Arts

Stories

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  Let’s talk about sex, baby

  EVERYONE remembers the first time they had sex. In 1998 a website was created that allowed people to share such experiences, which inspired American theatre producer Ken Davenport to write My First Time. We asked the cast and crew of the play, directed by Ross… Continue

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  Return of the Kang

  Miae Kang was the first Weta Digital artist to exhibit at Monique and Calvin Rowe’s Eyeball Kicks store and gallery, now the gallery sells the works of three other Weta artists with an exciting addition on the way. CANADIAN artist Miae Kang moved to Wellington… Continue

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  Buy Wellington made

  Voted Best Artist in last year’s Capital Times Best of Wellington Readers Survey, Tommy Ill has released a debut album that is proudly Wellington-made - from the beats, the recording and mixing, right down to the artwork and the mastering. “I was also surprised… Continue

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  Sexy Rexy

  The arts capital of New Zealand boasts a vibrant and edgy shopping experience. Capital Times celebrates entrepreneurs with a passion for the city. RETAIL boutique and fashion gallery Rex Royale started out as a small vintage store at the St James Markets.… Continue

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  Sadist inspires teenager

  TOI Whakaari student Chris Parker felt liberated when he became an erotic novel and short story writer who enjoys bizarre and violent sexual fantasies. The 19 year old is stoked to play the role of French aristocrat and revolutionary Marquis de Sade, after whom… Continue

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  Disable fable

  Lucy O’Brien’s third play, Katydid, exposes the reality of living with someone with a disability, and deviates from the corny and simplistic formula of films like I Am Sam and The Other Sister. PLAYWRIGHT Lucy O’Brien’s 28 year old sister Sophie has the mind… Continue

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  Schlong time no see

  MUSIC awards don’t guarantee financial success. Just ask Kiwi metal band El Schlong. The Battle of the Bands and Handle the Jandal award winners regularly lug their own equipment on the London underground on the way to gigs. They don’t own a car. “Our gear… Continue

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  Wellington set for Risqué performance

  “THE Queen has sex too”, says “Drag King” Andy Harness. In the past Harness has done the full monty on stage, performed a skit which sexualises the Queen and caused people to storm out of his shows, but he promises his new show Risqué is for everybody, not just… Continue

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  A good story

  A stint living in a zoo inspired David Elliot to pursue a career as an illustrator. The award-winning illustrator of favourites such as the Redwall series by UK author Brian Jacques, was living in Edinburgh and had run out of money. “I went to get a job at a… Continue

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  Behind the crafty mind

  Our lives are filled with the enjoyment of treasures. Capital Times talks with crafty people from around the Wellington region. ARTIST Arlo Edwards who has recently opened his new studio gallery on Dixon Street wants to expand the cultural hub of Wellington.… Continue

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  The life of Spite

  Actor, director, and writer, Tim Spite delves into not only his own family life, but also that of the Bain family, in his latest production. TIM Spite and his cast and crew spent three months as a sort of jury in the Bain family murder case. The multiple… Continue

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  Every Penny counts

  A Wellington band’s clever music video that shows them making their own instruments has won them a showing at a big film festival in London. THE Thomas Oliver Band’s video has been selected from over 1,000 entries to show in an international competition alongside… Continue

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  Feeling merry

  IN the build up to the Rugby World Cup, old booze hags The Feelers are excited about their upcoming winter tour because they are returning to their roots: the pub. Drummer Hamish Gee laughs, “I don’t really remember the first five years of The Feelers. We were… Continue

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  Hip hooray for Kura

  KURA gallery on Allen Street is turning 10, and its celebrations will bring its opening a decade ago full-circle. Its celebratory dinner later this month at the historic Robert Orr House in Lower Hutt is appropriate because it was also the location of Kura’s original… Continue

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  Scott free in New Zealand

  WHEN Broadway singer Jacqui Scott was two, she had the loudest singing voice in her church’s congregation. The youngster’s love of belting out a tune convinced her parents to enrol her into singing and piano lessons when she was only six. Four years later Scott… Continue

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  Behind the crafty mind

  Our lives are filled with the enjoyment of treasures. Capital Times talks with crafty people from around the Wellington region. WEAVER Kohai Grace is in the frame. Grace leads the Maori weaving group Whare Tukutuku who received the last round of funding from… Continue

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  The dog is dead

  LORI Leigh reckons it was no coincidence that she brought the award-winning play Dog Meets God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead to New Zealand. The American director saw the play about the much-loved Charlie Brown characters all grown up, in New York City,… Continue

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  That's poetry, man

  Sam Hunt: Poet, drunk, or genius?  A documentary featured in the New Zealand International Film Festival sheds a light. WHEN filmmakers Jim Scott and Tim Rose applied to the Film Commission for financing their documentary about poet Sam Hunt, they were… Continue

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  Cleaning windows to striking images

  WINDOW washer Richard Bigwood has always admired the art on the other side of the glass. By day he cleans windows at buildings like the Wellington City Gallery and government and corporate foyers. “Some of the exhibits have been very interesting. The government… Continue

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  Getting the pitch right

  SHE’s a school girl who can sing, run riot on the rugby pitch, and wants to go to France to get better at both. Sixteen year-old Fa’asua Makisi will perform in a Wellington concert alongside her opera-star uncle Ben Makisi, in a bid to raise $4,000 for a six-month… Continue

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  The art of war

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  Take a great gulp

  ACTRESS Miranda Manasiadis calls herself a “book geek” and read The Great Gatsby when she was 17. “The last paragraph just left me sobbing and sobbing – I was surviving those heightened teenage emotions, and it was such a tragedy,” Manasiadis says. Ken Duncum,… Continue

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  Dance Your Socks Off no more

  THE old dance socks are in the bin. There will be no Dance Your Socks Off Festival this year as Wellington’s dance community works out a new festival for 2011. “It won’t return in its present form, but a prototype festival will launch next year,” says Linda Lim,… Continue

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  The tale of a portrait

  AVENAL McKinnon is glowing as she chats about the latest portraits adorning the walls of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery. JUST days prior, the gallery’s director received the news she’d been so badly hoping for: The Portrait Gallery doesn’t have to move again.… Continue

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  Town Hall shape shifts to stadium soul

  DRUM and bass lyrics master PDigsss is “chuffed” that out of the vampire nature of the music industry; New Zealand music has found its way. This month, the front man of New Zealand’s premier electronic group Shapeshifter is returning to the capital after a three… Continue

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  Twain is back

  AFTER its success at the International Arts Festival, Mark Twain and Me in Maoriland is back, new and improved. The hard work is far from over, however. The production from Taki Rua Maori theatre company has been several years in the making. It uses American… Continue

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  It’s La De Da for the Capital

  ALANA Estate’s concern about hosting a new music festival over New Years was that people might buy more beer than wine. “I told them they just need to price their wine cheaper,” laughs La De Da festival organiser Josh Mossman. “They’re going to do their own La… Continue

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  Competition, colour, and Collier

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• Cuba Street king keeps crown

  Peter McLeavey is not retiring, in spite of rumours to that effect. The greatly respected Cuba Street gallery owner smiles gently at the speculation. “I will continue to work with my artists and clients until I am unable to crawl up the stairs, he says.” His… Continue

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  The brink of the rink

  WHEN Olga Sharutenko was 11, she was ice-skating six-days a week, for two sessions a day, leaving just enough time for school. She’s now a world-top ice skater, and will skate in Wellington as Odette, the swan princess, in Swan Lake on Ice. Sharutenko who is… Continue

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  New city space to create

  STEPPING inside the old Frederick Street Church in Te Aro is like entering a scene from Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Acid Kool-Aid Test. In the book, Ken Kesey and his eclectic band of Merry Pranksters trip across America in 1968 introducing people to the recently… Continue

• Madness at the Church

  The old Frederick Street Church in Te Aro is now an experimental music machine. New lessee Daniel Beban has given the Church a breath of fresh air and encourages DIY music making. Beban’s band The Orchestra of Spheres was born in the Church, and last week released… Continue

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  Buckwhips buck up

  THE Lonesome Buckwhips have had albums banned, every member has spent time in jail, and one member is pregnant to her half-brother. The band is coming to Wellington to perform a one-off show, Buckapapa, at Downstage Theatre. Staying true to their knack for bad… Continue

• Gnome swings a butcher’s knife

  THE gnome’s gone walkabout! In time for the school holidays, a wayward gnome has made it to Circa Theatre, and is subject to the wishes of children. Wellington man Pete Doile is playing Norman the Gnome in the children’s production, Gnome on the Roam, and says… Continue

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  A resident ink addict

  CONTROVERSIAL artist Wayne Youle is returning to the Capital in style to take up the Rita Angus Residency. The award has been dormant for the past two years until WelTec worked with the Thorndon Trust to resurrect it. Youle who arrives in August, now lives north… Continue

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  Don’t wait for Godot

  SIR Ian McKellen was recently mistaken for a homeless man. The actor, best known to many Kiwis as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, was not offended. McKellen was taking a breather on a Melbourne park bench between rehearsals for his role of homeless… Continue

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  Strung Out Outsiders

  WELLINGTON band The Outsiders have only been around a couple of years, but they’ve already toured the world, and will open for a major US punk band. The band is to play alongside Strung Out, an 18-year-old punk rock band from California, which is set to grace… Continue

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  The hidden masks of tapa cloth

  TAPA cloth is coming to Wellington on a seismic scale. Te Papa will host New Zealand’s largest exhibition of Pacific tapa cloth in 30 years, including massive masks that rarely make it out of the jungles of Papua New Guinea. Tapa cloth is made out of beaten bark… Continue

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  Leave it under the mat

  MANY Kiwis’ mispronounce musician Luc Arnault’s name “Luck”, (say Luke)but luck is an appropriate title. When Arnault arrived three years ago, he and three French friends spent six months busking their way around the country. “We were busking on Cuba Street,… Continue

• A magnetic book

  ALMOST everyone has picked up a compass at some point in their lives and wondered why the needle points north, says Victoria University lecturer Gillian Turner. Her book, North Pole South Pole explores what causes the Earth’s magnetic field, (without which we… Continue

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  The Aotearoa show

  A theatrical showcase of uniquely New Zealand productions is hitting the capital. Three shows at BATS, Downstage, and Circa, delve into our past, present, and future.   Maori tales are prominent, with the New Zealand International Arts Festival highlight… Continue

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  Wanda’s a wonder

  THE best piece of advice Elvis Presley gave Wanda Jackson was that if she wanted to sell records, she should be a rockabilly singer. She listened, and now not only is Jackson hailed as “the Queen of Rockabilly”, but she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall… Continue

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  Burning passion

  DANCER Ryan Di Lello’s parents met and fell in love through dancing. As the saying goes, history repeats, and Utah-bred Ryan met his wife Ashleigh through dancing as well. “We met at a dance studio. She immediately stood out, and I said to my friend, ‘wow – who’s… Continue

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  Taking stock of school sensations

  AT Wellington’s colleges the creative season is in full swing. Stage Challenge, Rockquest, Shakespeare, and theatre productions are drawing in expressive, innovative and enthusiastic pupils. The intimate nature of Wellington means a top Rockquest singer-songwriter… Continue

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  Awaken the silence

  WELLINGTON artist Rhian Sheehan makes music that he says ‘sounds like a slice of nirvana’. Not the band, but the Buddhist concept of a state of being free from suffering and weighty thought. However, Sheehan doesn’t meditate in the conventional way. “I should,… Continue

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  Bring in the big guns

  WELLINGTON has the first-ever comprehensive display of muskets intricately decorated by Maori and Pacific Islanders. The exhibition, held at Pataka Museum of Arts and Cultures, displays the carved weaponry held by museums around the country. Curator Pat Stodart… Continue

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  Vapour tales

  The Beatnuts aren’t keen on Jennifer Lopez. Lopez pirated the beats from Watch Out Now for her 2002 hit song Jenny from the Block so the hip hop and production duo from Queens, New York, took her to court.  She lost and now pays The Beatnuts royalties. “She… Continue

• A card solution

  SOME Wellington men have dreamed up a way to beat those hated ticket scalpers, and eliminate ticket forgery. It saves paper, because it’s quicker, it can disperse the long lines at festivals. And it was started in Wellington. Last week, the five entrepreneurial… Continue

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  Capital Blend

  To celebrate the end of New Zealand Music Month, Capital Times caught up with some of the local artists who featured on our 2002 compilation Capital Blend. The CD reflects a time when Bret McKenzie was part of the Black Seeds, and Flight of the Conchords didn’t… Continue

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  Bieber beats Buffalo

  “IT’S just a bummer about Bieber fever,” says The Phoenix Foundation singer Luke Buda. Justin Bieber, the teen star who sends teenage girls into hysterics, beat the Kiwi band on the Radioscope Album Chart. But Buda’s not complaining. The Phoenix Foundation’s… Continue

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  The opera virgin

  BEFORE The Marriage of Figaro, I’d never been to an opera. I’d never been inclined to go either. I’d heard all the usual comments, “long”, “in Italian” and “bourgeois”. The Marriage of Figaro at the St James Theatre last week was all of these things, but it… Continue

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  Not a tall cowboy tale

  MAORI cowboys were always an old wives tale for Northland artist Faith McManus. “My mum told me her Papa (father-in-law) was a cowboy of the Red Manuka, it was just a local phrase to me,” says McManus. That was until a 1920s photograph of the cowboys appeared… Continue

• Artist's family thought he'd be a bus driver

  WHEN Mu Yuming was 15 years-old he rode up the Himalayan mountainside near his home with the intention of killing himself. Now he travels the world and creates art in public places wearing a silver space suit. In Wellington he has been painting the portraits… Continue

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  Double dose of the live drop

  KEEPING Fat Freddy’s Drop moving is a mission, says trumpet player Toby Laing. “It’s a challenge every day keeping this massive monster together. There are 30 of us on the road, it’s like the Roman Army, we can’t stand still, we just keep marauding on.” The work… Continue

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  Exhibiting the heart of darkness

  PAINTER Liz Maw grew up in a fundamentalist Catholic household. “My mother would speak in tongues … I was completely bewitched by it,” says Maw. The elaborate Catholic ceremonies of her youth filled her with a sense of beauty and the bizarre. Now an atheist,… Continue

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  Hark, hark the art

  THE noise that Wellington’s newest sculpture makes “is halfway between a hum and a whistle”, says Sculpture Trust chairman Neil Plimmer. Akau Tangi, (the sighing sound of the wind) created by renowned artist Phil Dadson, is the fifth and final installation in… Continue

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  Comedian cancels

  UK funny man Jason Cook has canceled his Wellington Comedy Festival shows and has flown home. Fellow UK comedian Tom Wrigglesworth has saved the day, with his show Open Return Letter to Richard Branson. Wrigglesworth was the winner of the Chortle Comedy Award… Continue

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  WAI ORA for the renaissance

  MAORI electronic band WAI travelled the world for eight years on their first album. The band, Mina Ripia and her husband/producer Maaka McGregor, mixes organic Maori sounds with electronic definition. “For 10 years I have been singing the first album,” Ripia… Continue

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  Björn to rock

  ROCKERS Dave Grohl, Lionel Ritchie, Bon Jovi and Rod Stewart rate them, and they’ve played over 5,000 shows in 70 countries. It’s little wonder then Björn Again has a cult following. Björn has put on satirical ABBA shows for 21 years and is coming to the capital.… Continue

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  Emerging talent

  TO compete with the big boys, you have to be smart. That’s exactly how Wellington all-girl hip-hop dance crew Emerge managed to secure a spot at the World Hip Hop Dance Championship in Las Vegas. Even more impressive, all the members are still in school. Emerge… Continue

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  Fish pulp

  WAYNE Barrar has an unusual photograph – it shows tonnes of koi carp fish being ground up in a blender to make bait, after a clean up in the Waikato. The acclaimed Kiwi photographer with an interest in the effects of globalisation on native species has been snapping… Continue

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  Dark Joan, Spooky Adu

  Nirvana, PJ Harvey and Pixies album producer Steve Albini calls Kiwi chanteuse Leila Adu “spooky Adu”, a label she is happy to wear as she returns home from years abroad building a music career. WHAT’S with Joan of Arc? Kiwi singer Leila Adu has been a longtime… Continue

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  Collector's Heaven

  Could the painting granddad left you be worth $100,000? Capital Times talks to one of the assessors of the Museum of Wellington’s version of Antique Roadshow. IT’S not surprising Simon Manchester finds most people’s homes “utilitarian and boring”. His… Continue

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  Library Cull?

  “SUBURBAN libraries are under threat,” says a Kingston resident. After reading Wellington City Council’s 2010 Draft Community Facilities Policy and Implementation Plan, Marie Russell became concerned. Reading between the lines, Russell says libraries in areas… Continue

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  Lake of Weirdness

  Music is blind and photography is deaf, but the union is a harmonious one according to photographer John Lake and musician Mark Leong. PHOTOGRAPHER John Lake is an impulsive risk taker, fascinated with death and music. He tattooed his birth date in a barcode… Continue

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  Legend of love

  WHAT a fitting name for a show – Dance of Desire. Performer Katrina O’Donnell fell in love with fellow dancer Kienan Melino shortly after getting involved with the production. She giggles and goes quiet whenever Melino is mentioned, and when we ask to talk to… Continue

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  Love is all you need

  American ukulele singer Heather Marie Ellison, who’s supported James Brown, Huey Lewis, and Ray Charles, has funded a trip around New Zealand playing her unicorn ukulele. She fell in love with Wellington, and a local boy. WHAT’S a doink? It’s what Heather… Continue

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  A gay life

  FREYA Desmarais was “absolutely terrified” of going to her first Out in the Square fair in 2008, because she’d only just realised she was gay. “I went with a bunch of straight guy friends who were really supportive, and an old dyke gave me a figurine from my favourite… Continue

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  My soul is nomadic

  ON March 16, 2003, a 23-year old American woman activist was crushed to death by a bulldozer while protecting a house to be demolished on the Gaza Strip. The death of Rachel Corrie caused international outrage, and the differing accounts of the tragedy between… Continue

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  Guess who's back

  HOLLIE Smith is back in business. After a “hellish” two years in which her international record deal with Blue Note Records, the parent company of EMI, failed to come into fruition, the singer is now managing her own music. “I couldn’t have done it any differently.… Continue

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  The phone is dead

  ACTOR Gavin Rutherford is a “chunky fellow” who looks uncannily like Oscar winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman (Truman Capote). “People also say I look like Peter Helliar from Rove,” laughs Rutherford, who toyed with the idea of sending a letter to the show saying… Continue

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  Carr drives Kiwi sound

  MINUIT continues to impress international music industry heavyweights while keeping their loyal fans happy, if not a little choked up. The Newtown-based electro pop three piece set off on a delayed album release tour this week to promote Find Me Before I Die A… Continue

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  Middle aged but still on stage

  Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School is turning 40. Director Annie Ruth revisits old memories and discusses future ambitions. THE pictures of two striking women hang on the wall behind Toi Whakaari director Annie Ruth. She hangs them there to honour their memory… Continue

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  Artist with conviction

  SARAH Maxey is prickly. City Gallery’s press release calls Maxey a type designer which infuriates her. And don’t ask her about Kiwi poet Vincent O’Sullivan, even though her latest work at City Gallery’s Hirschfeld Gallery is part of a group exhibition whose title… Continue

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  Will we be eliminated?

  FRINGE Award-winning young theatre group Binge Culture Collective has unfinished business. Not completely satisfied with two of their successful productions, the collective has combined them to create Elimination Rounds, a satirical piece on Generation Y. The… Continue

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  Voice of a saint

  SHE has the face of a saint, and the name and voice to boot. Annie Erin Clark, better known as St Vincent, is in Wellington this week to promote her latest album, Actor, which saw the multi-instrumentalist and member of the Polyphonic Spree open for bands such… Continue

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  Never give up

  MAJOR back injury didn’t stop the Royal NZ Ballet’s Kate Venables working with the company. The former principal dancer (Dracula and The Nutcracker) performed with the Ballet between 2003 and 2007, but a year and a half of that time was spent in pain due to the… Continue

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  Talking art

  The great thing about the New Zealand International Arts Festival is the accessibility. The free talks with artists involved are a good way to enhance any Festival show. PEOPLE sat perched shoulder to shoulder like hot sardines inside City Gallery’s Adam… Continue

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  Break the farce

  THE Walworth Farce looks creepy. A father makes his two sons put on moustaches, wigs and ill fitting suits and do a farce. Since they were kids they have done this every day all the while cooped up in a rundown council flat in London. “That to me is a strange… Continue

• Season of concerts

  THE St Andrew’s Season of Concerts will bring interesting performers to Wellington. Building on a long history of lunchtime concerts at St Andrew’s on The Terrace, the organisers hope to recreate the buzz and camaraderie of previous festivals. The NZ International… Continue

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  There’s a hole in my  bucket

  DUNCAN Sargent admits the sculpture he’s entered in this year’s shapeshifter exhibition at TheNewDowse was a “bit of a science experiment”. The Newtown-based furniture maker decided to use green wood – wood that has been recently cut and not treated – to create… Continue

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  Festival fanatic

  HOT old guy Geoff Dyer has more going for him than fine boyish features, a smooth speaking voice and a gentleman’s manner. He can write. Imagining 53 year old Dyer in a hallway hunched over the receiver trying to hear each question (the house he takes the call… Continue

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  The Fringe Cut

  ONE was a secret Spice Girl’s fan, and the other fell in love. Both are stoked to be named Downstage Theatre’s Pick of the Fringe. Fringe festival productions Wannabe and Back/Words will be reworked for the big stage, and enjoy a one-and-a-half week season at… Continue

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  Naked and free

  Guests buzzed around the National Portrait Gallery looking at the 93 portraits in wonder. Who was the winner of the career-changing 2010 Adam Art Award? Capital Times speaks to the lady behind the prize. WHEN artist Harriet Bright heard she’d won the prestigious… Continue

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  Horsey handstands

  IT’S hard enough executing a neat handstand or cartwheel on terra firma let alone on horseback. The Kapiti Equestrian and Vaulting Club will demonstrate the art of performing tricks on trotting or cantering horses at Waitangi Park this weekend, and the club’s… Continue

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  A Te Papa mystery

  LAST Friday a student artist infiltrated Te Papa Museum. A small blue painting was first placed next to the Peter Trevelyan mirrored work outside Te Papa, and then underneath a Judy Millar artwork in a fifth floor exhibition. The work featured the words: “I Believe… Continue

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  Miss you, bro

  MIKE Eager promised his poet friend Simon Williamson that he’d turn a selection of his poems into a book one day. The result is Twenty-five Cars. Sadly, Williamson killed himself in 1999 after a battle with mental illness, and didn’t get to see the book. But… Continue

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  Write a letter

  I have a large TV-sized box filled with letters that friends wrote me while I was at school, stored in the roof of my parents’ house.  I can’t bring myself to throw them away. Playwright, producer and director Juliet O’Brien loves letters too. She can’t remember… Continue

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  Empty talent

  As MTYLAND unfolded, I watched happiness, sorrow, regret, despair and pure madness. I was left feeling empty, but strangely ready to be full again. I couldn’t believe it had been an hour. CLAIRE O’Neil cried after watching a rehearsal of her own dance production.… Continue

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  Keep Wright

  Homegrown ticketholders get ready to trek: this year the Dub and Rock stages are a 15 minute walk apart.  “IT’S a bit of a pain,” says Homegrown’s Kelly Wright referring to the new layout of the music festival on Wellington’s waterfront. “It was so… Continue

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  Deliciously Irish

  IT’S a common misconception that The Seven Irish Tenors are a group of fat opera singers, says one of the tenors Simon Robinson. “The truth is we are in good shape and have a good head of hair,” laughs Robinson. “When people hear ‘tenor’ they think of Pavarotti.… Continue

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  The Don with dreadlocks?

  One Love organisers hope to broaden the music festival’s reggae-focussed appeal by adding Kiwi singer songwriter Don McGlashan to the bill. WHEN Don McGlashan heard he was to headline Radio Active’s One Love music festival he was sure there had been a mistake.… Continue

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  What a Tripp

  ACADEMY AWARD nominee Taika “I think I’m hilarious” Cohen stole the show as the “last minute” MC for the Chapman Tripp Theatre awards on Sunday. His endearing forgetfulness had the audience cracking up at the St James Theatre as he repeatedly neglected to read… Continue

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  Meek creation

  COLLAPSING Creation, written by Arthur Meek, has received the most Chapman Tripp theatre award nominations for 2009. His play about Charles Darwin has been nominated in nine categories, including Best Production. “I honestly think I deserve it,” says Meek. “Downstage… Continue

• The missing score

  The CEO of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra says a proposed orchestral scoring studio will provide what’s missing in New Zealand – a facility to record music for films. “It’s the missing link for the post-production of the film recording industry,” says… Continue

• Digging the NZ Arts Festival

  IT’S a love story about a man and a digger. Transports Exceptionnels is one of the performances to look forward to at the 2010 New Zealand International Arts Festival, and it will be played out at Waitangi Park from February 26. “It’s a romance between a dancer… Continue

Reviews

• Stroma scores

  Stroma – Living Toys, 10 Year Anniversary Concert, Ilott Theatre, reviewed by Garth Wilshere I first reviewed Stroma at the time of their inception 10 years ago and they remain at the top as a cutting-edge contemporary music ensemble. This innovative concert… Continue

• Disappointing Bat

  Die Fledermaus, Wellington G&S Light Opera, Opera House, reviewed by Garth Wilshere THIS year the Wellington G&S Light Opera tackled Viennese operetta in the popular Johan Strauss II work Die Fledermaus (The Bat). This is a difficult repertoire while… Continue

• Poor theatre at its best

  Shipwrecked!, directed by Peter Hambleton, Circa Two, reviewed by Lynn Freeman WOULDN’T the world be a boring place if the truth was always clear cut? We need people like Louis de Rougemont – a real life 19th century adventurer/self promoter who was very… Continue

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  Jolie Average

  At the movies, with Dan Slevin IF I had to use a four letter word starting in “S” and ending in “T” to describe the new Angelina Jolie thriller, Salt wouldn’t be the first word I would think of. The last time Ms Jolie played an action heroine she was a weaver/assassin… Continue

• French Connection

  FED UP with New Zealand’s theatre scene, Kiwi performer Nick Blake left the country. His first stop was England, but after two years he felt he had to move again. “In the 1970s Kiwi theatre was derived from English theatre, [both were] very text based and wordy,”… Continue

• Magnificent Monteverdi

  Musica Sacra – Monteverdi Vespers, conducted by Robert Oliver, St Mary of The Angels, reviewed by Garth Wilshere TO hear Monteverdi’s Vespers, almost exactly 400 years after it was written (in 1610), was a life-affirming event. This was director Robert… Continue

• Silent murder hard to watch

  The December Brother, directed by Tim Spite, Downstage Theatre, reviewed by Lynn Freeman A SeeYd production is always an event. For more than 10 years the company has held true to its belief that theatre should be meaningful and provocative, and that it… Continue

• Song's praises sung

  Parlour Song, directed by Susan Wilson, Circa Two, reviewed by Lynn Freeman YOU can see playwright Jez Butterworth’s reverence for Pinter in the fractured dialogue and oddness of the story. It’s done well, mind you, a homage from a skilled young writer who… Continue

• New heights for Catherine

  Pianist Catherine Norton’s Farewell Concert, St Andrew’s on the Terrace, reviewed by Garth Wilshere PIANIST Catherine Norton will be greatly missed. The well-known and respected accompanist is off to study at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.… Continue

• Ugly unitard appeal

  The Fierceness - Real Hot Bitches, Downstage Theatre, reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant THIS was so appalling it was actually appealing. A partisan audience greeted friends in the cast by name with cat calls and encouragement. Onstage The Real Hot Bitches (27 including… Continue

• The Red Violin

  The Red Violin, New Zealand School of Music Orchestra, Wellington Town Hall 30 July, reviewed by Garth Wilshere. AIMED at showcasing performers and tutors from the New Zealand School of Music concert opened ambitiously with the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner’s… Continue

• A future at stake

  Vector Wellington Orchestra, Wellington Town Hall, July 24, 7.30pm, reviewed by Garth Wilshere THE Creative New Zealand paper released this week looks at reorganising the funding it gives to the Vector Wellington Orchestra and other major arts bodies around… Continue

• Marvellous

  Josef  Špaček (violin) and Michael Houstoun (piano), Wellington Town Hall 5 July reviewed by Garth Wilshere. THE brilliant 23 year old Czech violinist Josef Špaček who won the Michael Hill International Violin Competition last year performed with the… Continue

• The best of the bunch

  Young & Hungry, Bats Theatre, reviewed by Adam Burgess (15) and Lynn Freeman (a bit older). THIS is one of the best crop of Young & Hungry shows in its 16 year history – I reckon I can say that having seen almost every single one. They get the tick… Continue

• Gripping and unsettling

  Mauritius, directed by Ross Jolly, Circa Theatre, reviewed by Lynn Freeman A death in the family brings out the best or worst in people, and Theresa Rebeck takes the latter tack in her comedy/suspense. Here two half-sisters, one sent away who then chose… Continue

• Rock a Bill

  Bill Bailey – Live, Michael Fowler Centre, reviewed by Lynn Freeman. MAD hair, bulging eyes, very fine musician, the only lovable character on the TV show Black Books, and a comedian popular enough to book out the Michael Fowler Centre, not once, but twice.… Continue

• Sounds exotic

  New Zealand String Quartet and Richard Mapp (piano), Wellington Chamber Music Society, Illott Theatre 20 June 2010, reviewed by Garth Wilshere. THIS was another successful Sunday afternoon chamber music concert. The New Zealand String Quartet beguiled us… Continue

• A rich performance

  New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Michael Fowler Centre 12 June 2010, reviewed by Garth Wilshere CONDUCTOR Alexander Lazarev always whips up a storm in his concerts in New Zealand and this time with popular pianist Freddy Kempf, who had impressed on his last… Continue

• Natural and charming

  Venetian Carnival with The Wallfisch Band, Chamber Music New Zealand, Wellington Town Hall, reviewed by Garth Wilshere. THIS was a Chamber Music New Zealand innovation and proved a most interesting concept. The Wallfisch Band, Elizabeth Wallfisch; violin… Continue

• A stiff drink

  The Davenport Files, by Philip Marshall, Riverstone Books, review by Abby Cunnane. IT’S not uncommon for a novel to give you the sense of eavesdropping on a conversation. At best this is delightful, absolving you of all need to participate, or feel guilty,… Continue

• Best years back

  Te Kaupoi, BATS Theatre, Reviewed by Lynn Freeman. THIS production feels like a flashback to the best years of Taki Rua, when we were regularly treated to gutsy, meaningful and unashamedly political Maori plays. Whiti Hereaka integrates the recent so called… Continue

• A top note

  Footnote Dance’s Made in New Zealand, The Opera House, May 26, reviewed by Lyne Pringle. FOOTNOTE Dance Company gets better and better. Their NZ Made Season at the Wellington Opera House has become a must see event on the capital’s cultural calendar, and… Continue

• A brave piece

  Lullaby Jock, Directed by Tim Spite, Downstage Theatre, Reviewed by Lynn Freeman. ONE of the great sadnesses in families is when children don’t get to know about their parents when they were young and full of ideals and promise. As kids we can be so… Continue

• A bright future

  One Way, New Zealand School of Dance Student Choreographic Season, At Te Whaea, May 22,  Reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant. AN empty space, dimly lit with a scaffolding structure. The stage fills with students in a melange of style and clothing. Retro is… Continue

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  Crazy in New Zealand

  ONE joined a circus at age 15 – the other can’t get enough of gift-wrapping. Both are top-notch dancers. Lucy Marinkovich and Robbie Curtis are the newbies at Footnote Dance Studios, and already they’re set to perform at the Shanghai World Expo in July. Before… Continue

• Distracting visuals

  In a New Light – Made in New Zealand, NZSO, Wellington Town Hall 7 May, reviewed by Garth Wilshere. THE annual Made in New Zealand Concert from the NZSO during New Zealand Music Month had a twist this year, in accompanying visual images prepared by Dnation… Continue

• Go to the Final

  At the movies with Dan Slevin WITH the big budget Hollywood remake already in production (starring Rusty Crowe), Anything for Her looked like it might have had some entertainment potential but I’m sad to report that it never gets up to speed. The blissful… Continue

• Bold Binge Culture

  Elimination Rounds, directed by Joel Baxendale and Ralph Upton, Bats Theatre, reviewed by Lynn Freeman THIS company of Gen Ys is producing the kind of theatre that speaks directly to its peers. The actors cast a cynical eye at themselves and others, at media… Continue

• Devilishly good

  Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, and Los Amigos Invisibles, Pacific Blue Festival Club, reviewed by Garth Wilshere AFTER the recent “Southerly Buster” storm had quietened I ventured to The Pacific Blue Festival Club for the deliciously, dark quirky… Continue

• Kisses in the theatre

  From Here to There, The Royal New Zealand Ballet, St James Theatre, reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant ENDING their triple bill tour in Wellington in order not to conflict with the NZ International Arts Festival has worked well for the Royal New Zealand Ballet.… Continue

• Doubly good

  The Second Test, directed by Andrew Foster and Toby Leach, Skungpoomery, directed by Phoebe Smith, Bats Theatre, reviewed by Lynn Freeman AFTER the Fringe and International Arts Festivals, critics really want a cup of tea and a lie down for a few weeks.… Continue

• Music starred

  Good Morning, Mr Gershwin, St James Theatre, reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant THIS show is primarily the work of Jose Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu blending their strengths in much the same way that George Gershwin did when he changed the musical palette of… Continue

• Haunting farce

  The Walworth Farce, The Opera House, reviewed by Lynn Freeman WHEN a farce ends with an image so sad it haunts you, you know you have experienced something remarkable.   The Walworth Farce, an Irish Edinburgh Fringe Award winning production, was most… Continue

• Happy and effective

  Happy as Larry, TSB Arena, reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant THIS high-action, high-colour work began with an intriguing and universal premise that “happiness is our most singular human pursuit” and it is an objective to explore human happiness. Nine performers… Continue

• Surreal and spontaneous

  Connan Mockasin, San Francisco Bathhouse, reviewed by Janina Nicoll CONNAN Mockasin’s debut album Please Turn Me Into The Snat requires some research, and an imagination. According to online reports by Kyle Hugall, the alleged main “snat” who wanders onstage… Continue

• Mostly good

  NZ International Arts Festival Theatre, by Lynn Freeman THE Arrival , honed and polished after its Auckland Festival premiere and some overseas appearances, shows just what New Zealand theatre practitioners can do when given the chance and a decent budget.… Continue

• What a bargain

  New Zealand International Arts Festival. Sutra, St James Theatre, March 3rd, and Echoa, Soundings Theatre, March 7, reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant. A great idea having all the dance programmes in one place with the Festival dance works all bound together –… Continue

• Byrd song

  The Tudor Consort, Sacred Heart Cathedral, reviewed by Garth Wilshere IN this first concert of the choral year, The Tudor Concert made glorious sound from just 10 voices. The clarity of vocal line was impressive as they sang a selection of motets from 16th… Continue

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  Bloody good

  AC/DC, Shihad, The Checks, Westpac Stadium, reviewed by Dawn Tratt “IS there blood on my face?” a guy asked my mate before AC/DC started playing. Not only was there a circle of blood seeping from his cheek, but the wound was surrounded by little teeth marks.… Continue

• 90 minutes with the ex

  Ninety, directed by Susan Wilson, Circa Two, reviewed by Lynn Freeman THE death of a child is every parent’s nightmare and that makes it potentially powerful theatre. It’s well covered territory, including Carl Nixon’s The Raft which was seen in Wellington… Continue

• Camp times

  Campus A Low Hum, Flock House, Bulls, reviewed by Dawn Tratt BLINK is a genius. The Wellington-based events manager, photographer and editor, born Ian Jorgensen and now known by everyone as Blink, has helped put Wellington on the map by pioneering a unique… Continue

• Can you Handel?

  Handel’s Messiah, conducted by Guy Jansen, Sacred Heart Cathedral, reviewed by Garth Wilshere THIS year’s Messiah in Wellington was an imported presentation from the Kapiti Chamber Choir. This performance was augmented by former members and friends of Bel… Continue

• Too much

  Gas, directed by Conrad Newport, Bats Theatre, reviewed by Lynn Freeman THIS is a case of too many characters and too many themes crammed into too short a time. The programme lists the themes: sect-based religion, immigration, solo-parenting, sexual identity… Continue

• St James turns cabaret

  Jane Keller, with Carey MacDonald on piano, Cabaret St James Theatre, reviewed by Garth Wilshere IT was enterprising of the St James Theatre to turn their upstairs gallery space into an intimate cabaret venue for four nights. With seating, candle-lit tables,… Continue

• Loud music

  Dick Whittington and His Cat, directed by Susan Wilson, Circa Theatre, reviewed by Lynn Freeman ROGER Hall, panto, Circa. A winning end of year combination for the past few years and with big houses. It is again. Dick Whittington is a much less known story… Continue

• Brilliant death

  Death and the Dreamlife of Elephants, directed by Leo Gene Peters, Bats Theatre, reviewed by Lynn Freeman THIS second of Bat’s commissioned STAB productions has had maximum hype, with masses of pre-show marketing – on radio, in print, on Twitter, on the streets,… Continue