Arts and culture in Ōtautahi Christchurch
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
Erin Harrington reviews Indian Ink's touring production of Dirty Work at the Isaac Theatre Royal, Friday 28 July 2023. Can you make art about the cyclical drudgery of office work – or, perhaps, most work – that isn’t fundamentally dystopian? Indian Ink’s charming production Dirty Work: Ode to Joy, which is set in the New… Continue reading Review: Dirty Work – finding joy in the absurd
Erin Harrington reviews Murder! At the Hotel Bon, directed by Georgie Sivier and Kat Forrester for Play Space Productions, at Riccarton House, Wednesday 26 July 2023. Play Space Productions’ immersive comedy Murder! At the Hotel Le Bon marries late 1940s Hollywood glamour with Hollywood squalor, as we – a group of film investors turned detectives… Continue reading Review: Murder! At the Hotel Bon – madcap Hollywood hijinks
Erin Harrington reviews the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra's concert Matariki Around the World, led by creative director Juanita Hepi and conductor Nathaniel Griffiths, at the James Hay Auditorium, Wednesday 5 July 2023. There is something very moving about the way that Matariki is being enthusiastically embraced on a national scale as something unique to this place,… Continue reading Review: Matariki Around the World – musicial storytelling about the things that connect us
Erin Harrington reviews The Good, The Bad, and The Completely Made Up, directed by Brendon Bennetts, at Little Andromeda, 2 June 2023. In The Good, The Bad, and The Completely Made Up, Rhiannon McCall improvises a terrific hour-long comedy Western in which she out-shoots John Wayne, out-squints Clint Eastwood, and outwits the combined cast of… Continue reading Review: The Good, the Bad and the Completely Made-Up – a hilarious solo improvised Western
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
Naomi van den Broek reviews Colour Me Cecily at Little Andromeda, 20 April 2023. In the 1980s my mother, fresh from the breakup of the parental marriage, did what many women in her situation did. She looked for a career that could work around full-time parenting - particularly something that allowed her control over her… Continue reading Review: Colour Me Cecily – a promising show in need of more colour
Erin Harrington reviews Ray Shipley's standup hour 50 Shades of Ray at Little Andromeda, 15 April 2023. Hello, nice audience member, are you an anxious person? Probably. If so, Billy T-nominated comedian Ray Shipley’s latest comedy hour, 50 Shades of Ray, is a safe space. If not, keep it to yourself and let your introvert… Continue reading Review: 50 Shades of Ray – a comic safe space for the anxious
Erin Harrington reviews Free Theatre’s production of the avant-garde musical Woyzeck, directed by Peter Falkenberg, at The Pump House, 544 Tuam Street, Friday 14 April, 2023. Free Theatre’s production of Woyzeck is an adaptation of Robert Wilson, Kathleen Brennan and Tom Waits’ musical adaptation, first performed in 2000, of Georg Büchner’s fragmentary, unfinished 1836/7 play.… Continue reading Review: Woyzeck – an avant-garde musical about misery
Erin Harrington pokes around at the Off Centre festival, including performances of Requiem and Much Ado About Nothing, at The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora, Friday 3 - Sunday 5 March. For other coverage see a review of A Baby Called Sovereignty here. When The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora was severely impacted… Continue reading Review: Off Centre – Requiem, Much Ado About Nothing, and being a city
