Kiwiblog

Has a great night on Friday at the World of Wearable Arts Awards Night. Did dinner at Trade Kitchen before hand who have a special WOW menu where they guarantee two courses in an hour. Then the show and awards which went on for around three hours, followed by cocktails at Foxtail afterwards until around 1 am.

This was the supreme award winner. Photos from Stuff.

The winner of the illumination section.

This lobster outfit was one of my favourites.

Until you have been to a WOW show, you don’t realise how much more than just a fashion show it is. The dancing, the singing, the sets all contribute to a great night just as much as the outfits and models do. It is a real show, in the full sense of the word.

The events centre gets very hot, and it is a long show, so the best investment you can make is a bottle of water to hydrate yourself during the show.

Went with Ukraine Girl to Downstage on Wednesday to see Arthur Meek’s On the Upside-Down of the World.

The first things that strikes you is the set. There are around 40 tall ladders on stage. And somehow they are not leaning against anything, making you wonder what keeps them up. Eventually you work out they are bolted to each other, so they are like a big frame. My mind did start recalling college physics and wondering how much weight would be needed on which ladder to make the whole thing collapse!

While the ladders were not an integral part of the play, for me they worked. It allowed Laurel Devenie’s character of Mary Ann Martin to emphasise her pleasure or distress as she went up or down the ladders.

So who is Mary Ann Martin, and why is there a play about her? She came to New Zealand at the age of 25 in 1842, following her husband William Martin who came out in 1841 to be the first Chief Justice of New Zealand. In fact at the time, the only Justice of New Zealand.

The play has a strongly political theme, as did Martin’s actual life. When she first came to New Zealand she saw Maori as savages to be converted to Christianity and became well regarded by many Maori due to the hospital she set up. But over time the friendly relations with Maori frayed and eventually severed, with the focal point in the play being the son of a Maori chief she fostered as her own.

The land wars of the 1860s severed the Martins not just from Maoridom, but also from most of their European friends, as they though the actions of the then Government was unjust and provocative.

Now some may read this and think the play is just a politically correct rewriting of history which portrays Maori as all good, and settlers as all bad. It doesn’t. The play is based on the actual history of that period, and primarily the book “Our Maoris” written by Mary Ann Martin. It is worth reflecting that the actions of the Government in the 1860s was judged harshly not just by today’s standards, but at the time by the first Chief Justice and his wife.  If you want a short summary of the Taranaki war, Wikipedia has one.

But despite the political overtone, this was not a play about Maori v Pakeha. It was a play about one woman, and her journey. A sole actor play is always a challenge, but I have to say Laurel Devenie not just rose to the challenge, but mastered it. Her performance was so outstanding that she got a rare standing ovation from most of the audience. That’s the first play I’ve attended in some years where that has happened.

The back story to the play is interesting:

She called her book Our Maoris, which today seems a patronising and anachronistic title.

But as director Colin McColl points out, language is fluid and when Lady Martin used the term it was with affection and respect.

Now she has made the journey from book to stage courtesy of playwright/actor Arthur Meek who found a copy of Our Maoris at a second-hand bookstall a couple of summers back.

Meek says its provocative title coupled with its cover picture of “the most depressed looking kuia ever” meant he had to buy it. He expected it would be a dry and possibly depressing read, but instead he found an uplifting story which revealed one of the great pioneers of our colonial history.

Arthur Meek succeeded in turning the book into a play which is equally uplifting.

Went last night with an old friend from varsity to a show from Deb Filler, at the Fringe Bar on Cuba Street.

We got there a bit early and nabbed one of the nice big leather couches to have a drink or two on. We then realised one could also view the show from them, so stayed happily ensconced for the evening.

The show lasted for around two hours, and it was a great fun evening.

Filler is born in New Zealand, but has spent much of her life and career in New York, and more recently in Canada. She does a mixture of stand up comedy, story telling and also is a very fine singer and guitar player.

Filler is Jewish, and her parents and grandparents fled the Nazis (as my family did) in 1938. She does Jewish humour as only Jews can do – wonderfully self-deprecating. The laughter was non stop at times.

She also had some great stories to tell – the ones about Leonard Cohen and Leonard Bernstein were especially memorable.

My favourite part of the show was when she went played many of the theme songs of the 1950s and 1960s TV shows. Most of the audience recognised them within a few beats, and many joined in singing the lyrics. It was a great night for audience participation.

She is playing again on Saturday and Sunday night at the Fringe Bar. A very pleasant and enjoyable evening out, if you can make it. It is easy to see how she became such an international success.

Eight is a play of six monologues, at Circa. Six you ask, not eight? Why? Well because you can vote before your show on which six of the eight monologues you want to see.

On Sunday I got to see Millie, Danny, Bobby, Astrid, Miles and Jude – and hence not Mona and Andre.

The four actors – Chelsea Bognuda, Jonathan Kenyon, Jessica Robinson and Paul Waggott play two characters each. Also several of them appear as props in other scenes.

I enjoyed the show. My favourite monologue was Astrid arrives home early in the morning with torn stockings etc looking like she has had a good night out. She has – too good a night in that she scored – and struggles with whether to tell her boyfriend asleep in the bed what happened.

Also very powerful was Miles – the Merrill Lynch trader who got caught up in the 7/7 bombings in London, and used them as a way to escape his normal life for a couple of years.

The characters are all English, or in one case an American in England. But they are all characters Kiwis can relate to – either from our own experiences, or from good TV dramas.

The actors did a very good job of making their characters real. You could relate to them, and always the sign of a good monologue is that often I was disappointed they finished so quickly (around 13 minutes each).

At times though I did struggle a bit with how they all fitted together. They were individually all very good, but it was only when I read the writer’s note that I saw they were all meant to be about “growing up in a world in which the central value system is based on an ethic of commercial, aesthetic and excess” which leads to a generation who are apathetic and have lost belief in themselves and the world around them.

When I posted recently on the All Blacks test I was at, a reader called me a Steve Tew rugby fan. By that he meant someone who enjoys the game, but is not overly skilled in interpreting what is happening. I thought it a fair critique, and to some degree that applies to me with plays also.

I greatly enjoy going to the theatre and love good humour, or terrifying suspense, or experiencing emotional roller coasters. But I fear all too often I miss some of the “meta data” or hidden messages which expert theatre goers can observe and analyse.

So I guess my reviews are what one might call the “Average Joe” perspective. From that perspective I definitely enjoyed “Eight”, and seeing a talented bunch of actors pull off their monologues. However I didn’t really pick up on the common theme running through them, but that may well be more my failing, than anyone else’s.

What an amazing play. My emotions felt they were on a roller coaster as this poignant story of four generations of a family played out in front of me.

After watching the When the Rain Stops Falling at Circa on Saturday night, I searched for more info on it, and was not at all surprised to find that Time Magazine declared it the best new play of the year in 2010.

The playwright, Australian Andrew Bovell, produced a first class award winning script. The director and cast matched the script with a superb performance. The play is like a jigsaw as seemingly disconnected aspects suddenly connect up together. The most shocking connection hits you like a bolt of thunder – I only worked it out a few minutes before it was made explicit.

The programme on your seat helpfully includes a family tree, and a list of the five settings of the play. I recommend you get there a bit early so you have time to read and re-read these. It really helps you follow the play.

The four time settings of the play are 1960s, 1988, 2013 and 2039. It jumps from one period to another in a way which is puzzling at first, but dramatically works wonderfully well, as pieces of the jigsaw start to fall into place.

Another feature of the play, is that two of the characters have a younger and older version. You wonder at first what turned such a happy young woman into a sad despairing alcoholic, but again over time, the answer is revealed. And you get some especially poignant scenes as the older version of the character silently observes the younger version receiving some bad news.

(photo by Stephen A’Court)

Sophie Hambleton played a young Australian girl, Gabrielle York, perfectly. The accent, the attitude were all there, and especially the stoic reserve as she copes with tragedy after tragedy.

Jason Whyte was also superb in his dual roles as Henry Law and Henry’s grandson Gabriel York. Whyte managed to make Henry Law a somewhat compassionate character, whom you feel sorry for – and that is no mean feat when the story fully unfolds.

While the play does have a lot of sadness, and some shocking events, there is an ending which puts aside all the sadness, and reminds us of the importance of family – no matter how flawed they may be

This play was one of the most compelling, memorable and moving plays I have seen. It was simply exceptional.

I saw the final Harry Potter film on Friday.  While overall it was an enjoyable film to watch, I was pretty disappointed with it, or more specifically the last 15 minutes. My gripes were:

• In the “limbo” scene they don’t mention that the reason Harry sort of survived is because part of him was living in Voldemort, as well as part of Voldemort being in him. No explanation given for how Harry survived.
• Having Harry spring to life in front of everyone was naff, leading to an silly chase scene between him and Voldemort like some B grade action flick – especially the wrestling each other off the tower.
• The whole point of Harry going invisible and staying presumed dead is so that his friends fighting on is even more heroic – they would rather die fighting than surrender to tyranny.
• The Molly Weasley v Bellatrix Lestrange scene failed to capture it as well as the book. Lestrange is second only to Voldermort in power on the evil side. In the book they describe her fighting three female wizards at once, to get across how formidable she is. That makes it all the more powerful when Molly Weasley charges in seeing Ginny at risk, and kills her after being taunted over her son’s death.
• Likewise in the book Harry shows himself only when Voldemort is about to kill Molly for killing Bellatrix. And in the book almost all other fighting stops to watch the final battle between the two main characters. In the film due to their silly brawl they are fighting outside, with almost no witnesses or sense of majesty.

The annoying thing about all the deviations is they were not necessary. J K Rowling write the final scenes perfectly for a movie. They did not need any change or editing. The changes they did, were not about making it shorter – we’re talking a few minutes only. It was just that they failed to get that emotional climax that Rowling did in the book.

So if you have seen the other movies, go see this one. But it was not a worthy ending to the most popular books and films in history. I guess it shows the difference between a genius producer/director like Peter Jackson who can take a hugely complicated plot, and still produce a stunning film, and other producers and directors who make a technically proficient film, but not a glorious film.

On Wednesday Night I went to see An Oak Tree at Circa. It runs until Sat 30 July.

The concept of the show is fascinating. There are two characters only. One, a hypnotist is played by Tim Spite. He was also the driver of a car which killed the daughter of the other actor.

The other character is played by a different person each night. For the next week, the guest actors are:

• Tue 19 July – Miranda Harcourt
• Wed 20 July – Paul McLaughlin
• Thu 21 July – Martyn Wood
• Fri 22 July – Jason Whyte
• Sat 23 July – Heather O’Carroll
• Sun 24 July – Phil Grieve

Now here is why they use a different actor each night. The actor does not know the script in advance. All they know is the broad concept.

This is not a improvised show. The guest actor does not have to make their script up. They just get it delivered a few words at a time. Sometimes Spite, as the hyponotist, will tell them what to say. Sometimes they’ll be handed a piece of paper with the next few lines on it.

On Wednesday the guest actor was Jessica Robinson. It was great observing her, as she had to act out scenes with just seconds to think. While she gets given the words, you have to come up with the facial expressions and body language to match. It must be one of the more challenging things you can do as an actor, and Robinson did it very well. Spite, as always, was masterful.

The show only runs for 70 minutes, and the time seems to run by, which is always the sign of a good show. You spend half the time just enjoying the challenge of the guest actor repeating their lines, and half the time soaking up the emotions as the two characters confront each other.

I enjoyed it greatly, and almost want to go back for a second night, to see how a different guest actor would go. I’d especially love to see Miranda Harcourt play the part.

Have just returned from the Iranian Embassy, which hosted a function for Jill Worrall, the author of Two Wings of a Nightingale – a travel book about Iran.

I mentioned the function and the book on The Panel prior to the function and was amused that it seems half the people at the reception heard me mention it. Shows how strong Radio NZ is in Wellington.

Readers may recall I visited Iran in 2009, hence my invite to the launch. Like Jill, I found it a wonderful country, nothing like what one might expect. The people are wonderfully friendly and hospitable, and the sights are magnificent. If it is shame that so few New Zealanders travel to Iran (under 100 a year probably).

I’m definitely going to return one day, and recommend those curious abaout it read Jill’s book.

Next time I visit, I plan to stay for at least two weeks. There is so much to see.

The PR people for HP asked me a few weeks ago if I wanted to try out and review their new HP Photosmart Premium printer, as it allows you to print from your iPad etc.

I actually have a current wireless printer – the Brother MFC-255CW. I do not have a desktop PC, so wanted a wireless printer so I don’t need to plus the laptop into a cable everytime I want to print. The Brother isn’t bad, but has been a bit frustrating as my firewall software often blocks printing to it. Also you can only print to it, when connected to the same wireless network.

So I said I would get the HP e-printer a try. A big box turned up a couple of days later and I unpacked it. The instruction manual was missing for it, but that actually proved sort of useful as it tested me on whether I could get it to work, without needing to RTFM.

Setup was pretty simple. A couple of the parts needed some firm encouragement to fit into each other, but overall nothing too difficult. Then after one has tested the physical printing, it was time for seeing how it prints wirelessly. To connect it up, you just detect your wireless router connection, and connect to it with the password. Again, pretty simple.

Then I discovered the key difference with my current wireless printer. The Brother requires you to then install the drivers and software on your laptop, so you can print to it. The HP e-printer actually has a unique e-mail address assigned to it – at an HP domain. So all you have to do is e-mail the photo or document to that e-mail address.

I e-mailed a letter from my laptop to its e-mail address. Started printing within seconds. Did the same with a photo from my iPad. Now this is a photo printer so it comes with a postcard sized printer tray, and 100 or so photo cards. It automatically printed the photos onto the photo card.

The one negative was that the colour settings seemed a bit out – the prints were red tinged. I’m sure it is solvable, but was noticeable.

Back to the iPad, it really does work well with them. Because once it has printed once to the e-printer, then the printer is listed on the iPad as a printer. So from then on, you can use the print rather than e-mail function.

The really good thing about it, is you don’t have to physically be at home to print to it. I tried printing a photo from the iPad from town – it was waiting for me when I got back. This means I can have a quick glance at a document on my Blackberry or iPad, and if I want a hard copy, instruct it to print to my home printer immediately. That’s a great feature, as it means you can print when you see it, not have to rely on finding the e-mail later on the laptop.

It occurs to me that if one was doing a big overseas trip, you could give this printer to your folks, and as you travel around you could e-mail a couple of photos a day to their printer, and they would see the sights you are seeing. Anyone who knows its e-mail address can print to it, which can be useful for flatmates etc.

The printer is relatively compact and my one is a nice shiny black. As someone with no desktop PC, I find it pretty brilliant. Printing used to be quite a hassle, and now it is literally as simple as e-mail, and can be done from anywhere.

The official HP page on the printer is here. I suspect in the future more and more printers will be like this one – printable from anywhere or anything.

Stephen A’Court was kind enough to invite me to have a look at his latest photographic display, which is on at the Toi Poneke Gallery, 61 Abel Smith Street, Wellington.

I went along with Sports Girl, and was blown away by the photos. The gulf between photos that amateurs do, and these photos is just huge.

The collection of 21 photos are of graduates of Toi Whakaari, the NZ Drama School. They are of actors, actresses, directors, producers, technical crew etc – some very famous, some less so.

This is one of Stephen’s photos, of actress Brooke Williams, who people may recognise from Outraegous Fortune and The Almight Johnsons. It’s taken on the steps backstage at Downstage. This was my second favourite photo because it captures Williams’ almost doll-like beauty so well.

My favourite photo was actually of Ruth Pretty (yes she is a graduate of Toi Whakaari) in her living room. I didn’t blog that photo because to be honest you couldn’t do it justice with a screen resolution and size. The colour is so perfect in her photo, you really need to see it for yourself.

Stephen has done a wonderful tribute to the theatre and film world. He grew up amongst theatre people – his grandmother was an operatic-style singer and his sister is the well known actress and comedian, Michelle A’Court. He also photography for many of the plays put on in Wellington.

If you have a spare hour in Wellington, and you appreciate great photography, I absolutely recommend you pop in and see the exhibition on Abel Smith Street. The photos are great, and the potted backgrounds of each person profiled were also very interesting.

You can see some of the photos at Stephen’s website, but trust me its not the same as seeing the original prints.

Had a very enjoyable Thursday evening in Wellington. Had dinner at Ortega Fish Shack and my God the food was divine. Had prawn tails followed by the most lovely gurnard. One could easily get addicted to this place.

Then went to Downstage to see C’mon Black. It’s a Roger Hall production, so I was expecting to enjoy it, and I did.

Gavin Rutherford plays Dickie Hart, a Kiwi farmer who leaves the farm and the shiela behind for a once in a lifetime trip to South Africa for the Rugby World Cup in 1995. Rutherford excelled in the role, and kept the audience laughing throughout as he relived what happened on that tour.

The nice thing about getting to go to around 20 to 25 plays a year is that I’m now starting to recognise the different styles of the various actors, producers, directors and writers. I reckon in a couple more years I’ll be able to do blind testing, like they do for coke and pepsi – no looking at the programme, and try and guess who the producer and director was!

C’Mon Black, reminded me somewhat of Le Sud. They were both so good at sending up different cultures. Le Sud took the piss out of NZ, Maori and French cultures. C’Mon Black takes the piss out of NZ and South Africa, and occassionally England. Rutherford manages to capture both the Kiwi farmer, and the South African tour guide so well.

The funniest moment would have been when Dickie phones home, asks about the cows, the farm etc and then only at the end asks the wife how she is. Then as he hangs up he curses he forgot to ask about the dogs.

The play brought back vivid memories of following the Cup from New Zealand. The reminder of Jonah as the giant that crushed the English and was so feared to tackle. Some firm even offered money for anyone who could tackle him. Rarely has there been a team that looked so unbeatable as the All Blacks in that match.

And then there was that final – where so many All Blacks were still sick from food poisoning, no tries were scored, where it went to extra time and then the Boks won with a drop goal. The agony was played out on stage masterfully.

This has been a somewhat stressful week as work pressures have been non-stop and my “to do before next week” list hit double digits. So the play was a very well timed way to unwind and relax, helped by some drinks afterwards at the Tasting Room also.

Boomers Behaving Badly was one of those shows I was somewhat nervous about. A one person show tends to be either very bad or very good. And I wasn’t sure if a show about the reflections of a woman “perilously close to 60″ was something I’d enjoy.

I got even more nervous as Auckland Girl and I piled into Circa Theatre No 2. I’d say 90% of the audience was female, and AG was arguably the youngest person there. I was mentally prepared for a discrete exit at half time.

And then Jane Keller came on stage and started singing, and telling her stories. Within minutes I was laughing as loud as anyone there.

Keller has a superb voice. In fact I later discovered she actually is a singing coach to a friend of mine who sings. But her personality is equally strong – she is funny, witty, sometimes a bit catty and often naughty.

She takes you through the various attendees at her 40 year class reunion. The former flame, the romantic rival etc. And then she continues through her life with stories ranging from divorce parties to Internet dating. The show is a barrel of laughs, and it was one of those rare times when you actually would have rather there was no halfway break, and the show continued on without pause. Keller has a fantastic sense of humour, and combines her singing and her facial expressions to maximum impact.

I should give warning that if you are like me in terms of being folically challenged, you may not wish to sit on the front row, unless you like becoming part of the show!

Boomers Behaving Badly is on until the 11th of June, and it is a wonderfully funny show. Both Auckland Girl and I loved it.

Must also make special mention of the wonderful contribution by Michael Nicholas Williams on the piano. he doesn’t just provide the music with excellence, but also gets a minor, but important, speaking part.

Politics – the musical is only on at Circa for five days. I saw it last night, and if I could I’d go back for the next for nights to see it again, and see how different it is each night.

The show is put on by the Improvisers, and was introduced as a combination of the two professions great at making things up – improvisers and politics!

The audience get asked to decide key elements of the show. The music themes for the first half were country and Katy Perry and for the second half was opera and rap. Despite these challenging selections, they pulled it off.

The audience were asked what perk they would most like to have and subsidised travel won. Something which annoys them was a needless by-election. Alison Holst was chosen as most loved NZer, and they rolled a dice to decide which party would be featured, and it came up black for NZ First. Party names are not used for legal reasons, so the party colours are used instead.

When asked what would the Black Party most want to not have the public know about, I yelled out “The Spencer Trust”, and that actually ended up being the major focus of the performance.

I won’t describe the performance in detail as it will differ every time. What I will say is that the audience were laughing near non stop, and it was a great show. If you are a political junkie, you will not want to miss this show – go see it this week. One MP was there last night, having got leave.

The show basically had the Black Party wanting to deport all Asians from NZ. They then struck a deal with the secretive Spencer of Spencer Trust, not realising the shadowy trust was a front for another shadowy trust which was a front for another shadowy trust which was a front for the Elitist Brethren (They are elitist as they have 50″ TVs in their homes which they don’t watch).

The Elitist Brethren force the Black Party to campaign not only on deporting Asians, but also on deporting all sinners. Jesus appears a few times also. It is all very funny, and the ability of the cast to not just make the plot up as they go, but to also make songs up on the hoof is superb.

As I said, if you are into politics you should go and see this.

It’s been over a decade since I’ve been to an improvised show – one where the audience help direct the plot. Snake Oil last night was a good reminder of how entertaining they can be.

Greg Ellis is a snake oil salesman – Dr Artemis Lovelace. He has an engaging stage presence and booming voice, which makes him indeed a credible snake oil salesman.

I’m full of admiration for anyone who can talk non-stop for an hour, without even pausing for reflection. Hard enough to do when you have a prepared script, but much harder when you literally invent the story as you tell it. I got asked twice to make up a key detail, choosing pasta as a food and stamp collecting as a hobby. Within seconds these became major plot elements, as Ellis talked about how pasta brought together native americans and italian-americans in his whimsical tale.

Equally challenging to making up a story as you go, must be remembering it. Elis invented a number of characters (including the twins Ping and Pong) and they all were referred to throughout the show.

The show only runs for four days. If you are a fan of improvised shows, then you’ll enjoy spending an hour with Greg Ellis.

The first thing you notice upon entering Circa Theatre One is its remarkable transformation. The stage, being a cottage with no walls, is in the middle of the theatre, and the seating is on both sides of it. This has the unusual effect of being able to see half the audience beyond the stage. It gave an intimate feel to the performance.

The Lead Wait is not a comedy, even though there are a number of humourous scenes in it. It is hard to stick it into a category, but I’d classify it as a dramatic mystery. The mystery traveller obviously has some past history with the other characters, but you don’t know what. The plot is quite captivating, as your mind runs through the possibilities of how it all stitches together.

Leon is the wise-cracking and relaxed head of the house. He welcomes the mystery man back and even lets him use the bath. In fact all four characters have a bath on stage, and this is a source of most of the humourous aspects. Especially when Leon teases young Ian that his bladder got relaxed in the bath. All four characters have full frontal nudity in front of each other, plus of course the audience. This reinforces the atmosphere that in the past, there has been intimacy between some of them.

Juliet I took to be Leon’s wife initially. She was very upset to have the mystery man return, and didn’t want him to even stay for dinner. I was assuming she cheated on Leon with him, but in fact it transpires Juliet is Leon’s sister and she is sleeping wih the young and naive Ian.

Leon has a mania for digging holes in their property, and uses canaries to detect where the air is bad. This greatly , Ian, who is teased for being too sensitive by Leon. Actual live canaries are used in the play, but I presume not killed!

The play is around 90 minutes long and the mystery starts to get solved as time goes on. It then turns from a mystery into a powerful drama. The final ten minutes can only be described as powerful and shocking, with one scene even having me shudder in my seat.

So this play is not a barrel of laughs comedy. Don’t go to it if you are wanting to just be entertained. However if you are looking for a play which captivates you, which grips your emotions, which shocks you and leave you feeling somewhat raw afterwards - then go see it.

The plot is expertly constructed, and the four cast members brought their characters to life. The stage was excellent, and captured that feel of a remote country house so very well.

The blurb for USO at Downstage is:

A modern day story on an epic scale, USO is a story about growing up in South Auckland and the pressures Pacific Island youth experience living there. Lincoln must deal with the conflicting desires of his family, friends, girlfriend, school and peers in order to survive. USO explores the tensions between friendship, brotherhood, betrayal and loyalty.

It sounds like it will be rather moralistic and overly “worthy”, but in fact the performance was heaps of fun, and really engaging. It was like watching an episode of Glee set in Wesley College.

I have become a big fan of the Black Friars, who are a South Auckland based Pacific Island theatre company. They capture that Polynesian humour and sense of mischief so well, while also telling a story that many in New Zealand could relate to.

They are only on for three days at Downstage, so if you are free tonight or tomorrow you may be able to get tickets. It’s a fairly short show at 80 – 90 minutes, but make sure you stay on afterwards for Q+A with the Friars. I almost found that the best part of the evening. The banter between them is as good as on Seven Days, and the audience was totally engaged.

This was again one of the shows I wasn’t sure I would like, but absolutely did. They also tour around schools. If you ever see the Black Friars performing near you, give them a try – I suspect you’ll enjoy them as much as I did.

Of and I am not making this up, but one of the actors is a near dead ringer for Wellington central National candidate Paul Foster-Bell. Paul must have some Samoan blood hiden away in him

Went to the opening night of The Spy Who Wouldn’t Die Again at Downstage. It’s a first class production that gets everything right, and was hugely enjoyable. The plot, the cast, the set and the gadgets were all superb.

It’s a wonderful parody of James Bond, with a Kiwi setting.  If you’re a James Bond fan, you’ll love this play – and even if you’re not watched any James Bond movies, you’ll still find it a hoot (Auckland Girl who went with me has never seen James Bond but loved the play).

The play is set in 1985 and Agent 009 (Stephen St Clair) is dispatched to New Zealand to gain a perpetual motion device, which threatens the world’s energy industries. Hence the French, Russsians and Australians are also hunting for it.

The play starts with a wonderful combat scene, that was almost more Kill Bill than James Bond, followed by several minutes of some very naughty and untraditional James Bond credits, using shadow figures. Their use of shadow figures at various stages of the play, is very well done.

It’s a very Kiwi play, with Rotorua motels and geysers, the Silver Fern train, and even a guest appearance from David Lange. Lange, hilariously, wants the perpetual motion device destroyed as if it survives there will be no need for nuclear power, and then New Zealand will no longer be special as the world’s only nuclear free country.

The play has a number of Bond like gadgets which are a delight. By far the best is the tent with a “spare man” in it. Just trust me, that you’ll be almost crying with laughter as he is activated.

Nick Dunbar plays Stephen St Clair. The other three actors play a variety of roles each but primarily Darlene Mohokey is the beautiful and sexy Dominique Le Fleur, Bryon Coll is inventor Gerald Boke and the spare man, and Tim Spite is the rogue agent 008. They performed their main roles with ease, and were comic genius in some of their minor roles.

The set design was also excellent. I loved the Rotorua motel, and the car was so cute, Auckland Girl wanted one for herself.

As with many of the plays from Tim Spite and SEEyD, there are some political messages and themes in the show. The nice things about his productions is they are done with subtle grace, so the play remains enjoyable, even if you are not in political alignment with the message.

After tonight’s performance of the play, I’m moderating the “Meet the Artists” session on stage at 8.30 pm. This is where the audience can ask the cast and crew all those things you’ve wanted to know, or discuss some of the themes that ran through the play. Not sure if there are any tickets left for tonight, but whether tonight or any time before 24 April, I recommend you see the play if you want a good night out,.

Paul Jenden has created a wonderfully camp entertaining experience with his Fairy Stories at Circa. Not only did he do the choreography and direction of it, he also did the costumes and just for good measure was one of the five cast members. I’m in awe of the range of his talents.

Fairy Stories runs for around two hours (with a break) and in between the opening and closing numbers, they cover ten classic fairy stories – Beauty and the Beast, The Tin Soldier, Three Little Pigs, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Conderella, Three Bill Goats Gruff, Tom Thumb, Bluebeard and Puss in Boots.

The cast is led by Sir Jon Trimmer, and as well as Paul Jenden, included Louis Solino, Kate O’Rourke and Jenny Beech.  They danced and sang up a storm. In a performance with basically no dialogue, it all comes down to how well the cast connect with the audience through visual, rather than verbal means.

Fairy Stories managed this very well. The cast’s facial gestures were only matched by the colourful array of costumes they went through.

This photo by Stephen A’Court captures the three little pigs at the end of their routine.

Don’t expect these fairy stories to work out quite the same way as the traditional stories. I certainly never recall Red Riding Hood and The Wolf dancing quite so erotically, and Tom Thumb got to go to certain places no midget should be.

My favourite twist was with the three billy goats. The troll which wouldn’t allow them to pass was a “Ms. Gruff” who was guarding wimmin’s only space. As the three billy goats all have rather large hanging testicles (no not real ones), they don’t have much sucess trying to sneak past Ms Gruff despite the ribbons they wrap around themselves. Finally the largest billy goat settles it in the traditional fashion.

Auckland Girl and I both loved the performance – it was lots of fun. You know you’re really enjoyed it when you’re disappointed that the performance is over. The only slight downside to the night was the laughter from one woman in the audience. Normally having the audience laugh is a very good thing, but this particular laugh resembled a 747 taking off.

Flect-Re-Flect is on for just five days at Circa, closing Saturday. The official blurb is:

Bob Dylan’s blues harp will have a solo all of its own in Flect-Re-flect, the new multi-media work being created by Wellington composer Michelle Scullion and her company of musicians, singer-actors and dancers for the Wellington Fringe Festival in March. The harmonica was a personal gift to Scullion from the great man himself when he visited Wellington during the 80s and they met back stage after a concert at Athletic Park. Scullion has been creating the songs for Flect-Re-flect using the poetry of the well-known New Zealand poet, the late Alan Brunton and the words of the late Sally Rodwellj – both of Red Mole Theatre – as the basis for the lyrics. She wanted to pay special tribute to Brunton and decided to compose a solo that reflected Dylan’s trade-mark harmonica – playing in his honour.

The show is a fast 75 minutes of non-stop music and song all composed by Scullion and performed by some of Wellington’s leading musicians and singers. In addition there will be dance, short monologues and scenes, together with projected film and imagery to reflect a variety of moods throughout the show.

I went along on Tuesday night, and it was an enjoyable quirky performance. The two sopranos of Jacquie Fee and Sally Barratt-Boyes were excellent and by themselves worth attending for.

At first I tried to look for a great plot linking all the songs and scenes together. This made my head hurt, so I stopped. While there are some themes running through the show, don’t expect this to be a story with a plotline that resolves itself. It’s not that sort of production.

What it is is just really some good old fashioned music, dancing and fun. It’s timed just right at 80 minutes.

Greatly enjoyed the opening night of Our Man in Havana at Circa on Saturday night. The play runs until Saturday 26 March.

The play is adapted from the book of the same name, by the great novelist Graham Greene. Greene wrote many good spy novels, and it turned out that during this time he was in fact an agent for M16. Kim Philby was his supervisor at one stage.

The book, and the play, are about a vacuum cleaner salesman who is recruited by the British Secret Service to spy for them. He has no intelligence to report, so he starts to invent informants and intelligence. He even sends back photos of vacuum cleaner parts, declaring them to be weapons of mass destruction. Note the WMD term is actually used by Greene, and this was in the pre-Castro Cuba.

Greene got the inspiration for his book from Joan Pujol Garcia, a Spaniard who was a double agent in WWII for the British and the Germans. He supplied masses of disinformation to the Germans, based on a fictitious network of seven agents and 19 sub-agents. He got an MBE from the British for his services, but ironically after the war ran into one of his German handlers who gave him the Iron Cross for his work.  They never realised he duped them.

Anyway enough about the novel, how was the Circa play?

I thought the play was a smashing good time. The four actors played 31 parts between them, plus they all took a turn as the narrator. The quick fire costume changes were done wonderfully, and the humour was infectious.

Jeff Kingsford-Brown played the lead of Wormold, but also the MI6 chief. His performance was excellent, and he was the glue of the show.

John Wraight’s main role was as Hawthorne, who recruits Wormold. Wraight has a very expressive face (he was superb in the Robin Hood pantomime), and he’s a natural on the stage.

Simon Vincent played a total of 14 roles from the Manuel-like Lopez to The Queen. His appearance as The Queen was almost painfully funny.

Last but not least Jessica Robinson managed to convincingly play both 16 year old daughter Milly and Wormold’s secretary Beatrice.

The photo above (taken by Stephen A’Court) shows a checkers game between Wormold and the Policeman Segura. Everytime you took a checker, you drank the bottle. I must try that game at some stage. The idea of course was to get Segura drunk so he could steal his gun.

I found the play very enjoyable, something most adults could enjoy. The first half was a bit slow to get moving, but the second half was action packed as events moved to a climax. Well worth seeing.

Went with a couple of friends to Love You Approximately at Downstage on opening night on Wednesday.

I loved the premise of the show – a long distance cyber-romance between Imogen in New Zealand and Pere in Spain. And Pere was literally in Spain – the play was conducted over Skype with webcams etc. The actors who played Imogen and Pere have never actually met in real life.

Imogen and Pere’s relationship seemed all too real at time. Poor Pere was the one who had to face rejection by blurting out to his Imogen that he wanted to be more than just friends. And Imogen was indecisive and emotional going through phases of positivity and negativity.

Lara Fischel-Chisholm played Imogen. Shortland Street fans may remember her as Anita (Ben’s sister) Goodall. I thought Fischel-Chisholm did very well portraying Imogen, and bringing to life what was a fairly ordinary script. She made her character very real and believable.

My biggest criticism of the play is it didn’t make a strong emotional connection. You want to either be laughing, or angry, or sad, or suspenseful as a play progresses. At best, the play was interesting. You did want to see how it ended, but there were no real suspense or high drama.

The play was enjoyable. I doubt it would appeal greatly to non Internet natives, but proficient users of webcams and Skype should enjoy the play, and see how much it might mirror real life for them.

It was good to see an innovativeplay that made good use of technology. The two leads even became virtual flatmates for a while – leaving their webcams connected to each other and on 24/7. Quite a neat idea if one didn’t have data charges!

Went to see Nitro Circus at the stadium last night, and what a great night it was.

Most of the performance is done on bikes and motorbikes as they jump onto and off ramps. But they also use kids trikes, skateboards, roller blades, skiis and most amazing of all a wheelchair.

Seeing a paraplegic soar down a ramp, and then launch into the air, perform a forward roll in the wheelchair and then land on the next ramp and sail down to the finish is just amazing. I did quip about whether he was a paraplegic before or after he started working for Nitro Circus.

If you have kids, take them along – they’ll love it.

Went on Saturday Night to Circa to see Heat, accompanied by Auckland Girl, and Mother of Auckland Girl (MAG).

Auckland Girl is in a wheelchair at the moment, and kudos go to Circa for being so disability friendly. They moved the ushers from their normal seats, to allow the wheelchair to go there.

Heat, created by Lynda Chanwai-Earle, is described as “an original love story between a woman, a man and a penguin”. As this blog is infamous for its google visits on the keywords “penguin sex”, I just knew I had to see this film

It’s a three person or creature show. John and Stella are a husband and wife team (played by Kate Prior and Simon Vinvent) who are going to live in a hut in the Antarctica for a year – he is an  atmospheric scientist, and she studies penguins. Bob is an emperor penguin.

John and Stella are obviously in love, and well if you are stuck in a hut for a year, there isn’t that much to do but make love also. But underneath their happiness is profound sadness as when they move in, they place a photo of a child and an urn on the top shelf. At some stage in the past they had the awfulness of losing a child.

Enter Bob. Bob is played by Byron Coll and he is totally nude, only covered with body paint. I hadn’t noticed the warnings of full frontal nudity, so when Bob first appeared on stage both Auckland Girl and I were casting nervous glances as MAG to see if she was offended. Luckily MAG was not.

All three actors performed well, but for me the star of the show was Bob. Despite having no speaking part, he made the show with his facial expressions, his walk and especially his flipper attacks. I’d say it is worth seeing the play for his performance alone.

The play is about how Stella comes to care for Bob after he is rejected by the penguin colony, and how over time it becomes obvious she is starting to see him as a substitute child. This causes dramatic scenes of conflict with John. Stella and John made a very convincing couple – from the playfulness through to the fights.

Some plays are pure comedy. Heat certainly has many funny moments, but it has moments of great sadness and drama. Your emotions go on a real roller-coaster watching the play, and you don’t know whether it will end in tragedy or not.

The play was 90 minutes long, and I enjoyed it greatly.

Had a wonderful quirky time on Saturday night attending the world premiere of The Motor Camp at Circa.

Sometimes a production manages to bring it all together – the plot, the stage, the acting, the script all combining seamlessly – and The Motor Camp achieved this. It was a first rate production. 

The setting is native Kiwi-ana. A couple of old caravans tethered at a motor camp, with awnings stretching out from them. The unseen but often heard camp manager, Dutchie, provides some of the humour with his stern rules and notices.

One of the characters, liberal university education lecturer Frank (played convincely by Tim Sprite), rails against Dutchie and his wife, Jude, asks him what he has against Holland. Frank responds that he loves Holland, it is a wonderful liberal country – because all the fascist Dutch have left it and come to New Zealand. There’s just enough truth in it, to be bloody funny.

But Dutchie is not crucial to the plot. At the heart of it, it is a tale of two families, especially two fathers and two kids. The other family is headed up by tradesman Mike Hislop (Phil Vaughan who plays the role hilariously), who is everything Frank isn’t – rude, crude and semi-neathandal. Frank has him pigeon-holed as a racist, but has to reconsider when his Maori wife and step-son enter the scene.

The plot is very crafty – many things mentioned early on you take just as humourous asides, but they turn out to be quite important to the story later on – the phonics vs non phonics fixation of Frank for example.

The two younger actors were excellent – Florence Mulheron as 15 year old Holly Redmond and Anthony Young at 16 year old Jared Tairoa. Florence just nailed being a surly 15 year old who wants to be at “The Mount” with her boyfriend, and Anthony captured being a softly spoken youth on the verge of being an adult.

Danielle Mason plays Jude Redmond, the long-suffering wife of Frank. My first reaction was that she was far too young/hot to be cast as the mother of a 15 year old, but being a MILF forms part of the hilarity that ensues.

I won’t give away more of the plot, because I do recommend people go see it for themselves. It manages to blend a nice story about culture clash, with a boatful of laughs. I was cracking up almost non-stop.

Some of the play is a bit r-rated. Not at all offensive, but you might not want to have your ten year old attend it, and possibly not the grand-mother either.

My only criticism is that the ending was too perfect, too happy – a bit unreal – but hey its is a play, not a biography. The final line of the play however is hilarious as Holly and Jared head off to the lake, and in response to him asking what they should do, she replies they should keep out of her parents hair.

Graeme Tuckett in the Dom Post says what he really thinks:

I’ve sat through some dispiriting drivel this year. I made it to the end of Paranormal Activity 2, Letters To Juliet and even Sex and the City 2, but at about the one-hour mark, I gave up on Little Fockers and, for the first time in five years, I walked out of a film.

Little Fockers isn’t merely bad. There are plenty of bad films I like a great deal.

No, Little Fockers is a turd, lying rancid and cold at the bottom of a very deep barrel.

I’ll break my kneecaps with a hammer to a soundtrack of Kenny Rogers played on the vuvuzela before I watch it to the end.

Can’t say I was planning to see it anyway!