Kiwiblog

The Truth Game was a fun drama based in a newspaper newsroom. The playwright and author, Simon Cunliffe is a former deputy editor of the ODT and this shows in the perspicacity of the play, which is on at Circa until 10 November.

The play starts with a corporate businesswoman lecturing a room full of newspaper people on how media need to deliver what consumers want etc. She us using all the annoying jargon (such as synergies) you can think of, and it is a credit to Janine Burchett that she made Belinda such a detestable figure. You almost wanted to throw things at her, and cheered when an audience member (later revealed to be lead actor Frank Stone) calls out bullshit, and then storms out calling her a wanker.

Photo by Stephen A’Court

The curtains then part to reveal a massive set. A newsroom office stretches out, looking just as you imagine a newsroom would look. And they do an impressive split screen with an editor’s office upstairs. Alan Lovell plays Frank Stone. He’s the 30 year veteran who is at war with his corporate bosses, and is the Acting Editor, and likely permanent Editor.

The adroit Jessica Robinson plays news editor Sam Hunter, and  somewhat estranged romantic interest of Frank. The star of the show for me was Brian Sergent who played the loveable old duffer Ralph (pronounced Rafe). Ralph is the walking thesarus sub-editor, editorial writer and 40 year veteran. Paul McLaughlin plays General Manager Paul, who tries to act as a buffer between Frank and the owners. He has told Frank that to become editor he has to sack Ralph, to keep costs down.

Finally there was the young Acushla-Tara Sutton who literally rollerbladed onto the set as the young cub reporter. She gets off to a bad start with Frank, as she talks about Facebook and the like. As she reveals her mother worked on the paper over 20 years ago, you wonder about whether she may have a connection to either Ralph or Frank. Ski Bunny Girl and I both guessed, but got it wrong.

At the heart of the show, was the much debated proposition about whether media should be about hard hitting important news that matters, or providing what customers wants. Frank represented one extreme, and Belinda the other. Cunliffe and director Danny Mulheron have done a good job at dramatically portraying the dilemma. Personally I think they are both right. Media should focus on important quality news, but they also can’t ignore what their readers want. No use being purist and having no readers.  Sam’s character probably best represented the pragmatic middle option.

The best scene for me was when a major development happens in the Middle East, and you suddenly see a newsroom at its best. Focused and multi-tasking to tell history as it happens. Four extras from Whitireia’s Stage and Screen complement the main six characters as they rush to make their deadline. There is nothing quite like a newspaper office near deadline.

We both enjoyed the play. It had plenty of laughs and the central focus on the role of the media is a topical one. Rafe and Belinda were especially good characters that you loved and detested in equal amounts. The part that didn’t work so well for me was the relationships. The Frank and Sam relationship was almost a distraction, and the mystery around Jo’s mother was also not a critical part of the plot. I think the script would have been better to really focus on the main tension of the battle for what news should be, and the work relationships. More could have been done there.

As I said, overall an enjoyable play which will appeal especially to those interested in the media.

Helen Sims at Theatreview has also reviewed the play.

I saw Manawa at Circa last Wednesday. It was an unusual experience as I enjoyed the acting and the script but basically rejected the fundamental premise of the play!

The play is about two inmates. One is Jimmy King,  the country’s youngest murderer, and the other is Mau Vaiaga who is awaiting trial for eating a Kakapo!

The Jimmy King character is based on Bailey Junior Kurariki. Kurariki was convicted for manslaughter of Michael Chow, when he was 12 years old.

Jamie McCaskill wrote the play, and played the Jimmy King character. He was entertaining, intriguing, a non stop likeable talker. You felt significant empathy with him.

And this is whey I struggled with the play. I had a very hard time linking the Jimmy King character to Bailey Kurariki. I can’t imagine in real life Kurariki is anything like Jimmy King. I recall the story about Kurariki giving a “long and often incoherent response”, and nothing like the smooth talking Jimmy King.

Kurariki also seems with little remorse, having recently said he is “just an innocent black man“.

So a play which is about showing the “softer side of Jimmy” was always going to struggle to work for me.

That isn’t to say there wasn’t some very good aspects to the play, which I’ll get to. If the play had been more generic, and not so obviously modeled on Kurariki, I think I would have enjoyed it far more. There is a risk in typing it to an individual. I sent much of the time thinking “When are you going to mention the poor pizza delivery guy”. Now of course the character was only modeled on him – not meant to be exactly him, but I just couldn’t get past that.

So what did work for me? Well the three actors were superb. Jamie McCaskill as Jimmy King was almost too successful at bringing him to life and showing his softer side. His ability to talk non stop to his fellow cellmate without even a grunt in response was very well done.

Natano Keni played Mau Vaiaga, the Kakapo eater. He was basically set up, but got reviled up and down NZ for eating the Kakapo. Even convicted killer Jimmy was calling him the most hated man in NZ – which was a insightful piece on how Kiwis react with more horror sometimes to crimes against animals, than each other.

Kali Kopae played lawyer Waimanea Huia. I’ve enjoyed her singing ability as a BeatGirl, and she equally impresses as an actor. Her character was more interested in the publicity from the clients, than the clients themselves.

I won’t give away the plot too much, but there is an interesting twist at the end. As I said the acting and script were good, and I certainly had many a wry chuckle during the play.

But at the end of the day, I’m just not someone open to seeing the softer side of Bailey Kurariki. That may be more about me than the play of course!

John Smythe at Thatreview also reviews it. He comments:

Did I mention it is hugely funny? The laughs come primarily from shock, at the truth of the characterisations and what they do and say. Each character, no matter how incidental, speaks with a clear and distinctive voice. And (apart from the concerns mentioned above) no matter what they do and how outrageous it is, we understand why.

It was hugely funny. I did enjoy the play. I just didn’t agree with its premise.

White Cloud is on at Bats Theatre until Sat 22 September. It consists of around a dozen songs by Tim Finn, blended in with stories and observations from two actions. It was sort of like a narrated mini-concert.

It is all about NZ identity, and the stories and songs are ones you can relate to, and bring back memories of childhood. One of them summed up our lack of clear cultural identity amusingly with the line “If you don’t know what you are, you’re probably a Pakeha”. Australians, Americans, Brits, French, Germans etc all have such clear cultural identities. New Zealanders tend to almost define ourselves as whom we are not – we’re not British, we’re not Australian, we’re not American etc.

The two actors who narrated the performance were Dena Kennedy and Stephen Lovatt. Fans of Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby may recall Kennedy as the social studies and history teacher. Both Lovatt and Kennedy did a good job of weaving a narrative around the songs and relating it to the audience. They were engaging and interesting.

A five piece band performed the Finn music. The standout performer was Lisa Crawley. Crawley performed spectacularly well on the vocals, and was very agile on the keyboard. I’d happily pay just to see her perform alone. She enjoyed performing, and it showed.

The brass and percussion players were excellent also, and had a huge variety of instruments they utilized. The main male vocalist was more patchy. The first song saw a real contrast between him and Crawley which I found discordant. After that though, he improved and the remaining songs went well.

It was a simple and effective set, with six semi-transparent screens hanging down which old photos and videos were displayed on, as a subtle background to the performance. It’s directed by one of my favourite directors Simon Bennett – who co-founded Bats.

The performance started at 9 pm, and goes for around 70 minutes. If you’re a fan of good NZ music, you should enjoy the production.

The Dom Post has a story on it, and John Smythe at Theatreview does a much more detailed review of it.

Clybourne Park at Circa was a superb night’s entertainment. There were so many things I loved about it, it is hard to know where to start.

Let’s start with the play itself. It’s got two acts (total time 2 hrs 20 minutes with an interval) set 50 years apart – 1959 and 2009. Both acts are set in the same neighbourhood and are about the tensions that arise when a couple buys a house in a Clybourne Park , a neighbourhood exclusively of a different race. In 1959 it is a black couple buying a house in an all-white neighbourhood and in 2009, Clybourne Park  has become all-black, but with gentrification a white couple is moving in.

The play, based loosely on actual historical events, has won four major awards. They are:

• The Laurence Olivier Award by the Society of London Theatre
• The Pulitzer Prize for Drama
• The Theatre World Award
• The Tony Award for Best Play

So with a play of that pedigree, it turns on how well Circa would implement it. Well they have been on a real roll lately, and this was no exception.

The first act focuses on Russ and Bev. They are packing up to move house. Their black maid Francine is there also. Russ is  a mixture of depressed and angry since his son killed himself after serving in Korea. The allegations that he killed civilians were too much for him.

Nikki MacDonnell stands out as Bev. She captures that 1950s domestic wife perfectly. Rather like Bree from Desperate Housewives she is so concerned about appropriate behaviour, and being a the good wife. She absolutely nails the role.

Gavin Rutherford also shows his versatile skills as the brooding Russ. You can see him on the point of exploding several times, and when it finally comes you almost want to applaud.

Paul Waggott and Andrew Foster play the local priest Jim and local Rotarian Karl. Karl’s wife Betsy is played by Danielle Mason. The character is deaf (and pregnant) and Mason is so convincing in the role that P Girl and I debated at the interval if she was deaf in real life. A different character in the second half made it clear she was not. But the fact she was so convincing we thought she might be, speaks volumes to her ability.

The 7th character is the first act is the well meaning husband of Francine, Albert. He just wants to help. Jade Daniels plays Albert, and his 2nd act character is similar. Both smiling nice guys – but we see in Act II that he has another side.

The drama is around when Karl tells Russ and Bev that the land agent has sold their place to a black couple, and try to pressure them to renege on the sale. You almost wince as phrases along the lines of folk being equal but different are used. And it gets really uncomfortable when the black maid is asked by the others if she agrees that black people are happier in their own neighbourhoods.

Russ though responds badly to the pressure, and it gets explosive when Karl threatens to tell the buyers about he suicide in the house – thinking that will scare them off.

The first act was very dramatic, but also had lots of laughs.

In the second act they all play different characters, but with some links to the original characters.  Both Nikki MacDonnell and Gavin Rutherford do quite increedible transformations. MacDonnell goes from being a matronly housewive in her 40s, to a trendy yuppy lawyer in her late 20s. You almost wouldn’t think it is the same actor. Likewise Rutherford becomes a grimy more youthful labourer who unearths a trunk which links the two acts together.

I won’t give away too much of the second act, but it was at times side splittingly hilarious. It starts with no tension at all, but eventually it is all laid bare as first the prospective purchaser is challenged to repeat a (not very funny) joke about blacks. Nancy Brunning’s character then responds with a joke which starts with “How is a white woman like a tampon”. The answer had me almost off my chair convulsed with laughter.  The joke fitted one of the characters perfectly.

One of the actors told me after the show that on their “test” night on Friday, the audience was predominantly elderly (as tickets are cheaper) and the response to the joke was more shocked. They were pleased to see the audience on Saturday night responding far more better to the joke. After the initial shock, almost everyone was laughing.

I have to praise the set also. It was one of the largest I have seen at Circa. The nice thing about Circa One it has so much room, and they used it to make the house very lifelike and real. During the interval some smart changes saw it transform into the modern version.

It really was a great show. A clever plot deals with sensitive issues of race in a very politically incorrect way. The drama and tension is punctuated with heaps of laughs. Clybourne Park has been my favourite show so far this year. Absolutely recommended as great theatre, so long as you are not easily offended.

John Smythe at Theatreview has reviewed the play also. His conclusion was:

Clybourne Park is a brilliant play deliciously done.

If you only go to one play this year, this should be it.

The world premiere of West End Girls at Circa on Saturday night, was a superb production. There’s so much to love about the show, it is hard to know where to start.

The play is based on the book by Barbara Tate, who worked in the late 1940s as an innocent 21 year old in a pub, and then ended up as the maid to one of the regulars – a Soho prostitute called Mae.  The play sounded so good that I had so many people wanting to attend with me, to require two extra tickets, as Glee Girl, DC Girl and Stats Girl all wanted to attend. By coincidence all three had their hair done earlier that day, and were a matching set of a redhead, a blonde and a brunette. They all raved about the show also.

Barbara Tate went on to become one of the leading artists in the UK. It was only in her 80s that she published her memoirs of her time working for Mae. Tate had a harsh childhood abandoned by her mother, almost killed by her father as a child, and brought up by a harsh unloving grandmother. Until she meets Mae, she has never really known love or even friendship, and an unlikely friendship begins.

Photo by Stephen A’Court.

Jessica Robinson plays Mae and, as expected, delivers her normal great performance. The part was made for her.

However for me Victoria Abbott as Barbara was the stand out performance. She managed to capture perfectly this shy naive girl, who got caught up in a world she knew nothing about. Abbott played a very different character in Chekov equally well, and this confirms my view that she is one of the future stars of NZ theatre.

The other five actors play multiple roles – 60 in total I believe. Gavin Rutherford’s main role is as Tony, Mae’s lover and boss. Rutherford also busks the West End Girls song (by Pet Shop Boys) on a ukulele, very skillfully.

The whole music and sound effects for the play was brilliant. As Mae got through 150 customers in 36 hours, the supporting cast used various devices to make the sounds on pants going up and down, and condoms being pulled off, and it was a frantic musical cacophony that was comically wonderful.

The play is based on Tate’s memoirs, and was adopted for the stage by Ken Duncum and directed by David O’Donnell. Overall they did a great job of telling the story over two hours.

The first half is on the wonderful blossoming friendship between the 21 year old the naive virgin and the “queen of Soho” prostitute. In the second half, things get more dramatic as tensions arise as Mae goes downhill.

I think this play got everything right – it was a delight to watch and great fun. Wellington is its world premiere – I am confident it will end up being produced in many more cities. Definitely one worth seeing before it closes on 1 September.

John Smythe at Theatreview has reviewed it also, equally positively.

Was invited to Gryphon Theatre on Friday night to see Stagecraft put on their version of ENRON. It was my second outing to Gryphon Theatre, which is one of the many small venues around Wellington. They are located by the corner of Ghuznee and Taranaki Street.

Was so caught up in pre-show conversation at JJ Murphy’s, that we only checked the time at 7.59 pm and was a 8.00 pm session. Luckily only one block away to run to, so we got there only a minute late, and got in before they started.

The play is written by Lucy Prebble, and based on the book “The smartest guys in the room”, which has been at the West End and Broadway. It did not do well at Broadway after a hostile NY Times review, but did get critical acclaim from many other reviewers.

I was worried that the play might be an anti-capitalism rant, but it wasn’t. With some great props, and skillful acting and directing, the downfall of Enron was accurately chronicled. Three of the four main characters were actual people – Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling and Andy Fastow. Claudia Roe was an amalgam character.

For those who don’t know, the bankruptcy of Enron was the then largest collapse in US history, and it also led to the dissolution of the Arthur Andersen accountancy firm. I had never got into the details of exactly what happened at Enron apart from a general knowledge of mass fraud. Well the play actually informs you of what happened. You see the the various techniques used to make it look like they were profitable, when they were not. It should be a required play for first year accountancy students.

20,000 people lost their job with the collapse, $35 billion of debt unpaid, including $1.2b of staff pensions.

There was some great use of props. The Enron board was portrayed by three actors with large mouse heads and blindfolds. It was a very effective visual metaphor. And you can only love the raptors, representing the nominally independent companies they transferred their debt to – shown as actual raptors feeding on dollar bills.

For a company to be independent it had to have 3% different shareholding. So what Enron did was set up raptor 1, 97% Enron owned and 3% owned by raptor 2. raptor 2 was 97% Enron owned and 3% owned by raptor 3. This carried on through to raptor 4, which only needed independent holdings of 3% of 3% of 3% of 3%, which they got off firms such as the Lehman Brothers (and you will love how they are presented as a pair of Siamese twins).

Tim Yarrow played Jeffrey Skilling, the CEO. He started the play as a socially awkward accountant and became the confident CEO consumed with his own brilliance. John Chalmers as the good old boy Ken Lay, who didn’t want to know the details. Luke Gumbley played Andrew Fastow, the ambitious CFO who put it all together. Michelle Jordan was the fourth main character playing Claudia Roe, the female excutive who battled their plans, but not too hard.

They had a large ensemble who provided delightful interludes as staff, as raptors, as a a chorus, as news presenters etc. Emma Yarrow stood out with her singing. It is not a musical, but it did have some brief singing and dancing interludes which were fun.

The play is a long one, lasting two and a half hours (with an interval). However I never lost interest, as you really wanted to see how the story would be told, as it moved towards the inevitable conclusion.

Enron is on until 11 August. I enjoyed it. Despite the serious topic, they managed to be both fun and interesting. If you’ve ever wondered how a company can lose $35 billion and yet show a profit, then go see the play.

I saw the Beat Girls for the first time in 2010. They were great. So how do you beat the Beat Girls? Simple – you add in Jason (Jay) Chasland.

Chasland was a rock and roll star.  At first glance you might think he is an unlikely star being not very tall and slightly chubby. But my God he was a great performer. He sang and crooned the songs marvelously, and had a real charisma and presence about him. His Ray Charles parody was side sidesplittingly funny. Chasland alone would be worth going to see.

The Beat Girls themselves (Andrea Sanders, Carolyn McLaughlin and Kali Kopae) performed just as well as last time. They have a great combination of singing ability, and facial expressions. You enjoy the music, and laugh out loud at their antics.

The performance is effectively a recital of the life of Phil Spector – from his early genius success through to his conviction for murder. In between numbers, they tell you about his various groups and songs. He may have been a demented misogynistic bastard, but he was a hell of a talented one.

The set was highly effective in its simplicity – dozens and dozens of white paper-lantern lampshades hanging from the ceiling, and three small circular stages they performed from. The costumes fitted the set well, and captured the 60s.

The audience participation in the show was high. Many were laughing every few seconds, and a lot of songs had the audience clapping along. Those seated on the front row were often targeted by the performers, with one woman being pulled onto stage and   well let’s just say it was lots of fun.

They perform a total of 21 songs. There were a few hic-cups, as you often get on opening night, but they were skilled at recovering from them. Kali hit her teeth with the microphone at one stage, and managed to turn it into a gag.

It was a 90 minute performance with a short interval. We stayed around for an hour or so after the show, with the cast mingling with the audience. It was a great night’s entertainment and I just can’t imagine anyone not enjoying the performance, unless they have been genetically modified in some way.

A review by Virginia Kennard at Theatreview is here.

I enjoyed the performance of Sunset Road at Circa on Saturday night.

The play is set in Rotorua, about a Cook Island family who moved there 20 years ago. Dad (Rob Ringiao Lloyd) is the foreman at the local mill, and Mum (Tina Cook) works in a local hotel. Cook especially gave an excellent performance as the caring worried wife trying to help her husband and children through what eventuates.

The other two cast members are the twins Luka (Nathan Mudge) and Lucia (Aroha White). Luke has almost ridiculous Grease type hair, and rides a motorcycle to complement it. Some of his best scenes are on the motorcycle. Mudge also performed well, because I found myself wanting to whack his character for being such a whining selfish prat at times. When you actually start to react emotionally to the character, the actor knows they are doing their job well. Luka also has the nickname Captain Cook Islands, and produly has their flag on the back of his jacket.

White’s Lucia is the balance to her temptous brother. She is the beautiful calming influence. In fact she is competing the next day in Miss Geyserland, and hopes to finally win the crown that could propel her forward.  Her and Luka plan to travel away together, rather than go to Law School – which their father has been saving money towards for many years.

The interactions between the twins is very tactile. I actually started to worry if there would be an unwholesome revelation about their actual relationship. There are some startling revelations, but not of the kind I was thinking. These come out in an explosive scene that tears the family apart.

The play, written and directed by Miria George, is a journey back to 1970s New Zealand. You have the Police, the dawn raids, the Highway 61 gang, the culturally influential beauty contests of the era and a more God faring population. A simple set means we focus on the characters and their interactions.

It was overall an enjoyable play, but not one that gripped me to the same degree as some others. It took a while to set the scene at the beginning.  Also I can’t give too much away, but found the ending a bit anti-climatic. But this doesn’t detract from an enjoyable 100 minute performance where you get engaged with the characters, and wanting to know how it all resolves.

John Smythe at Theatreview has also reviewed the play calling it an “insightful, delightful and powerful drama”.

The last Arthur Miller play I saw was at school – the famous Death of a Salesman.

All My Sons was actually written two years prior, in 1947. It is the play that established Miller as a world class playwright. After having seen so many modern plays, it was refreshing to go to an old classic which is purely about the acting, the set and the script.

Photo by Stephen A’Court

The play is about terrible family secrets. There are ten characters, four of whom are major and six minor. At the heart of the play is Joe and Kate Keller. Joe’s company manufactured some faulty cylinder heads during WWII, which led to the death of 21 pilots. Joe was exonerated, while his business partner and former neighbour Steve Deever was found culpable and remains in prison.

Steve’s daughter, Ann, was engaged to Larry Keller who went MIA over three years ago. She plans to marry his brother Chris Keller.

The tension really starts when Ann’s brother George turns up, now believing his father is innocent and wanting to confront the Kellers about whether he was a fall guy for Joe.

Jeffrey Thomas dominates the play with his portrayal of Joe Keller. Even though you are suspicious of him, you just can not help but like him. He gets you on his side, and you want him just to be happy. Thomas portrays well the moral complexity of his character.

The other star was Emma Kinane playing Kate Thomas. She gets it pitch perfect in teh scene where an angry George is wanting to destroy her family, and she just mothers all the anger out of him by telling him how he looks too skinny, how he needs to eat more, suggesting nice local girls he could go out with. It is a magic performance as you realise that no one could stay angry at such a lovely caring woman. But Kate also has her secrets – and she refuses to believe her son Larry is dead.

Jessica Williams and Richard Dey play the hopeful couple Ann and Chris. They have to put up with a both Kate and George not wanting them to marry. Kate also faces a titanic struggle between loyalty to her family, and to Chris and his family.

The play runs for two and half hours – considerably longer than my normal attention span. But not only did I not notice the time, I was on the edge of my seat for the entire second half of the play as events unfolded. You could have heard a pin drop, the audience were so captivated.

The stage is also worth of mention. A wonderful replica of the backside of a 1940s house, and the back lawn. The artificial grass actually went all the way to the first row of seats, which made you feel very close to the action.  The costumes were also spot on, especially the frocks for the ladies.

I went along with Stats Girl, the Ginger Ninja and Chef Girl and all four of us raved about the play. You understand why it has been a success for over 60 years, and the Circa performance of it was first class. I would recommend it without hesitation to anyone who likes an old fashioned drama. It will keep you captivated, and deliver a worthy inevitable yet shocking ending.

There is also a review at Theatrereview, which gets into some of the themes running through the play.

I have always had a weakness for the Irish. I think it is their accents. At my university hostel there was a girl called Karen Quinn, who was Irish, and half the hostel had a crush on her – pretty much all due to her lilting accent.

So when I got offered review tickets to see the Irish dance sensation Riverdance, I didn’t need any persuasion to go. They are performing at the St James until 3 June, and then in Chch 5 to 10 June. The performance consists of 19 scenes in two acts, making it a compact two hour show (including interval).

There is a reason that Riverdance is a global sensation – they put on a world class performance. The dancing, which is the heart of the show, is sublime – but the music, the costumes and the singing are also very well done. They do around a dozen costume changes.

The 19 scenes each tell a story, and the costumes and special effects all combine together in harmony. I won’t detail all the scenes but will talk about what was by far my favourite scene. It was what I think of as the “dance off”, and they call “trading taps”. You have two “gangs” of dancers who at first dance alone, but then noticing each other confront each other as in their distinct styles dance into each other’s territory. This is fun enough, but the real hilarity starts when the two groups start to do parodies of the other’s dancing styles. Most of the audience were cracking up with laughter at this scene. It really is too funny for words.

Also worth noting is the scene with the lead male dancer in tight leather pants. God knows how one can dance wearing them, but he did. And the female members of the audience appreciated the spectacle greatly. The men, less so.

While a great performance overall, there was one aspect that didn’t quite resonate with me. There was quite a bit of time where it was just music, without dancing. People came to see the dancing, and you lose interest a bit when there are segments with music only. The exception was when they had the lead female singer on. Her voice was piercingly beautiful, and she could do a solo show.

Overall it was a great night’s entertainment. It is their final tour of New Zealand so it was great to see them for the first and sadly probably the last time.

Went on Friday Night to The Intricate Art of Actually Caring at Downstage. This is a quirky New Zealand play which was a lot of fun. The first thing that strikes you is the three overhead projectors on the stage. It was like being in a timewarp. But the OHPs worked as a great device to not just take up through the chapters of the story, but with hilarious effect when used to show a boss sacking Jack.

The show is about Eli and Jack (played by themselves). The plays start’s in Eli’s room and Jack wonders about how thinsg come to be. He thinks every object has an amazing life story about how it came to be in that flat, with a camel rug especially captivating him. This then moves on to exploring their heritage and wanting to travel to Jerusalem to visit the grave of James K Baxter, Eli’s great uncle. So they do a road trip to Jerusalem.

The road trip is a classic Kiwi experience. You have the possum road kill, the painful parents they stay with, the arguments and the poetry. There are plenty of laughs and good Kiwi black humour.

Having been to Jerusalem myself, I especially enjoyed the descriptions of it, and the final scenes set there.

There is (as usual) a darker side to the play, with the death of their friend on his 21st birthday hanging over Eli and Jack. This is part of the context to their discovery of caring about heritage and where we come from, and what we do.

Probably a play more targeted at a younger audience, especially with a plethora of swear words featuring, but I saw Deputy Mayor Ian McKinnon there enjoying the play, so all ages can appreciate it.

The director was Eleanor Bishop, who also has a production currently at Circa. A rare thing to have two active productions at the same time. She oversaw a good pace to the film, where you never feel things are dragging on. Each chapter is different from the one before, to keep you interested.

Overall an excellent play which makes you laugh and think in equal measures.

Readers may also enjoy the review at the excellent Theatrereview.

Went to Dicken’s Women at the State Opera House on Saturday night. It wasn’t one of the performances I get review tickets for, but figured it was worth reviewing anyway. Went with Stats Girl who wanted to see it, and Mr Stats Girl conveniently fled town for the weekend.

It is a one woman show by Miriam Margoyles. She plays 23 different female Dickens’ characters. Her voice range is extraordinary, and she has a great sense of fun as you can in this appearance on the Graham Norton show.

You don’t need to know al the works of Dickens to enjoy the show. In fact it is not so much a show about Dicken’s plays, but about Dicken’s himself. Margoyles explains how many of the characters were based on actual women that Dickens knew. He seemed to have quite an admiration for 17 year old girls, as you go on to learn.

Dickens was and is the greatest novelist of his period. But he was also something of a prick, and his relations with his wife’s family is somewhat unconventional. His wife was Catherine. Her younger sister Mary lived with them and died at the age if 17. Dickens adored her and he actually asked to be buried next to Mary when she died.

Some two decades later Dickens had an affair with a 17 year old and hence Catherine was banished from Dicken’s life. But her sister Gorgina stayed on as nanny to Dickens’ children and cared for Dickens until he died. She was the major beneficiary of his will.

If you are interested in Charles Dickens, the performance is a highly entertaining way to learn more about him, warts and all.

After the show Margoyles autographs programmes and books which are for sale. Just ahead of Stats Girl in the queue was no less than Billy Connolly!

Not a performance for everyone, and the majority of the audience were women. But I found it a very entertaining evening, and it has actually motivated me to purchase a biography of Dickens, to learn even more about the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.

Chekov in Hell opens in Circa Two with Anton Chekov in a hospital bed, clearly dying in 1904. A short time later, it is 2012 and a (great) niece of Chekov is informed that her uncle has woken up from a 100 year coma.

Victoria Abbott, as the niece Nicola, gave what I thought was a stunning performance. Her ability to do different accents was phenomenal, and she got the mannerisms spot on. She also has one of the most expressive faces I’ve seen, and could have you in stitches just by the way she pinched her eyes and lips together as the politically correct police officer was reassuring her that they are here to make her feel valued, as they update on the hunt for her uncle.

I did not expect the play to be laugh out loud funny, as it was. I thought it would be more quiet chuckle funny, but there were numerous scenes that had the audience loudly laughing. An example was the poor doctor trying to apologise for letting Chekov escape the hospital, while stressing it was not an official apology as that could open the hospital up to liability, but a non-official personal expression of regrets.

The play was written by Dan Reballato, an English playwright.  It shows how Chekov experiences  reality TV, feng shui, pole dancing, a Russian gangster, smartphones,  sex trafficking, celebrity chefs, British policing and very amusingly Twitter.  The characters are all English (or Russian) but they need no translation for a New Zealand audience.

Director Eleanor Bishop did an excellent job bringing the script to life. It was a very energetic production as characters do not just fade on and off stage, but almost pivot their way off, taking furniture with them. It is at times a very intense experience with the music and lights combining so that you almost share Chekov’s disorientation.

The cast of five all play around 11 characters each (except for the Chekov actor), which must be a huge challenge. This was I think Abbott’s first production at Circa (she only graduated in 2011), but equally worthy of mention was fellow “newbie” Simon Leary who acted with frenetic energy. Both of them are real talents, with a huge future I predict.

Nick Dunbar and Heather O’Connell also played multiple characters with ease, while Jason Whyte was convincing playing Chekov himself – and very much looked the part.

There were a couple of scenes which dragged on a bit for me, and could have been made tighter. But overall I found it a delightful satirical narrative about 21st century London.  Highly recommended.

UPDATE: For those interested, a much more in depth review by John Smythe at Theatreview.

Theatresports is on every Sunday evening at Circa until the 1st of July. It features two teams of Improvisers, who compete against each other to amuse and entertain the audience.

A clapometer gives each team a score out of 10. Audience members provide key details for each round or skit, and the teams get to work.

The first round was very good, with the challenge being to do a rap rhyming with an audience supplied word. They can’t use the same word twice, and it can not be a swear word. Of course the first word suggested was “duck”. I was going to suggest “hunt”. They did really well rhyming on the spot. One team member has to provide the sentence, but leave the last word blank for the rest of the team to fill in, so it is about how obvious the missing word is.

The other rounds varied from mildly funny to incredibly funny. The cricket commentary on a streaker was sublime, as was the ballet about an eight year old’s high jump victory. A couple of the skits didn’t engage that well, and the audience input seemed peripheral. But the vast majority of the skits were hugely enjoyable, and a audience had a great time. It was a nice fun Sunday night’s entertainment.

Also very good was the scene with the puppet who was not allowed to become a Cardinal, and the slide show of Egyptian pickles. The Improvisers body language and contortions can be just as funny as the dialogue.

Stalker Girl reviews History Never Repeats at Circa:

Last night David actually agreed to meet up with me, which is a damn sight easier than my usual game of figuring out his exact location from blog posts and social media snooping.

Dave had invited me to attend The Improvisers performance of their new show “History Never Repeats” at Circa, a family friendly improvised comedy show with a loose focus on the what-could-have-beens of an alternate world history.

In the typical improv comedy fashion audience members were invited to set the scene for portions of the performance, not only proving that, indeed, they were making it up as they went along, but providing for plenty of opportunity for the audience to really feel invested in the show.

Dave’s (slightly) larger than life personality saw him easily slip a few of his “oddly specific” interests  in to the mix, resulting in scenes depicting the late Roman republic. I proffered “Crying Robots”, a theme which I felt the improvisers handled well, giving it all the gravitas and aplomb deserved of a futuristic depiction of sad automatons.

The show did tend to re-visit some of the well worn tropes of Improv Comedy, featuring high-brow themes such as ‘how bad my accent is’ and ‘outdated cultural stereotypes’.

I have to say It was an excellent night.

It was indeed a very enjoyable performance by The Improvisers. The theme of doing different stages in history worked well, as it allowed much mocking of different countries and eras. On our night the eras chosen were Roman (which when they asked what part, I did get specific to general amusement), 801 AD (did Vikings), around 1500s in Japan and late 1800s in Ireland, the present day in Liverpool plus the Flying and Crying Robots of the future.

I always wonder if they used some general routines that they fit into each era, but reading other reviews, it seems it is totally original each night. As well as setting the eras, the audience also sets some other aspects for each era. For the present dat setting, it was “group sex” which was amusing (and done in a cleanish way).

I don’t know the names of the different performers, and annoyingly they are not online either. But the one with the moustache who looks a bit like Lord Petyr Baelish in Game of Thrones was especially good. They all have different strengths, which blend in well together.

In the first half of the show they improvise the various scenes starting from oldest going through to the future. Then during the brief interval, they quickly discuss how to not just finish each scene, but actually link them all together so what happened in the past, affects the future. Then you see each scene from the present back to the past. A simple concept that worked well.

The show is on until Saturday, and is a fun night’s entertainment. Well worth going to.

The third and final play for this weekend was Floral Notes, also at Circa.

Floral Notes was a charming and poignant production. It was a smile silently rather than a laugh out large affair. Probably a play that appeals more to the older theatre-goer, who will relate to the characters and plot. Having said that, I still found it an enjoyable experience.

It is a two woman show, with Geraldine Brophy and Jane Keller playing two former pen pals who resume their correspondence after a forty year break. Brophy plays the widowed Kiwi, whose love of gardening gives the play its name. Her character Rosemary badly misses her dead husband.

Keller play Iris, a wonderfully blunt and sarcastic New Yorker who is twice divorced and in fact still living with her 2nd ex husband and his gay lover! She also has some pain to cope with, but more hidden.

The play is part-musical, with the ever talented Michael Nicholas Williams on the piano. Keller is a professional singer and always a delight to listen to. Brophy’s singing was fine, but up against the strength of Keller, was slightly jarring for me. It’s not that it was in any way bad, but if you have someone great and someone just good singing together, it doesn’t always work. I recall once being at a party where Jim Bolger and Dame Malvina Major sang together on the karaoke - it was umm memorable

I liked the plot, as we discovered why the girls had stopped writing to each other so long ago, and how they started up again. Both Keller and Brophy are larger than life characters who dominate the stage easily. The set kept them physically separate, so you got the sense of their communications.

Like with many plays, it was a mixture of joy and sadness. You smile often at their letters and e-mails, but also share their sadness as events emerge. It was a gentle ending to my weekend of plays.

The play runs until Saturday 28 April.

This weekend has almost become play overload central. I’ve got plays Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Originally I only had A Shortcut to Happiness at Circa on Saturday night, but  then Downstage had the premiere for Live at Six (reviewed here) on the Friday night. Went with DC Girl, and we both thought it was terrific.

Then I suddenly realised I was at Coromandel for Easter and unable to make the premiere of Floral Notes, so shifted that to today. With three plays in one weekend, I was hoping they would all be very good, and so far I’m pleased to say it is two out of two.

The first thing you notice in entering Circa One is the stage set up as a typical NZ hall. It looks the part absolutely with the chairs, and the little sliding doors into the kitchen with the zip. The other half of the stage is a lounge in the home of Ned. The two sets are back to back on a rotating floor, which makes the set changes very easy.

A Shortcut to Happiness is a Roger Hall play. Now I’m not saying that this guarantees it will be a good play, but let’s just say I’ve yet to discover a Roger Hall play I didn’t enjoy. It is not by coincidence he is arguably New Zealand’s most successful playwrights. The play started with a tribute to Grant Tilly who died this week. Tilly was one of the founders of Circa, and had worked with Hall and others since the 1970s.

The two principal characters are Natasha and Ned, played by Elena Stejko and Peter Hayden. Natasha is a Russian immigrant who makes money cleaning and teaching dancing while trying to improve her English so she can become a music teacher. Ned is a widowed retired accountant who turns up to her classes.

Hall provides plenty of laughs as Natasha attempts and often gets wrong common Kiwi phrases, such as “from the bottom of my heart” being “from my bottom to my heart”.  Stejko is from the Ukraine, so playing a Russian immigrant is natural for her. From my experience of Eastern European women, she captures the characteristics wonderfully, including I have to say their beauty. When she changes from her dancing clothes into her cleaning clothes, the transformation is amazing. Even Glee Girl, who went with me, commented that she had the most incredible legs.

But the play is not just about Ned and Natasha. The rest of the dance lessons group provide great laughs. Jane Waddell portrays Coral the middle aged man-eater who also has designs on Ned. You also have the golf buddies Janet and Laura, and the young Sebastian who charms all the ladies, causes much tensions also.

But by far the funniest couple had to be Bev and Ray, played by Carmel McGlone and Tim Gordon. Bev is an uptight organic food eating University of the Third Age student, and Ray her hen pecked husband. McGlone is simply a comic genius – not with what she says, but her facial expressions and body language. Her performance alone is worth seeing the play for.

The play (including interval) is two and a half hours long, which is normally past my comfort zone. I generally prefer 90 – 110 minute plays. But it is a sign of how enjoyable the play was, that I never got restless. The plot advanced at a steady pace, and you were eager to see how it all works out.

It was Glee Girl’s first play in Wellington, and she also thought it was a great performance. I can’t think of too many people who wouldn’t enjoy it. It runs at Circa until 26 May.

UPDATE: I forgot the funniest line of the play. During an argument, Natasha challenges Ned saying “Don’t you hope I will sleep with you”, and his response was “Well yes, but only in the sense that I also hope I will win Lotto”. It was hilarious.

Had a great time last night at “Live at Six” at Downstage. It is an invigorating mix of interactivity and technology, that wonderfully depicts how our television broadcasters differently deal with a scandal involving one of their own.

The play formally starts at 8 pm, but if you turn up early to the Downstage bar from 7.30 pm, you see the “scandal” in question. You’re even invited to record it yourself, and upload it.

This is the video I shot of a “tired and emotional” Jane Kenyon collapsing in the bar of the Qantas Media Awards. Kenyon is the lead anchor for One News. Helping her up is Nick Dunbar of 3 News, who used to work with her at One News.

Do be warned that if you do turn up early to see the incident, then you may end up featured quite prominently on the screens in the theatre itself. Yes, they use the actual footage from that night, rather than the same stock footage. This is very impressive when you consider they have just a few minutes to do it in.

Then when the play starts you see the news teams of TVNZ and TV3 at work in deciding how to report the story. Is it even a story that someone fell over in a bar? Well it is, because the video gets placed on the Internet, and is all over the blogs (they even have a line when they realise it is now up on Whale Oil).

TV3 of course is gleeful at the story. Michele Amas plays news boss Sue Austin and she is absolutely ruthless, yet endearing, in exploiting this to the hilt. A highlight is when Kenyon, played by Jessica Robinson, goes on the roof of TVNZ for some fresh air (she can’t leave the building). Sue yells for them to not just get a zoom lens on her, but to make sure they get a camera down the bottom in case there is a splat to cover.

As you get the idea, it is a very cynical, yet hilarious (and some would say accurate) depiction of the media. They also use social media very effectively in the show. You see blogs, Stuff, You Tube, Tweet Deck, Skype etc. But they manage to use them in a way which they are natural parts of the plot, not just gimmicks to show they are with it.

Tim Spite was hilarious as 3 News news reader Gordon Miller. He was happy to go along with anything his boss proposed, unlike the conflicted Nick Dunbar (played by Derek Fontaine) who is friends with Kenyon and wants her treated fairly.

On the One News side, Donogh Rees was captivating as corporate executive Karen Adams. A former news presenter herself, she was now the woman managing the crisis for TVNZ, and was a first class manipulator. Phil Vaughan played Tim McGregor, Kenyon’s immediate boss, who wanted to do the right thing, so long as it didn’t muck his day up too much. Jessica Williams was great, as usual, in the lead role.

You also had the strange competitive friendship between the two news editors, played by Eli Kent and Barnaby Fredric.

The show was pretty much flawless. The script was excellent, and the actors were superb. The running time at just under two hours was just right, and they had the interval at just the right point. While most of the focus was on the character interactions, the plot has a couple of very nice twists at the end which you don’t see coming.

Their use of technology was excellent, and it is a tribute to their support staff, that they managed to do it with no hitches.

It was my first Downstage play since they had a six month hiatus. A great production to lead off with, and an excellent night’s entertainment. Highly recommended for a fun night out.

The HoS reports:

Critics are amazed a magazine has named a restaurant as one of Auckland’s top 50 within days of opening for business.

Botswana Butchery opened to the public on March 22. Eleven days later, Metro included it in the magazine’s annual top 50 list.

The restaurant, which has received lukewarm reviews, is a branch of a successful establishment of the same name in Queenstown, and Metro editor Simon Wilson conceded it was in the top 50 partly on faith it would succeed in Auckland.

Personally this devalues any worth from having a list of top restaurants. Maybe for McDonald’s restaurants you can judge one restaurant off one in another city, but how on earth can you for what is meant to be a top restaurant?

“They have a universally highly praised restaurant in Queenstown. We would be surprised if Botswana Butchery in Auckland fell apart.”

So the Metro list is based on assumption?

NZ Herald reviewer John Gardner gave the food an eight out of 10 but the service a six. He wrote a waitress couldn’t tell him about a dish without first returning to the kitchen to ask about it.

Herald on Sunday food critic Peter Calder gave it 3 stars and noted two dishes destined for his table went to a neighbouring one. “It all seemed a bit Fawltyesque for a branch of an established operation,” he wrote.

This week Calder also said he found the restaurant’s email-only booking system “colossally rude and unprofessional”. Another critic, David MacGregor wrote on the Unscrewed website: “When quizzed the waitress wasn’t able to answer a single question about the dishes.”

Which is why you don’t judge on the basis of a sister restaurant in Queenstown.

Russell Gray, chief executive of the Good Group, which owned Botswana Butchery, said he was pleased to be on a list, despite being open only a short time. “We are not new to the industry, we have been successful in the hospitality game for a long time.”

He said the eatery made the list by passing an “acid test” of a Metrojudge’s visit.

However, he agreed that they were working on improving standards of service.

“We are not trying to be a fine dining establishment, we are a fun dining establishment.”

I did not know the two were contradictory.

Anyway the main point is it is silly to be listing any new restaurant as in the top 50, when they have barely been open a week. A credible list is based on experiences over time.

UPDATE: Another bad review for the “top 50″ restaurant here. This really dent’s Metro’s credibility. It is fair enough to have differing views, but if you are going to put a restaurant in your top 50 after barely a week of opening, it should have out of this world service – rather than what appears to be consistently poor service.

It was a bit like being a kid in a candy store when Positively Wellington Venues said that they could provide tickets for any one event at one of their venues for the New Zealand International Arts Festival. That gave me a choice of any event the Town Hall, MFC, St James or the Opera House.

I settled on the Sharon Shannon Big Band, as I love Irish music, and you expect someone who has performed for two US Presidents to be pretty good.

She wasn’t just pretty good. She was world class. A superb performance and a really good night out.

The night started at Hede, on Cuba Street. My favourite Japanese restaurant. DC Girl and I had the Teriyaki Chicken.  I mentioned when I got there that my arm was aching (in fact had been in considerable pain since around 2  pm). It turned out to be a consequence of some bicep curls at the gym the day before, which tore the muscle a bit. But  DC Girl failed to understand the difference between a sore arm and a numb arm, and using her brilliant medical skills concluded I might have had a stroke, and started googling the symptoms of a stroke, and what to do.  Thee couple at the next table started to look worried.

Afterwards we crossed over to the Town Hall, and I won the bet that we could get to out seats without running into someone who knows me (as happened twice on the weekend’s walk from the wind turbine to Hawkins Hill).

Now the performance. Sharon Shannon herself plays the accordion, and her dexterity and skill on it is just incredible. But  the rest of the band are equally skilled. With such a variety of instruments, it would be easy to have the odd discordant note, but they combined together sublimely to entertain and engage.

They did probably around 20 songs all up, and a couple reminded me of that great scene in the Titanic movie where Kate Winslett/Rose goes down to the room where the Irish are playing their music, and it is so infectious.

A couple of the band members were actually Kiwis, which was well greeted by the audience. There were a fair few or Irish descent in the audience and they really got into it, actually standing up and clapping and dancing along to a couple of the later numbers.

A sustained ovation at the end saw the band back on stage to do a further four songs, and these were arguably their best. I wasn’t surprised to read that her 1991 album remains the best selling album of traditional Irish music ever released.

We are very spoilt in Wellington having such great events, both domestic and international. The Festival is a Wellington icon, which brings such great acts here. I see on her website that she is playing at New Plymouth on Fri 16 and Sun 18, and in Auckland inbetween on Sat 17. If there are tickets left, I highly recommend you go along – she is a superb performer.

A guest post by Peter Freedman:

Recently at a small party, conversation died. To liven it up again our host asked us to name out Ten Favourite Movies.

So we each sat in a corner of the room and wrote them down. Everyone had finished with a quarter of an hour. Everybody, bar one. Guess who?

I said I was having trouble whittling them down and needed a larger piece of paper.

“How many have you got to choose from?” said mein host courageously.

“Not many,” I cheerily replied. “Down to the last 172, should be finished in an hour. My wife sighed and gave one of her famous  “What the f- is he up to NOW?” looks.

Anyway, this is my ten for now, Tomorrow the list will be quite different.

1. Inherit the Wind. I am amazed at the number of so called film buffs who have never heard of this film. A real classic based loosely on the Tennessee monkey trial. Now, there wasn’t a chimp in the dock but might as well have been for all the importance the defendant was ,The trial was over a school teacher persuaded by the CLU to test the state law which barred the teaching of evolution. The pawn is played by Dick York later Darren as he was Bewitched.

   The two real antagonists were, in reality, the legal leviathans Clarence Darrow (Spencer Tracey) and William Jennings Bryan (Frederic March),.The men were lifelong friends, Bryan stood unsuccessfully for President with Darrow’s support. But the two drifted apart and found themselves squaring off in a  mall Bible Belt town,.Tracey and March are, of course, brilliant, and so is Harry Morgan (Colonel Potter in Mash) as a befuddled  judge. But star of the show is Gene Kelly, who doesn’t dance a step but cleans up in the role of a cynical big city news hound. His best line comes as Bryan is welcomed into the town by the good citizens all singing in unison: “Gimme that Old Time Religion” Seeing Kelly as a stranger needing a bed, one worthy woman asks him if he needs a nice, clean place to stay” “I had one,” says Kelly, “but I left it to come here.”
   

2.  Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Surely needs no introduction here, the greatest Aussie film ever made. Knocks that fat girl’s wedding for six. If Dame Edna had accepted a part it would have been No 1. If you haven’t seen it you have missed what one diminutive Asian lady can do with table tennis balls. No more hints, but please remember to duck.
   
3. The Bird Cage. I didn’t care for Mr R Williams till I saw him in this. He’s brilliant but he doesn’t steal the show. Nathan Lane as the “lady” of the house almost takes the honours in his campest performance, but I give my Oscar to Gene Hackman as the tight laced Senator who finds his daughter wants to marry into one of THOSE sort of families. The final scene where a blond-wigged Hackman in drag escapes the paparazzi to the tune of “We are Family” must be one of the funniest in movie history.
   
4.  Casablanca. Nothing more to say, move on. Louis, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship. PS: If anyone bets you “Play it again Sam, is this movie’s most famous line take them on. Bergman begs: “Play it Sam, play as Time Goes By.” There is no “again” never was and never will.
   
5. The African Queen. Bogey and his longtime co-star Bergman sail down an African river to torpedo a German boat with home made weaponry. Look for a superb cameo role by the rotund Richard Morley.
   
6. Mississippi Burning. Hackman again, this time as an unconventional FBI man alongside William Dafoe, the straight man. They go to the Miss to investigate the death of two white guys and a negro who had been campaigning for black rights. Closely allied to a real story. Many memorable moments, but the best has to be when a negro hired by the FBI kidnaps the town Mayor and holds him in a small shed, threatening to castrate him if he doesn’t cough. “Do you know, Mr Mayor, how much you bleed when your balls are cut off?”
   
7. Stand By Me. I hate Stephen King but this is magic. A group of young boys go looking for a body and learn the realities of life. Too many stars and great scenes to mention but the classic line has to be “Suck my fat one, you cheap dimestore hood!”
   
8. Romeo and Juliet – the de Caprio/Clare Danes version by a nose from the delightful Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting. The Leslie Howard version made in the 30s doesn’t even get to the gate. FFS Romeo was about 17, not 42!
   
9. Shakespeare in Love. Even if you hate the Bard you HAVE to see this. If R and J wasn’t written this way it should have been. Dame Judi takes the cake with her OTT Queen Liz 1 and has the best line, muttering “too late, too late” when  the men are tardy in lowering their capes to prevent the royal tootsies encountering the London mud.
   
10. White Heat. Had to get Cagney in somewhere. Along with E G Robinson’s Little Caesar, this is the quintessential gangster movie. Cagney is awesome as the psychopathic killer Codey Jarrett, but Margaret Whycherly steals her scenes as Ma Jarrett. Almost certainly based on the reallife Ma Barker. Ma Jarrett is evil, immoral, unscrupulous and magnificent.

So there it is. Some great movies didn’t make it, like almost anything based on Dickens. Some Like It Hot, with the immortal line uttered by Dave Barry, a besotted millionaire with the hots for Miss Jack Lemmon. As the couple speed away in his motorboat, Lemmon finally has to come clean. I can’t marry, you, I drink. That’s okay says Barry. I smoke say Lemmon. I don’t mind, Barry replies. I can’t give you children. No problem, we’l l adopt some. Lemmon flings off his wig and shouts: “I can’t marry you, I’m a man!” Barry doesn’t hesitate.

“Well, nobody’s perfect,” he says.

That’s my list, How about giving yours?

This isn’t a top 10, but some movies I love and can always watch again.

1. Shawshank Redemption
2. Love Actually
3. Four weddings and a funeral
4. Kick-Ass
5. Lord of the Rings
6. Blues Brothers
7. Kill Bill Vol I
8. South Park
9. Life of Brian
10. Star Wars Episode IV
11. The Omen (I and II)
12. Alien
13. No Way Out
14. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
15. Ben-Hur

Got sent a copy of some software which turns your webcam into a home security camera. The designer is actually a Kiwiblog reader.

The software is Spycam-Watcher. It works with around 50 different brands of webcams, including the built in one on my Sony Vaio. It would take up a lot of space to be recording all the time, but you can use motion detection, have it send you an e-mail with a frame shot, and can even have a virtual tripwire where for example you aim your computer camera at your driveway, draw a “tripwire” line across the image on your screen, and it will alert you when any vehicle crosses the line and start recording.

It costs only US$30, but for just an additional $5 you can get a remote interface from your iPad or iPhone. Yes, you can view your home camera from anywhere in the world if the motion detector is set off. you can turn it on and off, and can view video already made. It’s simple as pie to use also.

I think it a seriously good system, Kiwi made, and really affordable. As someone who travels a lot I’ll be having it installed on one of my old laptops, so it can monitor my door.

All it really needs is the extra option of firing a taser at intruders.

Phillips, through their PR person, gave me a Docking Speaker for purposes of review. I’m very glad they did.

My first test of new equipment is how easy it is to set up. Well, this is unpackage it, and plug it into the wall. Could not be easier.

Second test is how easily does stuff plug into it. One neat thing about this product is that you can plug in your iPod, iPhone or iPad to it. So if you are using your iPhone and/or iPad, you can run your music off the iPod.

I did find one thing out the hard way though. If you plug your iPhone into it, and someone calls you – well lets just say the phone rings really really loudly!

It has a handy remote control for volume etc.

But even cooler, is it has bluetooth. That means you don’t even have to plug your iPhone or iPad into it. Just push play on your iPhone and the music comes out on the other side of the room through the speaker. That is nice. And no, if your phone rings while bluetoothed to it, that doesn’t go over the speaker.

I watch the odd movie on my iPad. Will be great to have it bluetooth to a proper speaker.

So a very cool toy I have to say. My thanks to Phillips for it. I may end up buying one also as a Christmas present for a deserving relative.

They also gave me these headphones, called The Stretch to try out. Super comfortable and flexible. Not going to wear them to the gym, but they are great if your flatmate is at home, and you want to listen to music or movies without disturbing them. Air NZ should give these out to their frequent flyers, rather than invent new ways to screw them over instead!

Peninsula grabbed my interest from the opening scene, and never lost it. The production at Circa was brilliant, and excelled in every way.

Peninsula is the story of 10 year old Michael, growing up in Duvauchelle in Banks Peninsula in 1963. The play captures both the magic of childhood, but also the feel of growing up in rural New Zealand in the 1960s. There were many parts of the play which I could relate to, and brought back memories of childhood.

There are five actors. The opening scene has them as four kids and their new teacher. Michael (Paul McLaughlin) and Ngaire (Laura Hill) are brother and sister, and capture the sibling dynamic so well.  Alex (Phil Vaughan) is Michael’s best friend and Lynette is the class know it all (Michele Amas). Their new teacher is Mr MacIntosh (Jason Whyte) who manages to get the kids, especially Michael, interested in science.

However each actor plays two roles, and the way they seamlessly go from one character to another is part of what makes the play so great. The director has done a magnificent job with making the transitions work.

Vaughan and Amas also play the parents of Michael and Ngaire, and McLaughin and Hill play the parents of Alex. Whyte’s second role is that of Pug the dog, and he really is comic genius in that role.

The set is simple but effective. Four school chairs, and two telephones on poles. Unheard but important is the post office operator who listens in to some of the calls and gossips about them. A screen is used a couple of times to show a pinhole camera in operation (again, brings back memories) and sound effects are deployed occassionally to good impact.

The major plot is about Michael wanting to investigate and map everywhere he goes, and how Mr MacIntosh has fuelled his love for science. The Christchurch science affair awaits.

I won’t give the plot away, but sadly it is not all plain sailing. Without being preachy, the play manages to touch on issues of bullying, of infidelity, of domestic violence and also of historic small town attitudes and prejudice. It doesn’t do this in a preachy way at all, but as part of a well told tale.  The play is lots of laughs, but there are also moments of real sadness, and even a bit of uncomfortableness.

All five actors did a great job bringing their dual characters to life. Michelle Amas was a very convincing know it all kid, but equally good as the satay at home mother who gossips and worries over her kid.   Laura Hill was superb as the bratty sister, and captured the mannerisms as if she really was a school kid. Hill also showed emotional depth with her adult character, as you could almost see the restrained sadness in her eyes.

Phil Vaughan’s child and adult characters were somewhat similar - both very cheeky and relaxed. Paul McLaughlin had the difficult role of Michael, portraying the nice wanting to learn kid who then changes as events transpire. And as previously mentioned Jason Whyte was comically funny as Pug and also excellent as the quiet, dignified teacher.

One of the best plays I’ve been to. It was a very New Zealand play, and all aspects of it clicked so well together to make it a brilliant experience.

Went along to Circa during the week to see Meeting Karpovsky with Apple Girl. The blurb for the show is:

Sylvia used to travel the world and its famous ballet theatres. Now she spends time alone in her wisteria covered attic filled with her daughter’s unwanted possessions and photographs of her favourite ballet dancer, Alexander Karpovsky – she has seen him dance 127 times. One day the silent Karpovsky mysteriously appears and begins to teach the stumbling Sylvia to dance…and to live.

Sir Jon Trimmer plays Karpovsky and he effortlessly dominates the stage. The fact he does it, despite only one word of dialogue, is a tribute to his acting and dancing.

Helen Moulder also excels as Sylvia. It takes a special skill to be able to pretend you can’t dance, when you can. Both Moulder and Trimmer give performances impossible to criticise.

The set is an essential part of the play. Proudly displayed in her attic are paintings of her silent companions – Petrouchka, Widow Simone, Albrecht & Giselle and Herr Drosselmeyer - all of them being the great Karpovsky. Also are boxes and boxes of her daughter’s unwanted belongings.

Sylvia is stuck between reality and fantasy, and you can sense there is some reason she has ended up that way. Karpovsky leads her down a path of self-realisation, to a point where she can accept the real world.

While the acting and dancing, set and lighting were all excellent, overall the play though didn’t quite resonate with me. While enjoyable to watch, I didn’t feel any emotional grip, and the “secret” of the finale was all too obvious. I just didn’t quite find there to be enough of a plot to dig into. However the play won many awards and plaudits the first time around, so others have had a much better experience with it – I suspect my lack of knowledge of ballet disadvantaged me.