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Rocky Horror Show: An Anecdotal Soundtrack of my Life

Rocky Horror Show

By Richard O’Brian

GMG and Trafalgar Entertainment

Director Christopher Luscombe

Set Hugh Durrant

Costumes Sue Blane

Choreographer Nathan M Wright

Lighting Nick Richings

Sound Gareth Owen

With (alphabetical) Laura Bird, Haley Flaherty, James Bisp, Kristian Lavercombe, Ryan Carter-Wilson, Daisy Steer, Stephen Webb, Morgan Jackson, Edward Bullingham, Jesse Chidera, Nathan Zach Johnson, Tyla Dee Nurden, Bethany Amber Perrins

Civic Theatre, Auckland 26 Feb – 9 Mar 2026

Then Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch

St James Theatre, Wellington

Reviewer Malcolm Calder

27 Feb 2026

Many words have been spilled detailing the Rocky Horror story, some with a little licence, so I won’t reiterate them here.  Rather, what follows are a couple of more personal anecdotal recollections.  Well, maybe a couple of reflections towards the end.

When in my early teens I joined a bikie gang hooning around the streets of Hamilton and haunting bars on weekends.   A pushbike gang.  In milk bars.  And most Saturdays we would go to the ‘pitchers’ at the Embassy ‘pitcher’ Theatre – especially for the b&w serials which updated and changed weekly.  The Phantom, The Lone Ranger, The Roy Rogers Show with Trigger, etc.  Our parents were not exactly supportive of our adventures but tolerated them mainly after trotting out the usual parental missives of the day … you know, smarten yourself up son, wash your face, get a haircut, and taking the mudguards off does NOT necessarily make your bike go faster!  But we did.  And maybe even managed the very occasional haircut from the apprentice barber next to the Embassy (remember, these were pre- Beatles days.

Fast forward a dozen or more years, by which time I was living in the UK and had developed something of an interest in ‘legit’ theatre.  A friend convinced me to accompany him to the ‘veddy, veddy proper’ Royal Court Theatre in Chelsea’s Sloan Square.  Apparently a budding youngish Australian theatrical tyro named Jim Sharman, already with productions of Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar to his name, was putting together an experimental and very avant garde piece called They Came from Denton High.  It had been originally devised by an actor no one had heard of called Richard O’Brien, and was planned as only a very brief season at the tiny, semi-round, and recently-renovated roof space of the Royal Court known affectionately as simply ’The Upstairs’. 

There were heaps of improvisation, script changes, musical variations, some additions, some deletions and, just prior to opening, Sharman felt that Rocky Horror Show better aligned with its intermeshed themes of transvestism, a satirical take on horror movies and science fiction all built around a full-on rock score.  My friend and I were both becoming enamoured of the new, the daring and the provocatively different and to say we were blown away would be an understatement.  This show ventured where theatre had rarely been before.  It was rough, raw and totally outrageous.  I remember being particularly enthralled by the pure power and presence of Tim Curry and a by the omnipresence of a rather scrawny little bloke playing Riff Raff.  Richard O’Brien we discovered later.

Many others were similarly excited of course.  Rocky Horror Show had somehow struck exactly the right chord at exactly the right time in 1970s Britain.   Fairly rapidly, various eminent British producers saw its commercial potential, it was upscaled to a more proscenium-arch staging and the rest, as they say, is history.

Subsequently I moved onto various humble roles in the industry and have been fortunate to have either seen, or hosted, many productions of the Rocky Horror Show across the US, Australia and New Zealand as well as Europe.  In several different languages. 

Fast forward a few more years and I even recall convincing a couple of rather cynical American friends to accompany me to the recently-released Rocky Horror Picture Show at a drive-in near Philadelphia in 1976.  Unfortunately, that particular screening cooincided with a rather heavy snowstorm and both wipers and the plug-in heater-on-a-pole had to work overtime.  Needless to say, the car bounced up and down more than a bit and my American friends enrolled on the spot as members of the international Rocky Horror Show cheer squad.

Or, a few years on again, an Australian colleague’s costume hire business in Adelaide avoided bankruptcy only as a direct result of seemingly endless late-night, dress-up singalongs at the Goodwood (‘pitcher’) Theatre.

I even recall seeing a stage production in Barcelona where the audience knew all the words.  In English!

Anyway, I digress.  Fast forward quite a few more years and I returned to Hamilton where, celebrating Rocky Horror’s 50th anniversary, the Hamilton Operatic Society staged a remarkably workmanlike pro-am production under the capable guidance of David Sidwell.  Initially I felt the bronze statue of Riff Raff in Victoria Street sort of acknowledged this and I thought how kind of the city fathers to allow some well-made street art.  However, a little research revealed, only then, that Richard O’Brien hailed from Hamilton.  I had previously known of him only as an actor chasing his dream in London and had always presumed him to be English.  I had no idea.

However … there’s more.  The Embassy Theatre is now long gone and so is part of the block adjacent – which used to be a barbershop.  That is where statue stood … on the very spot where the apprentice barber had cut my hair, and that of the entire bikie gang, all those years ago!

Today my understanding is that Richard is now a Patron of HOS and the statue has been relocated to the recently- opened new BNZ Waikato Regional Theatre.  How appropriate.

This Rocky Horror Show has a crispness and a professionalism that will linger.  It extended from before the house lights went down, right through to when they went up again.

This was a cast of strong experienced actors rather than one padded out with soap stars, rock singers and ‘personalities’ as has sometimes been the case elsewhere.

Laura Bird’s opening Science Fiction – Double Feature. backed by a strong, tight and semi-visible band under Adam Smith, sets the scene and made one immediately sit up and think ‘wow this is serious stuff’.  She was followed by the Brad and Janet’s Damnit Janet with a Janet (Haley Lafferty) who bore an uncanny (if unintentional) resemblance to a certain Deputy Mayor!

From there it … well it just flowed.  James Bisp gave us a surprisingly strong Brad, Stephen Webb an even stronger Frank N Furter, and Kristian Lavercombe (Welsh-born but we’ll claim him as ‘ours’) a Narrator that was deliciously nuanced, through to the dynamically scene-stealing Eddie (Edward Bullingham) and a truly professional ensemble.  That showed everywhere.  In spades.

This current production of Rocky Horror Show goes on to Christchurch and Wellington after its Auckland season and that is to be applauded.  In fact the Civic, and perhaps other venues too, has been looking and feeling a little forlorn of late and to see a full-on high-calibre British music-theatre production on its stage is something to be savoured.  So congratulations to the producers on this venture.  Let’s hope there’s more to come.

A delightful ending to the evening too when elder statesman Richard O’Brien was introduced to the stage post-curtain to rapturous applause, and who then brought on Little Nell Campbell, the original Columbine back in 1973.

I can return my outfit to the costume hire now.

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Ann Lee: Prophet or Charlatan

John Daly-Peoples

Amanda Seyfried as Ann Lee

The Testament of Ann Lee

Director, Mona Fastvold

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The Testaments of Ann Lee comes with excellent credentials having been written by Mona Fastvold and her partner Brady Corbet, with whom she co-wrote The Brutalist which was based on the life of émigré architect Marcel Breuer. That film was a metaphor for the struggles of an artist in post-war America. Testament follows the life of Shaker founder Ann Lee and is a metaphor for religious and social change in  pre and post Revolutionary America

It is an earnest attempt to give Ann Lee her place in history as a major religious figure who endured religious persecution in 18th-century England for her position as a female preacher as well as in America where she and the Shaker  movement were seen as unpatriotic pacifists.

The early American Shakers were known  for their skill in what is now seen as stylish,  minimalist furniture and their approach to simple architecture and there are sequences of constructing buildings and simple objects but not much about the tenets of the religion

Lee is played by Amanda Seyfried,  with Lewis Pullman as her brother William and Christopher Abbott as her  husband Abraham, who fathers her four children, all of whom die in infancy. Their deaths probably affected her, contributing to her aversion to marriage and sexual activity, influencing the subsequent Shaker celibacy doctrine. 

Director Mona Fastvold is great at meaningful close-ups and handles the dance sequences as if they were only part of this religion/cult which has any merit or meaning. In these dramatic Broadway musical – like sequences there is lot of shaking, shivering, hand clapping and foot stomping ranging from some ecstatic dancing in her early Manchester days where the dancers look to be on acid trips to the more sedate Shaker dances the groups still perform

While the film has obvious good intentions, illuminating the history of Ann Lee and her contribution to American religious history it can also  seen a cautionary tale about the dangers of being  captured  by religious leaders and ideology. The dangers of believing what self -declared prophets tell you, believing in visions and biblical interpretations. The film demonstrates how people can be sucked into religions or cults based on false information and interpretations.

Maybe audiences know about the revolt and reforms of religion in eighteenth century. Europe and the growth of alternative faiths and religious leaders such the Methodist Movement with John Wesley and early feminists like Selina Hastings, the Countess of Huntingdon, but the film provides little about what Ann Lee was reacting  against.

While we see Ann Lee commanding groups of people we don’t get a sense of her charisma or oratory skills and her occasional  visions of deities and paradise make her out to be more of a charlatan than prophet.

The  big unanswered question looms over all the intense close-ups and hectic dance sequences is What is Ann Lee’s testament? What is her way to save souls.  –  celibacy, public acknowledgment of sins and  misdeeds as well as dancing – I could go with the dancing.

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Reviews, News and Commentary

Ann Lee: Prophet or Charlatan

John Daly-Peoples

The Testament of Ann Lee

Director, Mona Fastvold

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The Testaments of Ann Lee comes with excellent credentials having been written by Mona Fastvold and her partner Brady Corbet, with whom she co-wrote The Brutalist which was based on the life of émigré architect Marcel Breuer. That film was a metaphor for the struggles of an artist in post-war America. Testament follows the life of Shaker founder Ann Lee and is a metaphor for religious and social change in  pre and post Revolutionary America

It is an earnest attempt to give Ann Lee her place in history as a major religious figure who endured religious persecution in 18th-century England for her position as a female preacher as well as in America where she and the Shaker  movement were seen as unpatriotic pacifists.

The early American Shakers were known  for their skill in what is now seen as stylish,  minimalist furniture and their approach to simple architecture and there are sequences of constructing buildings and simple objects but not much about the tenets of the religion

Lee is played by Amanda Seyfried,  with Lewis Pullman as her brother William and Christopher Abbott as her  husband Abraham, who fathers her four children, all of whom die in infancy. Their deaths probably affected her, contributing to her aversion to marriage and sexual activity, influencing the subsequent Shaker celibacy doctrine. 

Director Mona Fastvold is great at meaningful close-ups and handles the dance sequences as if they were only part of this religion/cult which has any merit or meaning. In these dramatic Broadway musical – like sequences there is lot of shaking, shivering, hand clapping and foot stomping ranging from some ecstatic dancing in her early Manchester days where the dancers look to be on acid trips to the more sedate Shaker dances the groups still perform

While the film has obvious good intentions, illuminating the history of Ann Lee and her contribution to American religious history it can also  seen a cautionary tale about the dangers of being  captured  by religious leaders and ideology. The dangers of believing what self -declared prophets tell you, believing in visions and biblical interpretations. The film demonstrates how people can be sucked into religions or cults based on false information and interpretations.

Maybe audiences know about the revolt and reforms of religion in eighteenth century. Europe and the growth of alternative faiths and religious leaders such the Methodist Movement with John Wesley and early feminists like Selina Hastings, the Countess of Huntingdon, but the film provides little about what Ann Lee was reacting  against.

While we see Ann Lee commanding groups of people we don’t get a sense of her charisma or oratory skills and her occasional  visions of deities and paradise make her out to be more of a charlatan than prophet.

The  big unanswered question looms over all the intense close-ups and hectic dance sequences is What is Ann Lee’s testament? What is her way to save souls.  –  celibacy, public acknowledgment of sins and  misdeeds as well as dancing – I could go with the dancing.

John Daly-Peoples
Arts Writer / Arts Consultant
Arts Editor, NZ Arts Review

Reviews. www.nzartsreview.org
Archive Reviews. www.nbr.co.nz/author/john-daly-peoples

15 Mt Pleasant Rd, Mt Eden
Auckland 1024
Ph 09 630 2837
Mob 021 028 26524

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The Europa Film Festival

John Daly-Peoples

Damiano Michieletto’s Primavera,

Europa Film Festival

Bridgeway Cinemas, Auckland
Thu 19 Feb – Wed 4 March

John Daly-Peoples

The Europa Film Festival opens with Testament of Ann Lee, an ambitious musical drama that premiered in competition at the Venice International Film Festival, earning one of the festival’s longest standing ovations.  

Featuring a Golden Globe-nominated performance from Amanda Seyfried, the film presents a portrait of Ann Lee, founder of the religious Shakers movement, reimagining female leadership, faith and rebellion through unconventional cinematic and musical forms.  

The program spotlights new works from some of Europe’s most critically acclaimed filmmakers, whose influence continues to shape contemporary cinema.  

Lav Diaz’s  Magellan

Locarno Leopard of Honour recipient Lav Diaz presents Magellan, a historical epic tracing the Portuguese explorer’s final voyage while interrogating the moral cost of colonial ambition, starring Gael García Bernal.  

French provocateur Quentin Dupieux returns with The Piano Accident, a satire on digital fame and spectacle, starring Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Colour) as an influencer famed for performing outrageous stunt videos because she cannot feel pain. 

Academy Award–winner László Nemes presents Orphan, a historical drama set in post-1956 Hungary that explores intergenerational trauma and patriarchal power, following a teenage boy confronting a violent surrogate father. 

Several of the films look at artists, shifting focus from public myth to private experience.  

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Agnieszka Holland presents Franz, a kaleidoscopic portrait of surrealist writer Franz Kafka, moving between eras to examine his enduring cultural legacy. It is a biopic of the author described as, non-linear, and free-wheeling film with a strong  visual style.  

Chopin, a Sonata in Paris, directed by Michał Kwieciński, follows composer Frédéric Chopin’s formative years after his move to Paris in the 1830s.  

Directed by Fabienne Godet, The One I Loved  recounts the tumultuous true love story of Simone Signoret and Yves Montand, a relationship shaped by artistic ambition, public scrutiny and Montand’s notorious affair with Marilyn Monroe.  

Damiano Michieletto presents Primavera, set within Venice’s Ospedale della Pietà, where music, discipline and desire intersect under the mentorship of Antonio Vivaldi. This is  the same venue for the New Zealand National Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale featuring works by New Zealand artist Fiona Pardington.

From acclaimed director Maryam Touzani (The Blue Caftan), comes Calle Málaga, a touching and life-affirming drama about age, independence and unexpected romance starring Almodóvar veteran Carmen Maura.  

Produced by Natalie Portman, Arco is a spectacular Golden Globe nominated animated adventure set in the year 2075 follows a young girl named Iris who discovers a boy in a rainbow suit has crash-landed near her home from a far-distant future. 

Karoline Herfurth’s Wunderschöner  interrogates beauty standards, ageing and personal autonomy.  Five women in Berlin: Frauke (Martina Gedeck) is approaching 60 and feels bored in her marriage. Julie (Emilia Schüle) is just under 25 and has spent the last few years working successfully as a model until her «look» suddenly falls out of favour. After Sonja’s (Karoline Herfurth) third pregnancy, it no longer looks the way she would like it to. Vicky (Nora Tschirner), a German teacher, does not want to commit to a relationship, and student Leyla (Dilara Aylin Ziem) is bullied because of her weight.

Set against the backdrop of a Transylvanian wedding in 1980, Hungarian Wedding combines romance and social satire, richly infused with traditional Hungarian folk music and dance.  

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Trent Dalton’s “Love Stories”

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Trent Dalton, Love Stories

Based on the book by Trent Dalton
Additional Writing and Story: Trent Dalton and Fiona Franzmann
Adaptor: Tim McGarry
Choreographer & Movement Director Nerida Matthaei
Associate Director Ngoc Phan
Set & Costume Design Renee Mulder
Lighting Design Ben Hughes
Video Design and Cinematographer Craig Wilkinson
Composition & Sound Design Stephen Francis

Civic Theatre

October 17

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Before heading off to see Trent Daltons “Love Stories” a quick survey of what love is was in order. First stop would be Shakespeare, and he almost nails it with

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind” from a Midsummers Night Dream

The audience filled the Civic Theatre and on stage all we see is a panorama of the audience looking back at ourselves. All of those people who know about their own encounters with love. They are the mass of humanity who are hoping to find out the truth / answer to the eternal question. – What is love?. And each one of them knows what it is. Each one can tell their own story

And then scrolling across the screen are the answers we could give, all provided by previous audience members

LOVE IS

Lasting the distance. Even when you think you can’t do it.

The perfect coffee with crema on Sunday morning

Saying sorry and meaning it

Being confident in the silent moment

Magical; poetic, sometimes messy

And dozens more some profound, some very personal, some cliched

Trent Dalton spent two months in 2021 gathering stories on his 1960’s blue Olivetti typewriter, on a prominent street corner in Brisbane’s CBD. He had sign which read “Sentimental writer collecting love stories. Do you have one to share” Speaking with Australians from all walks of life, he received hundreds of them.

The show opened with Jean- Benoit and his drumming as he introduced the show and it closes with his taking us backstage through to a simple doorway which led us back out of the theatrical world of make believe into the real world.

The dozen actors who swarmed the stage enacting the stories, some lasting a few minutes, other only a few brief moments created a topography of love with its range of, stories, anecdotes and remembrances.

Some of the stories are profound, some of them flippant, some of them might have been written by the writers at Hallmark Cards. Other could have been written by your partner, boyfriend, girlfriend.

Director Sam Shepheard wove the various stories together, the actors changing guises as they connected and parted. Sometimes cameras made their faces balloon up large on the screen as they addressed the audience. Many of the stories are moving, rich in compassion, witty, and full of allegories.

The entire cast created impressive range of characters and encounters and there were some clever sequences – a bit of a Juliet speech, a quote from Emily Dickinson, a scientist explaining about technical aspects of dopamine

Holding much of the performance together was Jason Klarwein (the Writer / Husband) and Anna McGahan (The Wife) where the actual world of the couple seems at odds with his accounts of the people from the street with their passionate, flawed and intermingled lives.

And there are several life stories all woven together such as a film segment delivered by Joshua Creamer, a barrister and human rights activist who not only tells his personal story but also the story of land rights, family, and his identity as an Aboriginal man.

There is also the Asian woman Sakuri Tomi whose story is trapped inside a nightmare is told in several vignettes.

The video montages combined with live video feed help create a dynamic flow and the choreography of Nerida Matthaei adds to this dynamism which works brilliantly in sequences like the State of Origin game.

While it’s not in the play they could have used Marilyn Munroe phlegmatic quote about love –  “If you can make a woman laugh, you can make her do anything.

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Auckland Philharmonia’s Enigma

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Enigma

Auckland Philharmonia

Auckland Town Hall

March 27

Conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens

Grieg, Norwegian Dances
James MacMillan, Concerto for Orchestra ‘Ghosts’ (NZ premiere)
Elgar, Enigma Variations

On the programme for the Auckland Philharmonia’ s “Enigma” concert was a newly commissioned  work by the Scottish composer James MacMillan. His “Concerto for Orchestra” was subtitled “Ghosts” and had an enigmatic quality to it.

As the composer says of the work, “The music seems to be haunted by other, earlier musical spirits and memories,” These musical memories which creep into the composition can be seen in the reference to Beethoven’s “Ghost”  trio along with other musical references – Debussy, Scottish traditional music and an eastern musical hymn.

These musical references emerge from the composition like ghostly figures, sometimes gradually appearing, sometimes unexpectedly while some of the themes overlap.  The music is full of juxtapositions and surprises as various instruments and combinations of instruments introduce new themes and spiritedly amplify them.

The lively spirits of the opening were created by dramatic percussion and piercing brass which led to a great chattering of sounds with some eerie conversations between the strings and brass.

Throughout the work there is a sense of the instruments floating around, trying to discover and capture themes which have been lost. This floating, colliding and capturing of elusive themes creates a tension within the piece. The dramatic flourishes of percussion, the sinuous sounds of the strings as well as some jazzy sequences all add to the works restlessness and urgency.

The sounds all helped create a dreamscape of remembered, and reimagined sounds and like some ghostly figures were continually slipping and finally the wispy sounds disappear.

The piece recalls the Shakespeare line from the Tempest

The isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices

Many of the same musical ideas appear in Elgars “Enigma Variations” where various musical instruments are used to convey impression of people that were close to the composer. The one theme that is probably never heard is the one that represents the composer himself. The variations feature the composer’s own ideas about his friends and close contacts conveying their physical, psychological and spiritual personalities.

The variations with their delightful impressions include variation I said to be of his wife, has a wistful quality and  an anthem overflowing with joy but also with s hint of sadness, Variation IX Nimrod with its heavenly sounds and the violas solo in Variation VI – Ysobel

Conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens was able to ensure that each of the portraits was interpreted with the appropriate mood, pace and colour and he seemed to relish both the music and the narratives of the work and his sharp, sensitive gestures had him performing like some grand puppet master manipulating the  dozen characters of Elgar’s world.

The opening work on the programme was Grieg’s “Norwegian Dances” and Steffens was able to lead the orchestra through the spirited dances with its changing portraits of the people, the history  and landscape effortlessly, taking the orchestra from lethargic to happy and ebullient.

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Gene Kelly; A Life in Music

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Gene Kelly; A Life in Music

With the Auckland Philharmonia conducted by Neil Thomson

Auckland Town Hall

March 15

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

It was billed as Gene Kelly; A life in Music but it could equally have been called Patricia Ward Kelly; A life in Music as the show which was written by his wife was brilliantly presented as she narrated the life of the dancer with the music played by the Auckland Philharmonia along with crisp remastered clips  from his films.

The two met in the mid 1980s, when he was 73 and Patricia was a 31-year- expert on the works of Herman Melville who had never seen any of the actor/dancer’s films. He asked  her if she would work with him on his autobiography which she did, for five years.

They married when he was 77 years, and each day she documented and recoded his life, This close association with him made her the most knowledgeable person about the dancer’s career.

Her knowledge, of Gene, the music and films all merge into a superb account of Kelly’s life as well as a snapshot of American dance movies of the mid twentieth century.

Most of his iconic films were shown including scenes from Singin’ in the Rain, An American in Paris, Brigadoon, Summer Stock, Les Girls and It’s Always Fair Weather.

We saw him perform with Ginger Rogers, Leslie Caron, and Cyd Charisse as well as with an animated Jerry the Mouse getting a dance lesson from Gene Kelly in “Anchors Aweigh”.

We also get to hear the music of the great composers of the time as well -Andre Previn Lerner & Loewe, Cole Porter and the Gershwins.

We also get to appreciate the clever way in which realism and abstraction was used in  the sets. This combination created some surreal dance sequences with vivid use of colour which highlights the spectacle of the dance routines and shows how Kelly helped change the nature of dance on film with a new mode of choreography and filming.

For the introduction to the second half which featured clips from Brigadoon she had a piper stride up the aisle and then in a surprise appearance she introduced Michael Crawford of Phantom of The Opera fame, who now lives in New Zealand and who acknowledged Kelly as a major influence in getting the role.

Patricia Kelly’s  presentation brought  clever showmanship and intimacy to the evening accompanied by the Auckland Philharmonia conducted Neil Thomson.

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Belle: Spectacular and disjointed

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Belle Image. Andi Crown

Belle

A Performance of Air

Movement of the Human (MOTH)

Director / Producer, Malia Johnston

Kiri te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre

March 6 – 9

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

“Belle” had all the elements to make it a stand-out performance however it never quite managed to make it a truly  thrilling show.

The all-female cast of skilled aerialist / dancers/ singers performed a range of acts with a touch of magic and their routines were all immersed in a riotous soundscape and a remarkable light and fog environment.

Sometimes it felt a though someone had told the musicians that they only needed to play loudly and that would cover any mistakes or lack of continuity.

There was also a  lack of cohesion between the various sections or vignettes which was a major  problem. Even though the acts were spectacular, there was no sense of narrative or trajectory.

Many of the sections had a sense of cavorting angels or goddesses and this could have related to the figures and Ranginui and Papatūānuku in the digital work “Ihi” by Lisa Reihana which is in the Aotea Centre foyer.

Most of the acts were performed in a half light, with the performers often seen in silhouette. Along with the dramatic use of light this added to the drama of the performance but it also meant the audience was often not able to appreciate the athleticism of the performers.

Some of the acts were brilliant conceived with figure rising and falling from the stage and disappearing into the enveloping fog of the stage. Other sequences saw the cast using elaborate equipment such as aerial wheels and large pivoting wheels.

But the lack of interconnection and lack of coordination between the sequences and music did  a disservice to the acts and a disappointment to the audience.

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BLACK GRACE TURNS 30

John Daly-Peoples

John Daly-Peoples

‘THIS IS NOT A RETROSPECTIVE’

Auckland Town Hall

Saturday March 22,  7.30

Neil Ieremia is one of Aotearoa’s most astonishing and prolific home-based creatives. His ever-growing body of work has easily and unselfconsciously graced stages in many parts of the world and he is rapidly becoming a one-man export machine. In part this is because of his perfectionism that never forgets the past, stands firmly rooted in the present and yet finds time to seriously address the future – sometimes simultaneously.

His works combine different personal histories, different body shapes and abilities, and different musical and dance backgrounds.

May of his works have a strong musical underpinning that ranges from pop to hip hop, traditional to church, coupled with soundscapes that underscore the everyday concerns of young people today. It leaps from recollections of things past to things that might have been and things that are very much of the present, uses the simplest of props and creates some beautiful moments.

His latest work celebrates the company’s 30th year milestone with ‘THIS IS NOT A RETROSPECTIVE’, the ultimate interactive dance party at the Auckland Town Hall, Saturday March 22

Joining Blackl Grace will be CHE FU and THA FEELSTYLE along with the many amazing friends of Black Grace already down to party including; DJ Manuel Bundy, drag queen diva Buckwheat and the NZ Trio, working alongside a stellar production team, with Artistic Direction by Neil Ieremia, ONZM, sound designer Faiumu Matthew Salapu aka Anonymouz, internationally respected NYC-based lighting designer JAX Messenger, along with the incredible Black Grace Dancers.

But the fun doesn’t stop there, Black Grace has a number of special events planned throughout their birthday year. To be in the know join them at blackgrace.co.nz

Main event 1hr 10min, followed by a party which  will continue after main event until late

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The Apprentice: Trump’s early days of learning the art of corruption

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Jeremy Strong (Roy Cohn) and Sebastian Stan (Donald Trump)

THE APPRENTICE

Directed by: Ali Abbasi

Duration: 120min

In cinemas from October 10th

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Some of the more interesting aspects of the Donald Trump biopic, “The Apprentice” are around its funding and distribution. Unlike most US films it was largely financed by Irish and Danish organisations and none of the major distributors would touch the film, fearing the wrath of the ex-president. To fund the distribution of the film in the US the producers initially had to launch a Kickstarter fund before it was eventually picked up.

The film is directed by  the award-winning Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi and looks at the life of Donald Trump in the 1970’s and 1980’s as he made his first moves into the New York real estate business.

It’s in two parts with the first set in the seventies when Trump is just starting out, working for his father as not much more than a rent collector as he embarks on his own career. The second part is set in the eighties when he is wielding more power and influence.

Along with Trump, the main protagonist is the influential attorney Roy Cohn  who gained prominence for  successfully prosecuting the American spies, Julius and Ethel  Rosenberg leading to their execution in the early 1950’s.

He  manipulated the legal system on behalf of powerful, conservative figures but lived as a closeted gay man, publicly denying his AIDS till the day he died.

Trump becomes the apprentice to Cohn as he assists him in his efforts to circumvent New York City planning restrictions to build Trump Tower and helps Trump amass wealth and power through deception, intimidation and media manipulation.

Cohn’s advice to Trump consisted  of three simple rules.

Rule 1. Attack. Attack. Attack. Rule 2. Admit nothing. Deny everything. Rule 3. Claim victory and never admit defeat.

We see how these become the foundations of Trump’s later ways of dealing with individuals, organisations and the media, as President and in his present-day speeches and interviews.

Abbasi depicts Trump as something of a loner, often in the presence of other people but with no close friends. Even his family relationships are fraught notably  with his “loser” brother Freddie who is only an international pilot and later a drug user who Trump won’t put up at his place.

The film does not completely vilify Trump and there are some sympathetic touches but it does show that he is a flawed character both from his upbringing as well as  his relationship with Cohn and these experiences do nothing to make him more sympathetic towards other people.

Sebastain Stan cleverly displays many of the characteristics of the later Trump and we see how he is progressively imbues Cohn’s cynical view of people and the world – there to be taken advantage of.

Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn presents an almost totally amoral character who apart from his three rules of getting ahead also reveals a disdain for weakness in others and a savagery in getting his own way.

Maria Bakalova (Ivana Trump) and Sebastian Stan (Donald Trump)

Trump’s relationship with his first wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova) and his father Fred (Martin Donovan) are loosely sketched in but they could well have been fleshed out a bit more to add depth to the psychological study of Trump but they do suggest aspects of his personal relationships and the need to dominate .

Screenwriter Gabriel Sherman has skilfully crafted Trumps ascent with his actual recorded dialogue, written words  as well as some  well devised dialogue.