. The Fringe accounts for a sizeable chunk, though this year’s event didn’t quite match last year’s in originality and OMG productions, especially those seeking out new venues. One of the exceptions was the delightful and disturbing Who’s Neat? You where we were trapped in a container with characters who seriously needed to chill out.
Aside from the award winning shows, there are several others that were outstanding. A Love Tail from Toi grads Matariki Whatarau and Aroha White was a personal favourite, Distraction Camp was deliciously strange, John Bach’s performance in Branwen Millar’s Father Familiar and all three actors in Parlour Song were knock outs, there was a lot of food for thought in For Real written and performed by the Original Scripts Youth Company, as one of three sisters I thought Yael Gezentsvey captured the dynamics beautifully in Paper Scissors Rock, and Vernon God Little from the Long Cloud Youth Theatre simply blew me away.
There were disappointments too, with Auntie and Me doing Kate Harcourt and David McPhail a disservice with its poor direction, STAB show Everying is OK starting out with a hiss and a roar then fading away, Salon not being a patch on its predecessor Hotel, and What’s in a Man? was a shocker.
And to all those who voted for Jackson Coe and I to win the coveted Pash of the Year Award (Chapman Kips) – thank you, it was my first and consequently my most treasured theatre award, along with the Comeback of the Year Award. This was for the critics who put on The Real Inspector Hound in November as a thank you to the theatre community.
Lynn Freeman
