Arts and culture in Ōtautahi Christchurch
Erin Harrington reviews Back to Square One?, performed and directed by Anders Falstie-Jensen for The Rebel Alliance Theatre Company, at Little Andromeda, Thursday 25 August 2022. Truly lo-fi theatre is criminally underrated. The best works are magical and impactful, but you really have to know what you're doing to conjure something from nothing. Anders Falstie-Jensen’s… Continue reading Review: Back to Square One? – meaningful storytelling about connection (and cake)
Erin Harrington reviews Flagons and Foxtrots, written by Alison Quigan and Ross Gumbley, and directed by Kathleen Burns, at The Court Theatre, Monday 15 August, 2022. Flagons and Foxtrots is a concentrated comic dose of Kiwi nostalgia that revisits the dance halls – and the gender roles – of the 1960s. The play premiered in… Continue reading Review: Flagons and Foxtrots – fun and frothy Kiwi nostalgia
Erin Harrington reviews My NIGHTMARE Wedding by Play Space Productions at The Quarters at Riccarton House and Bush, Monday 18 July 2022. In Play Space Productions’ interactive show My Nightmare Wedding, we’re at the historic Riccarton House for the dream wedding of sweethearts Abigail and Charlie, and anything that can go wrong is honestly going… Continue reading Review: My NIGHTMARE Wedding – a dream immersive comedy
Erin Harrington reviews Shift Your Paradigm (No Chairs Required) at Little Andromeda, Thursday 14 July, 2022. Shift Your Paradigm (No Chairs Required) brings us into the shady world of multi-level marketing. The schtick of this high-energy black comedy, created by Wellington-based artists David Bowers-Mason and Mitchell Botting, is that we are the in-person audience at… Continue reading Review: Shift Your Paradigm (No Chairs Required) – a high-energy deconstruction of a scam
Erin Harrington reviews Nepal, devised and performed by Christopher Alan Moore, at Little Andromeda, Saturday 9 July 2022. As we come in to see the fantastic one-man show Nepal, actor Christopher Alan Moore is on-stage, sitting on an ordinary chair in a long-sleeved tee and rugby shorts, noodling around on his guitar. Guitar down, a… Continue reading Review: Nepal – an intimate adventure with a very big heart
Erin Harrington reviews The Court Theatre's production of The Girl on the Train, adapted by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel from Paula Hawkins' novel, directed by Holly Chappell, Friday 21 May, 2022. The Court Theatre has been as much a victim of the pandemic as any other company that stages big shows and relies on… Continue reading Review: The Girl on the Train – innovative, immersive, but empty
Erin Harrington reviews Hysterical, by Carrie Rudzinksi and Olivia Hall, at Little Andromeda, Thursday 12 May 2022. Hysterical is heart-on-its-sleeve confessional storytelling that marries the personal and intimate to the political and polemical. The show is the second full-length show created by Auckland-based performance poets Olivia Hall (a Kiwi) and Carrie Rudzinski (an American), hardcore… Continue reading Review: Hysterical – personal, political, poetic
Erin Harrington writes about dance collective Tīwai's research showing of new work Te Pūtake at Movement Art Practice, 29 April 2022, and returns to JMO Theatrics' White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, which ran at Little Andromeda from 13-17 April, 2022. At the beginning of contemporary dance work Te Pūtake, from collective Tīwai (Rebecca Johnson, Kereana Mosen… Continue reading Performance, connectivity and care: Tīwai’s Te Pūtake and White Rabbit, Red Rabbit
Erin Harrington reviews White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, presented by JMO Theatrics, at Little Andromeda, Wednesday 13 April 2022. It is hard to write about White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, presented at Little Andromeda by JMO Theatrics, as anything said could stray into a violation of its central conceit. What we do know, and can say: Iranian… Continue reading Review: White Rabbit, Red Rabbit – a one-of-a-kind absurdist experiment
Erin Harrington reviews The Barden Party's touring production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, performed at a private residence in Swannanoa, North Canterbury, 2 April 2022. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of those rare works that is pretty much smashproof. It doesn’t matter if it’s performed by intermediate school students or the Royal Shakespeare Company,… Continue reading Review: The Barden Party – magical al fresco Shakespeare in a garden near you
