New Zealand Arts Review

Reveiwed by Malcolm Calder

The Surprise {arty

By Dave Armstrong

Tadpole Productions

Director Colin McColl

Set John Parker

Lighting/Sound Gareth Evans and Geoff Evans

Costume Robyn Fleming

With Stephen Papps, Alison Quigan, Brayden Cresswell, Shauntelle Jones, Ben Porter and Chloe Thomsen

Pumphouse Theatre, Takapuna

Until 18 October

Reviewer Malcolm Calder

8 October 2026

Dave Armsrong is a gifted satirist and this re-working of his The Surpise Party (2000) allows him to update the original and freshen much of the context in more contemporary terms.  Six years can be a long time in politics – and on the stage too.

The play opens with chief protagonist Doug Morris (Stephen Papps), a long-suffering political nomad who has settled somewhat as leader of his own minority party – POP (Party of the People) – and sits as its sole member of parliament.  No electorate though, POP is strictly a List thing.   However POP has cobbled together a wide-ranging and diverse list of policies, opinions and hopes – most of them contrived in isolation and many in contradiction with each other.  Nonetheless flickerings of public interest in each have grown and pre-polling suggests POP might even increase its parliamentary representation.

At an Election Night POP party in a small room of a motel no one has ever heard of, POP has attracted a similarly wide-ranging and diverse inner circle of followers, adherents and hopefuls to watch the results come through.  

To their surprise, delight, joy and eventual apoplectic euphoria POP’s numbers grow and grow across the evening, exceed pre-poll predictions by far, and the party gains seat after seat before winning government in its own right  – not a coalition sight.  Leader Doug Morris has gone from humble, eccentric backbencher to Prime Minister – the most powerful figure in the land.

So he faints.

This is the context that Armstrong quickly establishes and it connects well with the audience. After all it has long been fun for those of us in the NZ electorate to giggle and poke fun at some of the wishlist-policies of minority parties.  And the opening night audience didn’t disappoint in that respect.

The political ‘oldies’ here – Morris (Stephen Papps) and his long-suffering and rather world-weary political secretary/assistant (Alison Quigan) – provide a sound experienced base that we have come to expect from them.

They are offset by those with a more youthful outlook, but none are too strong on practical experience in the processes of government, nor even their individual areas of interest.  They want lots of different things and want them now – as members of Cabinet of course.  They range from a brewer of craft beer who has a strange relationship with Cuba (Brayden Cresswell) to a student cyclist who is 110% green and never had a job (Chloe Thomsen) to a bus driving bully who prides her herself on tactful diplomacy (Shauntelle Jones) and a non-numerate who has his eye on the Finance portfolio (Ben Porter).

As foils to Papps and Quigley, these four work well together.  Their one-liner quips allow both nuanced and overt comedy to shine through with some occasionally exquisite comic timing. 

But, in the second act, the policy contradictions and political complexities of government soon become apparent – some of them even having echoes of real contemporary MMP politics in Aotearoa (although Armstrong deftly avoids treading directly on too many toes).   The job of governing soon results in internal anarchy and chaos for PM Morris and his band of merry men and women.  The humour gradually becomes subverted by a darker side – the reality of politics – and, for me, the comedy became more and more forced as the second act progressed. 

Although a comedic satire, there is probably a real message somewhere in this play.  Armstrong’s viewpoint is a cynical one, albeit: about the complexities of government whilst negotiating an MMP landscape, about the reality of handing power to minorities, about the need for knowledge, experience and breadth in political decision-making and how aspiration can so easily become overriden by specificity.  

So there we go.  Some great laughs in the first act, but things became a bit s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d for me after interval and ultimately it’s “plus ça change…”

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The Passing of the Forest 
 Richard Wolfe
RRP $75.00

Oratia Books
Publishing: 8 October

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Richard Wolfe’s book The Passing of the Forest takes it title from the poem by the poet / parliamentarian William Pember Reeves published in 1898. The poem which celebrates the landscapes and forests of New Zealand also alluded to the destruction of the extensive forest with lines such as

Well may these plundered and insulted kings,
Stripped of their robes, despoiled, uncloaked, discrowned,
Draw down the clouds with white enfolding wings,
And soft aerial fleece to wrap them round,
To hide the scars that every season brings,
The fire’s black smirch, the landslip’s gaping wound;

The writings and depictions of the forests in course of New Zealand’s history have been ambivalent. In the early nineteenth many descriptions of the landscapes showed the huge resource available to the colonist which was tied to the notion of taming nature to the benefit of man. On the other hand, there were an increasing number of writers concerned at the long-term viability of constant deforestation and milling.

As the author notes “Although New Zealand was the last sizeable habitable landmass to be settled by humans … the impact on its native forest has been little short of dramatic.”

Wolfe profiles the devastation of native forests in a history which has parallels in the history of Australia. He quotes writers about the growing appreciation of conservation and management, and he uses examples of New Zealand art from the early nineteenth century to the present of art depicting the forests.

The Passing of the Forest explores how large areas of forest were burned by Māori, and then European setters drawing parallels with colonisation in Australia with illustration by Australian artists.  The book illustrates how New Zealand’s deforestation has impacted on leading artists and thinkers and explores ways forward to replace what has been lost.

The book has more than 50 colour images from leading artists who have depicted the New Zealand forests. These range from the early images by Charles Heaphy which depict the forests as an endless resource, through to artists like Dick Frizzell who have depicted both the forests as well as the results of massive milling and deforestation. There is his image of the forest at Whakaangianga which shows stands of trees as well as the desolate landscape and also an image of piled up stumps ready for burning in “The Weight of the World”.

As well as Frizzell the stump and dead trees has been an image used by many artists such as Dennis Knight Turner, John Holmwood, Doris Lusk and the famous 1931 image “Frozen Flame” by Christopher Perkins.

Included are a number of works showing the damage wrought by milling with George E Pruden’s “Early Colonial NZ Farm Clearing” of 1909 and Shane Foley’s “Ghost Forest” painted one hundred years later in 2009.

While Māori have been unwise in their approach to forest management in the past, they are now very concerned about the intertwined ideas around preservation and landownership. Emily Karaka’ s paintings such as “Kawerau, A Maki WHRA Act 2008” are a response to these issues.

Several artist in New Zealand and Australia depicted the fires that ravaged the forests and bush of both counrtries `Edwyn Temples “Doomed – a bush fire” being one of the more dramatic and

Other paintings by contemporary artists revisit images from the past such as Shane Foley’s “Ghost Forest” and Robyn Litchfield’s “Enclosed Within It’s Own Shadow”

Many images are a celebration of the forests themselves such as the Romanic view by Charles Blomfield with his “The Vaulted Aisles of nature’s cathedral” and a study of the New Zealand bush by one of the early female artists, Jenny Wimperis.

Other paintings such Nigel Brown’s “Family of an Axeman” is a depiction of an heroic, black singlet clad man holding an axe which is a figure similar to William Strutt’s self portrait of the artist wielding an axe

There are also several depictions of the impact of fires lit to create new pastoral land with Edwynn Temple’s “Doomed – a Bush Fire” and Margaret Stoddart’s 1908 “Bush Fire.

The author also includes some dramatic scenes by Australian artists of bush fires with John Longstaff’s “Gippsland, Sunday Night February 20^th, 1906”, and William Strutt’s “Black Thursday”.

The book provides a wide-ranging history of the fate of New Zealand’s forests over the past two hundred years and its depictions by New Zealand artists, but it is also a history of efforts by government agencies and conservation groups to prevent its destruction.

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Cabaret

Book Joe Masteroff

Music John Kander

Lyrics Fred Ebb

Based on the play by John Van Druten

Based on stories by Christopher Isherwood

Director Benjamin Kilby-Henson

Musical Director Robin Kelly

Choreographer Kira Josephson

Set & Costume Dan Williams

Lighting Rachel Marlow, Bradley Gledhill, Filament Eleven 11

Sound Sam Clavis

Voice/Dialect Kirstie O’Sullivan

With Susan Brady, Nomi Cohen, Jonathan Martin, Hillary Moulder, Matu Ngaropo, Steven Ray, Justin Rogers, Monēt Faifai-Collins, Vincent Farane, Joel Hewlett, Sophie Jackson, Kira Josephson, Josh Morris, Emily Patterson, Waikamania Seve, Adeel Surendran, Te Ohorere Williams

ASB Waterfront Theatre, Auckland

Booking to 25 October

Reviewer Malcolm Calder

25 September 2026

Director Benjamin Kilby-Henson has noted that Cabaret is his ‘absolute favourite of all time’.  One of mine too.  And this production for ATC more than bears both of us out.

Publicity hoopla aside, this is quite simply a stunning staging and one of which ATC can be proud.

Kilby-Henson’s Cabaret has strength and power, is theatrically engaging, explores multiple values and provides its audience with one of the most satisfying and fascinating shows of 2026.  In a word, this show has Zing!  And whole lot more if we look for it.

Firstly, let’s look at the casting.  There is a breath of fresh air with nearly 2/3 of the company being ATC first-timers, ably backed up by some firm experienced hands.  And, while music-theatre performers may have long been a standout product of the NZ scene over the years, this selection serves Kilby-Henson’s purposes particularly well.  From the strength of Susan Brady’s Fräulein Schneider counterpointed by Steven Ray’s earnest Herr Schultz, to Hillary Moulder’s brash Fräulein Kost or the multiple characters subtly nuanced by Monēt Faifai-Collins and Waikamania Seve, and on to Te Ohorere Williams’ towering mezzo, this is an ensemble built on power, conviction and absolute unity.

Nomi Cohen more than holds her own as Sally Bowles, teaming well with Justin Rogers (Clifford Bradshaw).  At one point I wondered if her sudden disintegration, descent, and eventual demise was a bit sudden.  But it actually works – think about it. She nailed it.

Towering over them, so might say their ringleader, is the near ever-present fishnet-clad figure of Matu Ngaropo. His Emcee leads, sets scenes, describes and comments; he is the gel that ties everything together and, ultimately, he is the heart and soul of the message around which this Cabaret has been built.

Musically, Robin Kelly’s band somehow, and quite fittingly, combines the tacky with the creatively winsome.  Whoever would have conceived of a sousaphone taking centre-stage for a german folk song with a hidden anthem?

However it is the overall design that works and makes everything else work well – as well!  From a faux hanging CABARET with the third, fourth, fifth and sixth letters occasionally highlighted, to some special effects that actually made me jump, to costumes that blended function with form, blurred sexuality and underpinned everything this production is about.

A word of appreciation too for Kira Josephon’s choreographic work. Slapdash, and higgle-depiggedly yes, but also tight, slick and well-rehearsed when it mattered.  Like when it was meant to be slapdash, and higgle-depiggedly!

And therein lies the principal secret of Cabaret’s continued reiteration and lasting success.  Not only does it tell a story, it tells it well and then grows with each re-telling.  It has a profound message about values that are universal.  Far from simple, these are about civilisation and the world in which we live.  From Hal Prince’s original Broadway staging back in the 1960s, the tone and focus of this classic have changed considerably.  Many years ago, a young Judi Dench gave us a Sally Bowles who guilt-tripped the audience, and Sam Mendes’ shone a light on the Emcee providing a very different interpretation in 1993 that oozed evil and made audiences squirm.  A more recent London revival turns an entire auditorium into the Kit Kt Klub, has enjoyed more than 5 years of continuing success and won a clutch-full of awards. 

This production tells the same story.  But in its own way.  Probably deserves its own award even as it strikes something of a middle ground.  There are many factors lurking just beneath the surface of this production and we don’t have to look too far to see them.  In many ways they work to Cabaret’s favour allowing it to become a more subtle allegorical work – the job of art after all.  Particularly in light of a world that has, and is, becoming increasingly complex, riven by dissent and to much of which we may well be blind.

 Auckland Theatre Company is to be congratulated too.  With a shrinking audience base it has struggled to find a new one.  That has seen ATC presenting some rather tired work over the last few years, to exploring multi-culturalism, to pushing the limits of its Pasifika potential, to encouraging youth involvement and every so often to surprising us with a gem. 

2026 however has seen something of a turnaround.  There have been a succession of interesting and well-produced productions – supported by the occasional overseas import – several directed by Mr Kilby-Henson.  Audiences appear to be re-discovering quality theatre and, in Kilby-Henson, ATC may have discovered a director with energy, ideas and a thirst for the new – in every sense.

After all, life is but a cabaret.