New Zealand Arts Review

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Arts Festival

Force of Nature

Auckland Concert Chamber

March 17

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Writing in the Guardian this week the Australian journalist Rebecca Shaw wrote that, “One thing they don’t tell you is that New Zealanders absolutely love talking about their birds. Every time I’ve been at a gathering of three or more people, they have started talking about the birds at some point.”

The sold-out concert “Force of Nature” at the Auckland Concert Chamber affirmed that notion and such was the interest that they might well have filled the Auckland Town Hall.

The concert was a celebration of 100 years of Forest & Bird with several composers and performers collaborating to create original music to highlight conservation concerns. The instruments were used to create the sounds or ambience of wildlife and in  particular the birds, utilising the shrill high-pitched sounds of the strings and woodwinds.

Ron Thorne opened the concert with his composition “Te Manawa o Raukatauri” referring to both breath and the flute of the legendary Atua Hine Raukatauri  who is the Goddess of Flutes and the personification of Music. In Māori legend, Hine Raukatauri is the casemoth who lives in her elongated cocoon and the Pūtōrino is a traditional flute in the shape of the casemoth’s home.

His flute sounds keened through the darkened concert chamber as though of giant birds  calling from a distant forest. Then as he ascending to the stage his hand movements mimicked the beat of a birds wing, his flute merging with the sound of his voice and the hum of breath.

After the opening work the other eight pieces were in the chamber music mode as well as including some taonga puoro. The NZTrio members, Ashley Brown (cello) , Amalia Hall (violin) and Somi Kim (piano) provides the backbone to the concert performing in half of the concert pieces joined by Kathryn Moorhead (flute and piccolo) , Peter Scholes (Clarinets), and Yoshiko Tsuruta (percussion).

Andrew Perkins’ composition “Nga Manu o te Ngahere” (Birds of the Forest) was played by Brown, Scholes and Moorhead capturing the sounds of the koauau, kiwi, kakapo tui korimakoruru and pango pango, Above the performers loomed a large projected image of a tui which helped give a sense of these birds whose sounds were conveyed by an ethereal flute and chirping cello along with an atmosphere of light and colour  provided by a bright tingling cawing music which traced the day from dawn to dusk.

The NZTrio played Patrick Shepherds  “He Awa Whiria” (The Braided River) accompanied by images of scudding clouds, alpine scenes and a river plain. Their playing initially seemed fitful and erratic matching the movement of the clouds. Then the music became more urgent  and dramatic highlighting the forces of the rain, snow and river and seemed particularly relevant in the wake of the recent storms.

Later they played Miriama Young’s “Place of Echo” where they provided the sharp sounds, spreading through the forest, backgrounded by the mummering of Thorne’s taonga puoro.

With Salina Fishers “Toroa” (Albatross) Thorne augmented his breathing with a conch while Amelia Hall tried to produce sounds by blowing through the sound holes of her violin.   They provided  the high-pitched sounds of  taonga puoro and high keyed sounds of the violin, the one heavy and throaty, the other wispy and light,  the two instruments providing a strange sense of communication.

With Thorne’s composition “Toroa me te Tohora” Hall, Brown and Thorne played like an experimental group pushing the instruments to create new and novel sounds with Thorne hitting stones, Hall rubbing the neck of her violin and Brown beating on the cellos stings and bowing across the instrument’s end spike. Their collective sounds  expressed a sense of an uneasy  mythic narrative.  

Janet Jennings’ “Urban Lives : Longfin Eels and Long-Tailed Bats” featured an innovative soundscape creating images of movement  form and colour mirroring a diverse ecosystem with many exotic sounds, notably Kathryn Moorhead’s clarinet and piccolo.

This was a landmark concert demonstrating the abilities of our contemporary composers to use music in developing awareness and understanding of environmental issues.

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Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Auckland Festival 2023

Emil and the Detectives

By Erich Kästner

Adapted for the Stage by Nicki Bloom

Directed by Andy Packer

Slingsby

Rangatira, Q Theatre

16-18 March

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Successful theatre simply involves having a good story and telling it well.  Sounds easy?  Well yes, it is.  Except it’s not.

However Slingsby, a theatrical production house out of Adelaide, have chalked up a string of successes by doing simply that.  And then exporting the outcomes.  This production, directed by Slingsby founder Andy Packer from an adaptation of the original German by Nicki Bloom, looks like setting some kind of a record for the company having already toured in Australia, USA, India, China, the UK and now it’s here in Auckland.

Erich Kästner’s novella, Emil und die Detektive, was first published in 1929 and has never been out of print.  It tells the story of a group of kids who come together to help young Emil find justice.  Very simply, Emil catches a train to visit family in the big city but all of his money is stolen enroute.  However the thief soon discovers that Emil was not such an easy target after all when a group of quick-thinking and resourceful children pool resources to track him down.  Can a bunch of kids work together to uncover and outsmart the true criminal? 

The answer is told in Slingsby’s signature intimate theatrical style.  Director Packer uses only two skilled actors, plenty of smoke and mirrors and, working with Designer Wendy Todd, has constructed a delightfully focussed way of shrinking big things out there in the real world right down to a miscroscopic children’s perspective.  Emil and the Detectives provides dark and light, intrigue and suspense, and it enthralled this opening night audience. 

The two actors are multi-skilled, the carefully outfitted stage management crew are on the ball and the lighting works well.  However the star of the opening night was undoubtedly Anna (5) who was attending her very first live theatrical performance.  At one point, and totally unexpectedly, she heard an old-style phone ringing underneath her seat.  So, doing what any five-year-old would do, she answered it and found herself in conversation with Emil on the stage.  Like a seasoned professional, Anna spoke calmly and clearly, remembered the secret children-only password and didn’t miss a beat.  The audience love it

There is more to the original novella than just a simple tale told from a child’s perspective though.  It is very carefully and subtly layered and has more than a casual link to the independent-children-versus-devious-adults genre (think Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series or even Oliver Twist).  Streetwise city kids, a hard-working single mother and Emil’s past brush with the law that all add grit and nuance to this satisfying tale.  It poses questions for children too.  How do we find our friends in the world?  How do we work together to defeat tricksters?   There is a plenty to unpack.  It is inventive, imaginative, and boldly theatrical,  not only for kids but for anyone who enjoys good storytelling – told well. 

So if you’re a teacher, see if you can get it on your class-outing list.  And if you’re a parent or a grandparent here’s your chance to go and see this show – with children!  They will be enthralled and so will you.  It is the perfect way to introduce 8-12 year-olds to the world of theatre where they may even become captured for life.

Very highly recommended.

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Auckland Arts Festival

The Big Drum Off

Rodger Fox Big Band 50^th Anniversary

The Rodger Fox Big Band

Leader Rodger Fox

With Gregg Bissonette, Dennis Chambers, Peter Erskine

Bruce Mason Centre

11 March

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

As they say, time flies when you’re enjoying yourself.  Well, time certainly flew on Saturday night and both audience and performers enjoyed themselves equally at this outstanding concert.  And, rather amazingly, jazz afficionados have been saying that about Roger Fox’s legacy … for fifty years.

Billed as the Great Drum Off, this gig brought together three of the world’s most outstanding drummers – each of whom has made his mark and left a legacy – featured in three 30-minute sets that demonstrated what they are noted for and what they do.

First up was the agile and highly innovative Greg Bissonette, making his second return visit to our shores.  His musical career is both lengthy and amazingly diverse, extending from some early work with arrangements by the legendary Maynard Ferguson through to playing double-drums with Ringo Starr’s Allrounders.  On Saturday his set ended with a funky band re-arrangement of Billy Cobham’s Stratus that left me exhausted.  I had absolutely no idea where some of the double-rhythms and contra-rhythms came from as he made his kit dance almost by itself allowing his effervescent creativity full reign until he whooped and hollered the set to a conclusion.

Then Gentleman Peter Erskine stepped up using a smaller kit, and some well-chosen words, that highlighted his and Rodger’s common interests and their mutual commitments to jazz education.  Now an Emeritus Professor at the University of Southern California, Peter has performed with countless bands in concert and studio and his percussive skills have featured on albums by artists that include Diana Krall, Queen Latifah and Linda Ronstadt as well as several classical orchestras.  But he is at his best working with a band.  ee demonstrated this again and again through some standards that began with Stan Kenton and Ferguson, and then highlighted the American big band sound.  It was all so smooth and so easy I was in awe.  For me, his final choice – Neil Hefti’s Sunday Morning – was a memorable standout.

Finally, Rodger introduced a powerhouse in the form of Dennis Chambers who barely spoke at all.  Instead he kicked straight into a fire-breathing attack on the funky classic, Cissy Strut, rolled straight into some Santana, then set up some room for the horns and guitar to wail but allowed space for his own incredible driving leadership.  Like the other two guests, Dennis has been around for a while now and he is even better at setting stages afire with his scorching chops and unshakeable groove.

Rodger was there every step of the way, adding a couple of his trademark trombone solos, every inch the masterminding band leader, casually counting the band in and keeping things very tight indeed.  Over 50 years, some of the country’s greatest players are current or former jazz students at the New Zealand School of Music where Fox teaches and the current line-up sounds as good as ever.  Acknowledging an underlying theme of education, this concert followed a workshop earlier on Saturday.

This was an intelligent jazz audience too.  When Rodger asked for someone to give him a 120-beat from their head … someone responded.  That certainly brought smiles right across the stage.

Yes, time did fly.  And people did enjoy themselves – both on the stage and in the audience.

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Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Arts Festival
Light from Tate: 1700s to Now 

Auckland Art Gallery
Until June 25

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

In the pursuit of capturing their images of the world artists have never been far from creating images where  light plays a part in their real, metaphysical and metaphorical depictions. The importance of the sun as life giver and symbol of the divine has been around for centuries and the allegory of  Plato’s Cave whereby individuals discern only the shadowy  images cast by light stresses the importance of light in the creation of art works.

The exhibition “Light from Tate: 1700s to Now” touches on this  philosophical enquiry into the nature of light as well as its  historical, scientific and aesthetic aspects.

The exhibition  featuring more than 70 artworks from the Tate Gallery outlines how artists have responded in their search for, and the use of light over the last three hundred years across different media. The show also provides several mini-exhibitions such as the group of nineteenth century English landscape artists including Turner, Constable and John Linnell. Then there is a boutique show of Impressionism with Monet, Sisley and Seurat and one of German abstract photography of the early twentieth century as well as an impressive group of Josef Albers’ works.

It was only since the Renaissance that artists focussed on light to major extent. Leonardo da Vinci  studied the  optical properties of light and showed how light could  be used to create perspectives and shapes. Later artists such as Georges de La Tour used light to create dramatic scenes in which there were a few defined light sources while  Vermeer made light a vital part of his paintings.

One of the first works in the exhibition is almost the antithesis of the other works in the show. This is Anish Kapoor’s sculptural work which features a velvety black interior from which it seems all light has been sucked out  leaving a void.

In contrast to the Kapoor are four Turners, which, from a distance look like abstract paintings but closer inspection reveals their religious and spiritual connections with “The Angel Standing in the Sun”.  The landscape tradition is referenced with “Sun Setting over Lake” and there is a  scientific basis to “Light and Colour (Goethe’s Theory)”.

Other early nineteenth century works include the dramatic “Destruction of Pompeii” by John Martin and Joseph Wright of Derby’s “Vesuvius in Eruption” where the artist uses both the light from the eruption and the moonlight to illuminate the landscape and the shimmering sea.

There are also a few John Constable’s such as “Harwich Lighthouse” where we see the artists interest in painting aspects of light with his focus on .cloud formations which take up two thirds of the view.

The group of Impressionist works show the way these artists aimed at capturing the fleeting effect of light on scenes and objects. In Monets “Japanese Bridge the light has infiltrated the greens and blues making them glow like some  molecular form or his “The Seine at  Port-Villez where the light has seems to have washed out the colours.

As if in a musing on the Impressionists. Yokai Kusama’s “The Passing Winter” creates a  contemporary Impressionist work with light, colour, reflection and repetition and Pae White also has a take on Impressionism with her “Morceau Accrochant”, a three-dimensional shape of dense varied colours like a flock of birds or flurry of leaves.

One aspect that really none of the art works address is the prismatic qualities of light. The one work which  touches on this is Bridget Riley’s “Natajara” with its sliced-up slivers of primary colours which jostle and flicker on the canvas.

There are several contemporary light installations which explore various dimensions and qualities of light from Dan Flavin’s  elegant homage to the skyscraper and Tatlin to James Turrell’s “Raemar Blue” in a meditative space, There is also Liliane Lij’s “Light Reflections where two globes rotate over a surface referencing planetary movements and the role of the sun.

Danish artist Olafur Eliasson is included with two impressive works. One is “Yellow versus Purple” where viewers walk through the rotating, coloured shapes which are at the ends of the colour wheel.  The other is “Stardust Particle” where two rotating  shapes display the aesthetic and scientific properties of light, creating a universe of light.

Accompanying the exhibition is a catalogue edited by Kerryn Greenberg, former Head of International Collection Exhibitions at Tate with a foreword by Gallery Director Kirsten Lacy

To subscribe or follow New Zealand Arts Review site – www.nzartsreview.org.

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Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Chisato Minamimura

Auckland Arts Festival

Scored in Silence

Chisato Minamimura

Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, Aotea Square
March 11,

Then Streaming on Vidzing
March 12 – 26

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

“Scored in Silence” is a solo documentary / theatre / film performance by Chisato Minamimura which tells the story of the deaf survivors of Hiroshima.

It provides a brief history of the events leading up to Japan’s involvement in World War II and the various steps taken by the American government before the dropping of the A-Bomb including the decision not to inform the Japanese of the attack and the opposition of many American scientists to the decision.

Chisato Minamimura address the audience using sign language as well as providing English language captions on the screen which also displays diagrams and images related to the event.

Additionally, even though this is a “deaf production” there is a low level soundscape which heightens the experience of the show.

While Minamimura uses sign language her hand movements and facial expressions carry an emotional dimension.

The description of the flight of the plane carrying the bomb is brilliantly conveyed with diagrammatic maps as well as graphic rendering of the plane. Minamimura acts as the  pilot, moving and  jiggling with the vibrations of the plane and these scenes are intercut with images of her as a worker in the field looking up at the plane and as individual running and working, soldiers saluting.

When the bomb drops the sound accompaniment abruptly stops and there is total silence and we are put in the place of the deaf who never heard the noise of the explosion.

Then there are images of black rain and we are bombarded with a welter of diagrammatic images of arms, legs  and hands to signify the effects of the blast.

The interviews with survivors tells of the personal and social consequences of the  aftermath, including forced sterilisation and the ongoing discrimination experienced by these isolated members of Japanese society including the story about a deaf barber who wanted to expand his business but was continually rejected for a bank loan. 

Apart from one image of the destroyed city Minamimura has not included images of the effects of the bomb or the dead, although  statements by the deaf survivors speak of seeing the dead.  

The work is a slightly surreal mixture of  theatre, dance and mime which is relentlessly engaging in its innovative and almost detached form of story-telling.

Streaming on Vidzing
Online 12 – 26 March

https://www.vidzing.tv/te-ahurei-toi-o-tamaki-or-auckland-arts-festival/e9c50adb-40a3-4028-9972-e32dbb60cf9f

If you want to subscribe or follow New Zealand Arts Review site – www.nzartsreview.org.

The “Follow button” at the bottom right will appearand clicking on that button  will allow you to follow that blog and all future posts will arrive on your email.

Or go to https://nzartsreview.org/blog/, Scroll down and click “Subscribe”

Chisato Minamimura

Auckland Arts Festival

Scored in Silence

Chisato Minamimura

Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, Aotea Square
March 11,

Then Streaming on Vidzing
March 12 – 26

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

“Scored in Silence” is a solo documentary / theatre / film performance by Chisato Minamimura which tells the story of the deaf survivors of Hiroshima.

It provides a brief history of the events leading up to Japan’s involvement in World War II and the various steps taken by the American government before the dropping of the A-Bomb including the decision not to inform the Japanese of the attack and the opposition of many American scientists to the decision.

Chisato Minamimura address the audience using sign language as well as providing English language captions on the screen which also displays diagrams and images related to the event.

Additionally, even though this is a “deaf production” there is a low level soundscape which heightens the experience of the show.

While Minamimura uses sign language her hand movements and facial expressions carry an emotional dimension.

The description of the flight of the plane carrying the bomb is brilliantly conveyed with diagrammatic maps as well as graphic rendering of the plane. Minamimura acts as the  pilot, moving and  jiggling with the vibrations of the plane and these scenes are intercut with images of her as a worker in the field looking up at the plane and as individual running and working, soldiers saluting.

When the bomb drops the sound accompaniment abruptly stops and there is total silence and we are put in the place of the deaf who never heard the noise of the explosion.

Then there are images of black rain and we are bombarded with a welter of diagrammatic images of arms, legs  and hands to signify the effects of the blast.

The interviews with survivors tells of the personal and social consequences of the  aftermath, including forced sterilisation and the ongoing discrimination experienced by these isolated members of Japanese society including the story about a deaf barber who wanted to expand his business but was continually rejected for a bank loan. 

Apart from one image of the destroyed city Minamimura has not included images of the effects of the bomb or the dead, although  statements by the deaf survivors speak of seeing the dead.  

The work is a slightly surreal mixture of  theatre, dance and mime which is relentlessly engaging in its innovative and almost detached form of story-telling.

Streaming on Vidzing
Online 12 – 26 March

https://www.vidzing.tv/te-ahurei-toi-o-tamaki-or-auckland-arts-festival/e9c50adb-40a3-4028-9972-e32dbb60cf9f

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Requiem: Victoria Kelly, Simon O’Neill, Jayne Tankersley, Ruby Solly

Requiem

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra

Auckland Town Hall

March 11

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The major work of the APO’s latest concert as part of the Auckland Arts Festival was Victoria Kelly’s “Requiem”, a reworking of to traditional form but with a distinctly New Zealand voice.

The evening was preceded by several other pieces including the opening work “Ātahu”  composed by Ruby Solly and performed by Maianginui, a group comprised  of four women who use various performance methods such as poi and  taonga pūoro.

“Ātahu” was a reworking of the tale  of Tinirau and Kae,.which is an origin story which features a group of Māori women, led by Hineteiwaiwa who need to identify the tohunga Kae by making him smile. They try all sorts of performance types, including haka and various taonga pūoro to get him to smile and reveal his crooked tooth, so they can identify him, and kill him for a previous misdemeanour.

The work fuses orchestral music and Māori with a mix of eerie and celebratory sounds where the two groups often merged and then at other times there were distinct contrasts.

This was followed by  Claude Debussy; s “Nocturnes”, three short symphonic poems which are depictions of various scenes which are also descriptions of mental or dreamlike states. So, they describe the beauty of Nature as well as the overwhelming sensations of the  reverie.

The first movement  “Nuage” painted an  impressionist scene with indistinct colours while also giving the impression of changing states of slumber, dreaming and bliss with conductor Vincent Hardaker acting as a dream merchant, shaping dreams and nightmares.

 Fêtes with its dance rhythms suggest a more dramatic landscape with threatening clouds, lightning and thunder which also alluded to the notion of an awakening from a terrible dream with Hardaker taking on a more fiendish approach to the music.. 

With Sirènes the Luminata Voices Women’s Chamber Choir created images of the sea sparkling in the moonlight, and the alluring song of the Sirens which suggested a troubled sleep with the textures of the voices and instruments blending sublimely and choir taking on a heavenly sound .

The Mahler song “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” opened the second half of the concert and was an ideal introduction to the “Requiem”. In the song the singer tells of having  become lost to the world saying “I really have died to the world. I have died to all the world’s turmoil, and I rest in a silent realm. I live in solitude in my heaven, In my love, in my song.”

Simon O’Neill sang it beautifully with long, unfolding, unhurried melodic lines along with the slow-moving harmonies of the orchestra,

He expressed sorrow and loneliness accompanied by the woodwind which added some emotional richness. At time he was the man crying in the wilderness while the shimmering strings hinted at an enveloping darkness.

Victoria Kelly’s Requiem has very little darkness to it. She used  poems by prominent New Zealand poets – Bill Manhire, Sam Hunt, Chloe Honum, Ian Wedde and James K Baxter to provide various  narratives with the writers contemplating the vastness and minutae of nature and the world.  There were continual references to light and the sky which spoke of an awakening rather than death.

After an orchestral opening which had a hint of taonga pūoro Simon O Neill’s anguished voice led us through Bill Manhire’s “Prayer” accompanied by some unsettling music from the orchestra. This was followed by the Sam Hunt poem “Requiem” with images of the lighthouse and a metaphorical lighthouse keeper who controls the light of the heavens. In a touch of theatricality the song was enhanced by a bright spotlight illuminating the stage.

The Luminata choir, joined by the Lux Singers provided additional depth to the work as the poet’s friend  ascended to the “the polished stars” accompanied by the jangling sounds of the xylophone, gong and tubular bells.

Unfortunately, while O’Neill’s voice was ideal for singing the Mahler it lacked the tone needed to fully illuminate the poems.

The other three songs  by Chloe Honum, Ian Wedde and James K Baxter were sung by soprano  Jayne Tankersley where her voice contrasted and merged with that of the choir. Occasionally the emotional  connection with the text of the poems was lost, swamped by the music which brilliantly created images of the sea / sky / earth interface with piercing woodwind, dramatic percussion and enveloping strings.

If you want to subscribe or follow New Zealand Arts Review site – www.nzartsreview.org.

The “Follow button” at the bottom right will appearand clicking on that button  will allow you to follow that blog and all future posts will arrive on your email.

Or go to https://nzartsreview.org/blog/, Scroll down and click “Subscribe”

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Requiem: Victorira Kelly, Simon O’Neill. Jayne Tankersley, Ruby Solly

Auckland Arts Festival

Requiem

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra

Auckland Town Hall

March 11

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The major work of the APO’s latest concert as part of the Auckland Arts Festival was Victoria Kelly’s “Requiem”, a reworking of to traditional form but with a distinctly New Zealand voice.

The evening was preceded by several other pieces including the opening work “Ātahu”  composed by Ruby Solly and performed by Maianginui, a group comprised  of four women who use various performance methods such as poi and  taonga pūoro.

“Ātahu” was a reworking of the tale  of Tinirau and Kae,.which is an origin story which features a group of Māori women, led by Hineteiwaiwa who need to identify the tohunga Kae by making him smile. They try all sorts of performance types, including haka and various taonga pūoro to get him to smile and reveal his crooked tooth, so they can identify him, and kill him for a previous misdemeanour.

The work fuses orchestral music and Māori with a mix of eerie and celebratory sounds where the two groups often merged and then at other times there were distinct contrasts.

This was followed by  Claude Debussy; s “Nocturnes”, three short symphonic poems which are depictions of various scenes which are also descriptions of mental or dreamlike states. So, they describe the beauty of Nature as well as the overwhelming sensations of the  reverie.

The first movement  “Nuage” painted an  impressionist scene with indistinct colours while also giving the impression of changing states of slumber, dreaming and bliss with conductor Vincent Hardaker acting as a dream merchant, shaping dreams and nightmares.

 Fêtes with its dance rhythms suggest a more dramatic landscape with threatening clouds, lightning and thunder which also alluded to the notion of an awakening from a terrible dream with Hardaker taking on a more fiendish approach to the music.. 

With Sirènes the Luminata Voices Women’s Chamber Choir created images of the sea sparkling in the moonlight, and the alluring song of the Sirens which suggested a troubled sleep with the textures of the voices and instruments blending sublimely and choir taking on a heavenly sound .

The Mahler song “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” opened the second half of the concert and was an ideal introduction to the “Requiem”. In the song the singer tells of having  become lost to the world saying “I really have died to the world. I have died to all the world’s turmoil, and I rest in a silent realm. I live in solitude in my heaven, In my love, in my song.”

Simon O’Neill sang it beautifully with long, unfolding, unhurried melodic lines along with the slow-moving harmonies of the orchestra,

He expressed sorrow and loneliness accompanied by the woodwind which added some emotional richness. At time he was the man crying in the wilderness while the shimmering strings hinted at an enveloping darkness.

Victoria Kelly’s Requiem has very little darkness to it. She used  poems by prominent New Zealand poets – Bill Manhire, Sam Hunt, Chloe Honum, Ian Wedde and James K Baxter to provide various  narratives with the writers contemplating the vastness and minutae of nature and the world.  There were continual references to light and the sky which spoke of an awakening rather than death.

After an orchestral opening which had a hint of taonga pūoro Simon O Neill’s anguished voice led us through Bill Manhire’s “Prayer” accompanied by some unsettling music from the orchestra. This was followed by the Sam Hunt poem “Requiem” with images of the lighthouse and a metaphorical lighthouse keeper who controls the light of the heavens. In a touch of theatricality the song was enhanced by a bright spotlight illuminating the stage.

The Luminata choir, joined by the Lux Singers provided additional depth to the work as the poet’s friend  ascended to the “the polished stars” accompanied by the jangling sounds of the xylophone, gong and tubular bells.

Unfortunately, while O’Neill’s voice was ideal for singing the Mahler it lacked the tone needed to fully illuminate the poems.

The other three songs  by Chloe Honum, Ian Wedde and James K Baxter were sung by soprano  Jayne Tankersley where her voice contrasted and merged with that of the choir. Occasionally the emotional  connection with the text of the poems was lost, swamped by the music which brilliantly created images of the sea / sky / earth interface with piercing woodwind, dramatic percussion and enveloping strings.

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Blanc de Blanc Encore

Strut & Fret

Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent

Aotea Square

9 – 26 March

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Cabaret Lives!

Regular Festivalgoers may recall Strut & Fret’s initial iterations of Blanc de Blanc from 2019.  Well it’s back.  It’s bigger and it’s better.

This show (cos that’s what it essentially is) first saw the light of day a few years back, has come a long way from its Fringe origins and now thoroughly deserves its place in the contemporary mainstream.  Fret & Strut toured the original extensively, took on board a wide range of feedback as well as their own analysis and then gave it a comprehensive brush-up. 

The end result is something that’s tighter, slicker and reeks of sophistication. It has become entertainment for everyone with a capital E.  Along with the black, white and bling aesthetic, bubbles are everywhere and allusions to circussurface constantly, and Blanc de Blanc still managesto reference olde-world burlesque and cabaret, while remaining firmly implanted in a contemporary  world.

Somewhere in its dark and sometimes murky past New Zealand devised its own form of ‘cabaret’.  For a very long time too.  With only a handful of notable exceptions, NZ cabaret bore no relation to an artform devised and practiced elsewhere, especially in Europe.  Instead of intimate musical and other entertainment for ‘friendly’ audiences in small smokey rooms, ‘cabarets’ in New Zealand were really just big public dances with a live band before rock n roll arrived.  Nor did we grasp ‘burlesque’ as an artform.  Instead, we discarded satire, social commentary and often brilliantly contrived dance for a cheaper, sleazier version that tended to feature a fair bit of skin instead. And we consigned burlesque to Gentlemen’s Clubs (and even gentlemen’s clubs) largely because of a then-prevalence middle-class English faux social values.  The two terms followed similar paths in Australia.

However, things started to change in Europe during the latter half of the twentieth century.  Cabaret started to merge with burlesque, particularly in the Parisian and Berlin hangouts of the 1980s.  Magic acts, acrobatics and circus started to blend into music, dance and extravagant costuming.  Yes, skin still featured, but spectacular entertainment that appealed to a lot more people had become the name of the game.  Think David Bowie or even that aptly named music-theatre piece featuring Liza.  We were in the punk period.

And the burgeoning Fringe scene that drew the twentieth century to a close was the perfect time for contemporary cabaret to start intruding on the antipodes.

Today we have an artform that reaches far beyond overly serious gents with white beards satirising Weimar politics of the 1920s and reaches a post-punk generation that is a tad older than it was when the twentieth century drew to a close.   Yet one that, somehow, still reaches the Tik Tok generation and Auckland’s opening night audience was a microcosm of this melange.  Not family-fare admittedly (it’s all the alcohol y’know), but the odd suggestion of a flaccid penis beating a drum or the flash of a well-nippled breast (let’s call it a towel-tease) does more than enough to maintain interest across generations and keep one alert – just in case.  And it comes to us from Australia.

Because that is what Blanc de Blanc Encore does – it suggests, it implies, it teases and it is all done with outstanding showmanship that keeps its audience constantly entertained.  Then it suddenly breaks all the rules and darts off to introduce the unexpected.  No spoiler alert here, just suffice to say things may happen right in front of you.  Or on your lap, Or above you.  Or behind you.  Unexpected things.

However it’s not until the second act that things really take off.  Literally and well as figuratively – and in more than one sense too.  For me, that was when the term ‘circus-cabaret’ roared in from my sub-conscious.  Acrobatics, aerobatics, side-show thrills, a quick segway linking a torch singer to a tad of magic, some pure athleticism and you’ve got the lot.  Not entirely sure about the girl in a dress doing fairly mechanical rhythmic things to a bloke towards the end, but I can live with that.  Oh yes, there were feathers too.  Lots of feathers.  Feathers everywhere.  And even a reveal delivered by parachute.

Woven between these seemingly unrelated series of acts and cameos however, is an underlying appreciation for, and acknowledgement of, some of the finest traditions of cabaret.  Subtle and almost missable, but there all the same.  Congratulations to the company on that score.

Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention – the spiegeltent is the perfect setting for Blanc de Blanc Encore.  Its Victorian-styled stained glass mirrors and circular stage not only acknowledge the genre’s antecedents, but are an ideal setting for a fast moving show with a French vibe that breaks rules.  Remember to stock up on bubbles though. They feature throughout and the (surprisingly tiny) bar gets pretty busy during interval.

And that’s what we’ve got with Blanc de Blanc Encore in 2023.  Strut & Fret may have learned their craft on Australia’s fringe circuit but their 21st century production line has matured this show into a slick, highly-professional circus cabaret with a wide appeal.  Recommended.

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Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Arts Festival

Revisor

A Kidd Pivot Production, created by Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young

Aotea Centre

March 9 – 11

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

In “Revisor” choreographer Crystal Pite  and theatre-maker Jonathon Young bring together the worlds of theatre and dance with Pite’s extraordinary dancers performing to the voices of Young’s actors.

It’s a biting cabaret-like satire revealing the corruption and absurdity within a bureaucratic institution and is based on “The General Inspector” by 19th century Russian playwright Nikolai Gogol.

The director of a provincial branch of a governmental institution is made aware of the arrival of an inspector. He mistakes this inspector for a low ranking official who is actually there to move a comma within a report. The impostor lets them  believe he is who he isn’t with a bureaucratic and absurd outcome.

The dancers are impelled by the edgy music (Owen Belton, Alessandro Juliani and Meg Roe) and the lip-synced dialogue, some of it by Jonathan Young but  most of it taken from the play.

The dancers responses and movements are exact and definite, reacting to the words and music as through articulated mechanical figures, their arms, legs and bodies contorted and gyrating to the words and sounds. At other times the dancers seem more reptilian both individually  and collectively as they slide and slither across the stage.

The opening set which is of the office of the Director of the Complex features his desk around which much of the action occurs, referencing one of Pite’s previous works at the Festival, “The Statement”, where four characters around a boardroom table are tasked by an  unseen power to fuel a conflict in another country.

Much of the music recalls the sounds of another Pite work, “Grace Engine”, performed  at a Wellington festival which used an electronic soundscape to provide the dancers with the impetus to dance.

Pite takes every simple movement and turns it into an elaborate gesture and each gesture finds a responding gesture from another dancers so there are waves of movement and reaction which spreads between dancers and across the stage in some wonderful displays of bodily movement, dance and mime.

All of the dancers provided remarkable performances with a couple of  standout displays.  Gregory Lau (The Revisor) was transfixing  in his dancing to the repeated and reworked phrase “the subject is moved” while Rakeem Hardy as Postmaster Wieland was startling in his convulsive exposure of the Revisor’s true identity

This is inventive dance at its best with surprise, drama and wit in each of the danced interactions. There is a lot of intense physical dance as well as sequences of rapid angular movements, with inventive duos and solo’s, their dancing emphasising the notions of action and reaction, tension and release.

The work is carried along largely by the narrator (Meg Roe) who provides some of the story as well as describing in detail what the dancers are doing in terms of their interactions with each other. Then at other times she becomes the persona of Crystal Pite giving choreographic directions.

The lighting was an essential component of the work offering  dance-like interactions. It was cleverly used both in terms of spotlighting the individuals and groups of dancers  but also to highlight the structures and shapes of bodies.

This is probably one of the best things on at the festival this year, but hurry there are only two more performances.

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