Arts and culture in Ōtautahi Christchurch
Erin Harrington reviews Fun Home, music by Jeanine Tesori, book and lyrics by Lisa Kron, directed by Kathleen Burns, with musical direction from Caelan Thomas, at the Court Theatre, Saturday 10 August 2024. The Tony award-winning one act musical Fun Home is adapted from cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s beloved 2006 graphic memoir, which explores her childhood… Continue reading Review: Fun Home – a musical about memory, grief and sexuality that’s dead funny
Erin Harrington reviews Mr and Mrs Macbeth of Heathcote Valley Road, written and directed by Gregory Cooper, at the Court Theatre, Saturday 18 May, 2024. In writer-director Gregory Cooper’s energetic new comedy Mr and Mrs Macbeth of Heathcote Valley Road it’s backstage on the opening night of a high stakes national tour of the Scottish… Continue reading Review: Mr and Mrs Macbeth of Heathcote Valley Road – an uneven backstage comedy about on and offstage disaster
Erin Harrington reviews Every Brilliant Thing, written by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe, directed by Hillary Moulder, at the Court Theatre, Friday 6 April 2024. A content note to start: is it okay to call an interactive play about depression and suicide joyful? UK playwright Duncan Macmillan’s Every Brilliant Thing is a river of concentrated… Continue reading Review: Every Brilliant Thing – an intense collective experience about hope and imagination
Erin Harrington reviews Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express¸ adapted by Ken Ludwig, directed by Dan Bain, at the Court Theatre, Saturday 2 March 2024. The Court Theatre is entering its final year in the Shed in Addington before it shifts into its new premises in the central city’s Performing Arts Precinct. Director Dan… Continue reading Review: Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express – a stylish, engrossing murder mystery
Erin Harrington reviews Something Rotten! book by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell, music and lyrics by Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick, directed by Benjamin Kilby-Henson, with musical direction by Richard Marrett, at the Court Theatre, Saturday 25 November 2023. The Court Theatre has a long tradition of presenting big budget summer musicals that seek to… Continue reading Review: Something Rotten! – a boisterous, witty musical that’s anything but
Erin Harrington reviews The Haka Party Incident, written and directed by Katie Wolfe, at The Court Theatre, Friday 27 October 2023. In 1979, a group of Māori activists, who would come to be known later as He Taua, went to the University of Auckland to confront a group of engineering students who were preparing for… Continue reading Review: The Haka Party Incident – bold, ferocious, essential viewing
Erin Harrington reviews Dance Nation, written by Clare Barron, directed by Alison Walls, at the Court Theatre, Saturday 23 September 2023. The Court Theatre’s fierce production of Clare Barron’s 2018 play Dance Nation invites superlatives. The show, as directed by Court Theatre AD Alison Walls, offers us a bonkers, vulgar, hilarious, vulnerable take on A… Continue reading Review: Dance Nation – a banger of a play about fierce and feral girlhood
Erin Harrington reviews The Appleton Ladies' Potato Race, by Melanie Tait and directed by Anthea Williams, at The Court Theatre, Tuesday 8 August, 2023. In a review some years ago I described a show’s comedy and appeal as ‘broad’, and someone involved in the production got exceptionally cross with me. I meant it in our… Continue reading Review: The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race – rural social mores get mashed
Naomi van den Broek reviews Next To Normal, music by Ton Kitt, book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, directed by Hayden Tee, with musical direction by Richard Marrett, at the Court Theatre, 17 June 2023. Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning pop/rock musical Next To Normal is a show centered on a woman’s struggle with, and… Continue reading Review: Next To Normal – a demanding production about mental illness, family and connection
Erin Harrington reviews Appropriate, written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins directed by Nathaniel Lees, at the Court Theatre, 6 May 2023. The acclaimed American dark comedy Appropriate starts in the massive living room of a decrepit Arkansas plantation house. It’s still, night, the atmosphere oppressive. The light changes almost imperceptibly through the oversized windows as the cicadas’… Continue reading Review: Appropriate – a provocative dark comedy about the meaning of inheritance
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