Tag: theatre

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Peter Pan: Loads of Command but little Control

Review by Malcolm Calder

Jennifer Ludlum as Captain Hook Photo Andi Crown

Peter Pan

By Carl Bland

Adapted from the story by J M Barrie

An Auckland Theatre Company and Nightsong production

Directors, Ben Crowder and Carl Bland

Set, John Verryt

Lighting Sean Lynch

Costumes Elizabeth Whiting

Composer and Music Claire Cowan

Sound Max Scott

Choreography Dayna Pomare Pai

With Andrew Grainger, Jungwhi Jo, Tupe Lualua, Jennifer Ludlam, Anika Moa, Nova Moala-Knox, Lotima Nicholas Pome’e, Theo Shakes, Angus Stevens, Tess Sullivan, the Nightsong Youth Company and Roux the dog.

ASB Waterfront Theatre

Until 27 October

Review by Malcolm Calder

Whether as Captain Hook or the understated Mr Darling, Jennifer Ludlum commands the eyes, the ears and the senses every time she takes to the stage in this rather unique production.  Striding around guiding, leading and even cueing other actors, she is totally in command.  Her pedigree and experience is clear in her every nuanced action and clearly demonstrates why she is one of this country’s finest character actors. 

However it seems she is not supported by any kind of control structure at all in this Peter Pan and that is a great pity.

Nightsong has developed a fine reputation over the years and its I Want To Be Happy remains one of my 2023 standouts.  But this collaboration under the Auckland Theatre Company umbrella has confused me.  It would be easy to dismiss it as a rather ginormous mishmash with no one in control.  That is possibly true to a degree but there are clues as to what it is trying to do.

Writer Carl Bland pays homage to Barrie’s 1920s original.  This is not a hi-tech show and he has kept it old-fashioned in many ways.  However his work as a director is where things go a little awry – a good reason why writers who direct their own work sometimes incline towards the over-indulgent.  Bland has tinkered with Barrie’s original and thrown in many asides, one-liners and loads of whimsy.  Many of them work while others are wasted and become mere throwaways.

It is a bit like all those things got put in a bucket and then someone threw them at the stage.  As a result things just sort of ‘happen’ in this Peter Pan rather than become magically ‘revealed’ after characters evolve, situations develop their own dynamic energy and tension has been drawn tighter and tighter.

Perhaps these things may have evolved after another week or two of rehearsal, but inter-character dynamics were all but absent and few did little more than appear onstage and utter their lines.

Some did their best. Theo Shakes developed a certain presence as Pan, especially in Act 2, Lotima Nicholas Pome’e sang with beauty towards the end of Act 1 and Andrew Grainger blustered about a lot.

Perhaps the whole thing could be summed up by the inclusion of Anika Moa.  Apart from providing some, admittedly nuanced, contributions to the accompanying soundscape I have no idea why she was included.  Her Mermaid Queen simply occupied a space, may have added an occasional vocal harmony and tickled a few percussion instruments.  Poor Anika wound up a distracting sideshow. I felt sorry for her.

John Verryt’s set looked like it might possibly have been relocated from Barrie’s era, a beautifully-crafted wolf suit seemed to cover Tess Sullivan’s mic so we could barely hear her words, low-tech flying is a bit yawn-inducing these days and the whole thing looked under-rehearsed –at a production level too.  Even the intelligently-included ATC Youth Company, making up numbers as pirates and Lost Boys, occasionally looked a little lost themselves.

Through all of this the missing element was command.  One could almost sense Ludlum willing others in the cast to react, respond and become personalities matching the energy, effort and detail she put into her work  – but this production allowed them to do so only rarely.  As her Captain Hook met his demise I’ll swear I could hear her sigh of relief as the crocodile finally clamped its jaws around her and carted her off to who knows where.

And, while conceding that Barrie’s original has a dark side and may provide a few giggles for children I’m inclined to believe its moral about transitioning from childhood is somehow lost in translation for children anyway.  On leaving the theatre I overheard a 10-year-old son respond to his father’s question about what he thought of the show.  His response ‘too long but I liked the dog’ was his summation.

So, thank you ATC for your policy of diversifying your product range in 2023.  However this Peter Pan raises other questions too.  Not least its timing – one wonders why a show specifically targeting children and families should open at the very end of the school holidays.  There have been many successes this year and I am sure this little blip does not negate the others.

But, finally, congratulations to Jennifer Ludlum for two finely-crafted characters.  They commanded the stage.

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Matilda the Musical: Fun to Go

Review by Malcolm Calder

Revolting children in Matilda the Musical

Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical

Book Dennis Kelly

Music and Lyrics Tim Minchin

North Shore Music Theatre and Amici Trust

Co-directors Grant Meese and Hamish Mouat

Musical Director Jack Barnard

Bruce Mason Theatre

Until 13 October 2024

Review by Malcolm Calder

 ‘My mummy says I’m a miracle,’ lisps a pampered early-maturer near the top of this deliciously-dark family show.  It is echoed by her diverse classmates and quickly becomes their mantra because, as they well know, even if you’re little you certainly can do a lot.

And they do.  In fact, there are sometimes so many little people doing things in this Matilda, one can readily understand why two directors are occasionally required.  Which might suggest that the principals, the subprincipals, the alternating Maggots, Worms and childrens’ choruses could easily get tangled up a bit.  Not on your life.  They flow as one.  And that is a credit Grant Meese, Hamish Mouat and those who have supported them.  The energy levels never flag and I came out feeling just a tad breathless.

Based on the splendidly grotesque Roald Dahl novel from 1988, and turned over to Tim Minchin and Dennis Kelly prior to its original West End opening in 2010, the music and the songs quickly become owned by the children, the story develops a life of its own and the whole thing becomes a fun-filled romp driven largely by Minchin’s nonsensically-wondrous lyrics as by Roald Dahl’s original.

It tells a tale of the collective power of children and how they address the perceived wrongs of the world they inhabit.  Their ringleader is one Matilda Wormwood – a young girl with the gift of telekinesis. She loves reading, has an unsupportive and cringe-worthy family and ends up at a school run by the terrible Miss Trunchbull.  But, with the help of teacher Miss Honey and town librarian Mrs Phelps, she and the other children overcome all the odds and triumph.  Of course they do.

In the process the character of Matilda’s awful parents are stripped bare; Mrs Trunchball,the butch, granite-faced principal who used to be an Olympic hammer thrower and unleashed by George Keenan-Davies is effectively neutered; the sweet natured Miss Honey – that teacher we all love to love – provides a neat balance that demonstrates not all grownups are nasty. 

As for the children themselves, they are irresistible, stomping and skipping through some marvellous choreography through both this show and through life, demonstrating that growing up is a lifelong endeavour. For kids, yes, but also for the children that we all remain at heart, this is wise, wicked, glorious fun.  Both chocolate cake and the hammer throw will never be the same again.

Of special note is the choreography of Hamish Mouat who manages to sustain multiple overlapping conversations yet never loses sight of a group statement.

Falling neatly into the school holidays, the timing of his show is impeccable.  It is pure, top-end family fare.

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The dark world of “Hamlet” from Opera Australia

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Act I Hamlet Image Keith Saunders

Opera Australia

Hamlet,

Brett Dean , Music

Matthew Jocelyn, Libretto 

Until August 9

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

“or not to be “, are the first lines we hear from Hamlet in Opera Australia’s latest offering by composer Brett Dean and librettist Matthew Jocelyn. They are of course a clip from one of the plays most well know soliloquies – “To be or not to be, that is the question”.

That question is

“Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles”

In other words act now or prevaricate.

Hamlet never answers his own question and delays taking action to revenge the death of his father. In a typical revenge tragedy of the time that revenge would be quickly and simply exacted but his  equivocation is a sign of his own mental illness or his inconsistent political decision-making which ultimately leads to the death of multiple individuals.

Hamlet doesn’t even speak the words of the soliloquy that is left to a player from the theatre troupe, later in the play.

The opera explores questions of Hamlet’s mental state, how it impacts on his relationship with other members of court, his friends and his betrothed, Ophelia.

Librettist Mathew Jocelyn has done this by cleverly concentrating on some key lines and phrases while Brett Dean has produced a musical landscape which creates moods, emotional portraits and dramatic moments. The score is largely percussion with raw and unusual sounds along with traditional instruments pushed to their limits, providing an edginess and inventiveness to the work.

Director Neil Armfield has realised the visions of Dean and Jocelyn with an impressive production employing a stellar class including Allan Clayton who has performed the leading role at Glyndebourne and the Met. This is an opera which seems as relevant today as it was 400 years ago.

The opening scene, which is replicated in the final duel scene is the main hall in Elsinore where the new King Claudius and Gertrude enter for a banquet. Hamlet, looking remarkably like Peter Jackson  prowls the room in his ‘inky cloak’, gets his own bottle of wine and makes sharp comments about his mother and new father. Along with his brusque complaints there is also a playfulness when he greets his friends Horatio and Marcellus

One becomes aware of the conflict within the work. Is Hamlet actually mad or is it a ploy  which he uses. There are a number of scenes where the theme of pretence, subterfuge  and acting are cleverly developed by Jocelyn. This  notion of reality and artifice is seen at its most powerful in the Players scene where Hamlet adds some lines to the fictional “Murder of Gonzaga” play.

.One of the clever approaches that Jocelyn uses is to repeat particular words and phrases, giving emphasis to them so they become striking mantras

Allan Clayton’s Hamlet is very different from most theatrical versions, there is little that is princely or all that perceptive about him – he is a man burdened with a task, angry with most of those about him and lacking in empathy. He is in a dark world of his own making and that is conveyed through Brett Deans oppressive and stressful music.

It conveys something of the internal melancholy of Hamlet and Clayton’s rough tenor makes one aware of his struggles as he flails physically and vocally with his feelings and (in) actions. His approach to revenge is insipid compared to the pesky Laertes (Nicholas Jones) who leaps at the opportunity of dispatching Hamlet.

Much of Hamlet, as with many of Shakespeare’s plays is focussed on the nature and the future of the royal family and by implication, the future of the state, with reference to the  legitimacy of Claudius and Gertrude and the rottenness of the state of Denmark.

Hamlet (Allan Clayton) and Ghost of his Father (Jud Arthur) Image Keith Saunders

Many of the scenes are brilliantly staged. When the ghost of his father (Jud Arthur) appears to Hamlet it is in a surreal setting worthy of Salvador Dali. The Frankenstein-like figure moves slowly across the stage, a beam of light cuts across the stage from a door giving onto a misty swirling nether world. The ghost tells Hamlet of the need for revenge as the quivering woodwinds and tentative percussion aid his growling voice. The relationship between the two becomes particularly  physical as the two embrace.

Lorina Gore’s  Ophelia gives a splendid performance as she expressed love, confusion and ultimately madness. Her performance was particularly touching in her mad scene where, having strewn herbs around the stage, she proceeded to beat her breast and used her strangled voice along with the sharp strings of the orchestra to convey her fragile mental state. Her cries were accompanied by a small female chorus situated high in the boxes who initially shouted their concerns but then became a choir of angels.

Ophelia (Lorina Gore), Guildenstern (Christopher Lowery) & Rosencrantz (Russell Harcourt) Image Keith Saunders

Rod Gilfry as the guilty Claudius stepping into his new role as king was able to convey his own ambivalent position with a voice which ranged from the rough to the benign while Catherine Carby’s Gertrude duets with her son and Ophelia were taut with genuine feeling.

Kanen Breen’s supercilious bureaucrat, Polonius was excellent with his finger clicking insistence, and Samuel Dundas as Horatio, the only likable character in the opera, gave an intelligent and perceptive performance.

Most of the characters were white faced, as though already embalmed but it was Jud Arthurs monstrous, white figure and his penetrating bass which made the most impression. Arthur was also magnificent as the cocky, philosophical Gravedigger.

The two foppish counter tenors, Rosencrantz (Russell Harcourt) and Guildenstern (Christopher Lowrey) looking like the artwork, Gilbert and George added an element of comedy as well another dimension to the notion of artifice.

The set designed by Ralph Myers with its changing structures was something of a metaphor for the changing veneers, masks and stratagems of the characters while the lighting by Peter Harrison provided many moments of visual drama.

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Wall to Wall Māfana

Red White and Brass: The Play

Stage adaptation by Leki Jackson-Bourne

Directors, Anapela Polata’ivao, Vela Manusaute

Musical Director, Joanna Mika Toloa

Production Design, Sean Coyle

Costume Design, Chrissy Vaega

Sound Design, Matt Eller

Choreography, Mario Faumui

With Haannz Fa’avae-Jackson, Mikey Falesiu, John-Paul ‘JP’ Foliaki, Onetoto Ikavuka, Saala Ilaua, Diamond Langi, Lauren Jackson, ‘Aisea Latu, Jason Manumu’a, Rocky Manusaute, Michaela Te Awa Bird, Kasi Valu

Original screenplay by Halaifonua Finau and Damon Fepulea’i

Co-produced by Piki Films and Miss Conception Films

A World Premiere

ASB Waterfront Theatre

Until 7 July

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Last weekend I had a cold and spent most of it confined to quarters.  You know – a bit of this, a bit of that and an overly-heavy dosage of highly-predictable news, current affairs and media gossip monochromatically detailing financial woes, political faux pas, a couple of murders, the inevitable obsession with car crashes and countless opinion from a whole heap of ‘experts’ confidently predicting an imminent emigration across the ditch. I was miserable.

Then I went to the Auckland Theatre Company’s world premiere of a new stage production of Red, White and Brass: The Play!  And I wondered what I was being miserable about.

The basic plot is well publicised and closely follows the original screenplay of the same name by Halaifonua Finau and Damon Fepulea’I about sporting underdogs who over-achieve just as Eddie the Eagle and those Jamaican bobsledders did at the Olympics.  Hollywood loves a good sports story especially where the underdog comes out on top and this story has a unique local flavour.

But this stage production is more subtly nuanced, goes well beyond sport and is weighted more towards capturing hearts and minds in ways that both embrace and express the social psyche that is Tongan Māfana.

It is a thing that generates joy and, without being in the slightest bit didactic about all things Tongan,

it assumes a knowledge of many things in a long, long list.  These range from the place of religion to the place of rugby; from gently acknowledging the contrapuntal role of the matriarch in a purportedly patriarchal society; from an acknowledgement that achievement rests ultimately on aspiration; from generational clash to resolution and to an understanding that even addresses the subsets within the contemporary urban Tongan diaspora in Aotearoa.

As Leki Jackson-Bourne has noted… this production is loud, proud and unapologetically Tongan. It is a statement about community, heritage and sense of self.  But it is more than that.  It also says something very important about our increasingly multicultural society and as such provides a further plank in the evolution of New Zealand theatre history.  It does so with unashamed pride and joy, and celebrates both.

JP Foliaki reprises the movie role of Maka, arguably with more light and shade than the movie allowed, and his relationship with his ‘bit less Tongan’ cousin Veni (Saale Ilaua) is well handled.  Overall the cast is strong and well-balanced and their choral work mesmerizingly memorable.

Sean Coyle’s busy set morphs well in multiple directions, the costumes are a hoot and the dialogue a completely understandable mix of Lea Faka-Tonga and English. The finale is a triumph- but no spoiler alert from me other than to say the band grows on one.

Congratulations to Auckland Theatre Company and mālō Leki – the last vestiges of my cold vanished on the spot!

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Swan Lake: A Warm Glow Inside

Image Stephen A’Court

Swan Lake

Royal New Zealand Ballet in association with AVIS

Choreography: Russell Kerr ONZM QSM after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov
Staging: Turid Revfeim

Set & Costume Design: Kristian Fredrikson

Lighting: Jon Buswell

Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Auckland Philharmonia, Conductor Hamish McKeich

Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland until 12 May

Review by Malcolm Calder

Swan Lake is a classic. And rightly so.


This production, originally choreographed by the legendary late Russell Kerr, lives on and will continue to remain something of a benchmark for the company.


Swan Lake is a work of staggering beauty and power. The magic of the swans, the sumptuous costuming and the elaborately subtle set changes continue to captivate.


Mesmeric and somehow timeless, it truly suspends disbelief, draws on both imagination and
emotion and eventually ushers its audience homeward shrouded in an inner warmth and secure in the knowledge that tradition is something to be both valued and prized.


The work itself is as familiar as old boots, is far removed from the concept of a ‘hackneyed standby’ as occasionally perceived by some, and showcases the traditions, skills and techniques that are such an essential part of the artform.
Drawing on sets and costumes nearly 30 years old, this RNZB Swan Lake remains lush, vibrant and very, very satisfying. Assiduous attention to detail has resulted in a restoration job to be applauded,

giving Wardrobe a more than gentle workout and Staging with a restoration that is far from counterfeit.


Other commitments prevented this reviewer from attending Opening Night in Auckland, and I was delighted to be able to see the second night cast with the alternate principals and some shuffles in the corp.


Under maestro Hamish McKeich, the Auckland Philharmonia brought the much-loved and thoroughly familiar Tchaikovsky score to life establishing and maintaining the atmospheric and at times mesmeric tone that marries brilliantly well with Turid Revfeim’s staging. Special mention too to the work of harpist Ingrid Bauer.


I found Joshue Guillemot-Rodgerson to be rivettingly imperious as Prince Siegfried in Act 1 – outstanding control and very much a Prince among his subjects. Then I delighted further as he smoothly grew into the smitten and then the confused, before finally leaving us with a feeling of hope for the future. It was a remarkably well-conveyed journey of maturation and growth perhaps drawing from his own journey from the one I first saw in Romeo and Juliet a couple of years back.


However, I found Ana Gallardo Lobaina initially a little aloof, daunting and even ice-like at times as Odette. Her technique was flawlessly detailed and her control immaculate but her connection with
Siegfried only really flowered for me after she had slid seamlessly into her alter ego of Odile. However I soon stopped fretting as the two came breathtakingly together in their two pas de deux in Act 3.


Dane Head was delightfully cheeky as the athletic Jester and Zacharie Dun gave us a sleek and
demonically insidious Rothbart we all love to hate.
But Swan Lake is about swans after all. At a lake. And swans, being swans, are something of pack
animals. In turn it follows that they move in unison, think in unison and breathe in unison. And these swans did so with only the slightest of occasional nerves from newcomers, conjuring images
that personify Swan Lake.
My only disappointment was that, despite their three multi-cultural scenes and significant overall contribution, for some reason the boys did no final bow at the performance I attended. What a pity – I would have applauded them too.


This Swan Lake is a rather mammoth production and RNZB is to be congratulated. It has an enormous energy, is fabulously presented and attracted an audience representing pretty much every age-group. It presents few intellectual challenges, only aesthetic ones and has many, many talking points.


As more than one writer has suggested, this alone may be responsible for drawing more children into dance than any other. That this work will tour regionally will no doubt assist this process.

RNZB Touring to:

Napier, Municipal Theatre, May 17-18
Christchurch, Isaac Theatre Royal, May 23-26
Dunedin, Regent Theatre, May 30
Invercargill, Civic Theatre, June 2

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A warm endearing night out

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

By Deborah Moggach
Director, Lucy Waterhouse
Producers, Stewart and Tricia Macpherson, Ben MacDonald
With
Rula Lenska, Harmage Singh Kalirai, Shaan Kesha, Sudeepta Vyas, Dhiya Redding, Georgina Monro,
Helen Moulder, Edward Newborn, Cathy Downes, Annie Ruth, Paul Barrett, Ravi Gurunathan, Alvin Maharaj, Tiahli Martyn, Kate Jasonsmith

Civic Theatre, Auckland until 5 May
then St James, Wellington and James Hay, Christchurch


Review by Malcolm Calder

I simply cannot remember when I last saw a large-scale commercial theatre production in this country. Music theatre and countless concerts yes, but not a straight play. In fact hardly ever!
Marigold Hotel is a huge commercial undertaking fraught with risk and a mammoth achievement.


So, first off, congratulations to the Macphersons and to Ben McDonald.

There’s always something about entering a big theatre that takes me back. Viscerally. Especially for something like this. Maybe it’s the deliciously faux theatrical decor, perhaps that unique smell or even just the sense of occasion that can never be replicated in smaller, newer venues. As such, I cannot even suggest a more apt stage for this production than Auckland’s Civic and its Wellington counterpart – I can only presume Christchurch’s Royal is unavailable.

Although she did not write the screenplay for the movie, Marigold Hotel is Deborah Moggach’s stage adaptation and is largely based on her original novel These Foolish Things. It was first produced in the UK a couple of years back and toured extensively before a run on the West End.

This New Zealand production brings in only the revered Harmage Singh Kalirai and the popular Rula Lenska from London to reprise the roles they created in the UK, and surrounds with a local cast overseen by Lucy Waterhouse to ensure consistency.

Put briefly, Marigold Hotel is hardly a serious drama. Rather it is a comedy that is endearing and loveable tale about a group of English retirees who, for diverse reasons, find themselves in a rundown
hotel in India. While not just a retread of the film, it presumes some familiarity with that source.


Miss Lenska’s Madge is a central role, and she is rightly billed as the star, Marigold Hotel is essentially an ensemble piece (supported with some backup) and provides ample opportunity for
each of the key characters to deliver from their immense experience. Many are recognisable, even for non-theatre afficionados, and it is a joy to see such on-point timing, situational awareness and
even improvisation around a couple of minor technical hitches with nary a blink.

There is not a weak link amongst them and some will remain memorable – Cathy Downes’ Dorothy being but one example.
Conversely, Moggach’s script provides only two-dimensional roles for most of the Indian characters. Harmage Singh Kalirai is a standout as the omnipresent Jimmy, but it was the near line-less Tikal
(Ravi Gurunathan) who captures with a rivetting on-stage presence, along with Sudeepta Vyas who wheedles and manipulates her Mrs Kapoor as only some mothers can.

However, it is also true to concede that Moggach’s first act might have benefitted more from tighter editing and the opposite in the second where the final denouement is a bit brisk.

On balance though, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a warm and heartfelt story with a joyous finale that assures audiences of a good night out. It is an undertaking that is far from small for its
producers, and a welcome opportunity for some of our finest character actors. All are to be congratulated.

I wallowed.

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Diptych: Memorable Risk with Rewards aplenty

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Auckland Arts Festival

Diptych

Peeping Tom, Belgium

Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre

Diptych: The missing door & The lost room

Concept / Directors, Gabriela Carrizo and FranckChartier

Until 24 March

Review by Malcolm Calder

I normally try and write these words as soon as possible after a performance.  But this time I couldn’t and eventually decided to sleep on it.  Only I couldn’t sleep either.  In my mind images and thoughts swirled in what I could only describe as atmospheric convolution.

But first things first. Diptych comprises two parts – the first about a missing door, and the second about a lost room.  There is a third part, making it a Triptych, but we don’t see that here in this Auckland program.

My over-weaning sense of this company is the dynamic, slick and truly mesmerising movement in its choreography.  Belgian founders Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chartier have established Peeping Tom as a unique force in dance theatre transforming hyperrealist settings into unstable universes that defy the logic of time, space, and mood.  This work and the company’s lineage to Pina Bausch are clearly evident and I can easily see why Artistic Director Shona McCullagh chose it as one of the centrepieces of her 2024 Festival.

As well as movement, Diptych also owes much to an all-enveloping soundscape that adds a hypnotic quality, overlaying music with live percussion and everyday noises.  This underpins the sheer physicality and many of the jarring and emotional shocks that lie ahead.

The staging starts out tiny and winds up using the full breadth of the stage giving it a cinemascopic quality.  And, just in case we missed it, the entire work is cinematic.  This is underscored by the introduction of rolling klieg lights, a boom mic and a set that is deconstructed then reconstructed by technicians in full view of the audience.

Completing the context, and further highlighting the illusion, are costumes that writhe and twist almost becoming creatures and taking on characters of their own, whilst echoing the movements of the dancers whose movements who, it seems, are controlled by non-logical and even gravitational forces.

Then my mind returned to ponder the word ‘convolution’ itself.  Turns out it’s a term that describes a form or shape that is folded in tortuous windings, or one of the irregular ridges on the cerebrum of higher mammals oran intricacy of form, design, or structure in which the combinations of power and the caprices of the powerful are ever-present dangers to survival (thanks Mr Merriam-Webster).

Yep, that’s about right I decided.  And henceforth, for me, Diptych became a convoluted dance theatre work.

I knew it was about a man’s mental anguish and I immersed myself in that tangled web.  It has no single direction veering between reality, memories, desires, dreams and nightmares.  At times I was slow to grasp a thread; at others I got it instantly.

Eventually I just stopped fretting about trying to work things out in any logical or linear fashion, sat back and let it wash or surge, over me.  And I’m glad I did because that is what Diptych is all about.  Rather than trying to ‘understand’ what Carrizo and Chartier were trying to say, the production itself taught me to just soak in it, to absorb it.

Yes, there was a missing door; and yes there were many surprises when some were opened.  But the perceptions, context, memory and horrors of doing so were different for every character on stage.   Similarly, an entire room got lost and the same applied.

What Festivals are supposed to do is introduce us to the new, the different and the normally unattainable.  So congratulations to the Festival for taking this risk with Dyptych.  It was certainly memorable for me – so much so that it never occurred to turn my phone back on again when leaving the theatre and I missed a raft of calls the next morning.

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A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings: Delightful Ingenuity

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Genevieve Hulme-Beamanand Manus Halligan

Auckland Arts Festival

A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings

By Dan Colley and Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge

Based on the short story by Gabriel García Márquez

Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre

Until 24 March

Review by Malcolm Calder

Director, Dan Colley

Lighting, Sarah Shiels

Sound, Alma Kelliher

Just outside of Dublin is a small town in Co Kildare called Newbridge. Its Riverbank Arts Centre, is funded by both the local authority and the Arts Council of Ireland, and it serves its community well. Rather like similar ventures in this country its facilities are available to local community groups, but at its artistic heart is a carefully-curated program featuring selectively chosen professional work from all over Ireland, the UK and Europe.

Unlike the vast majority of its New Zealand counterparts however, the Riverbank Centre is much more than just a receiving theatre. It also carefully nurtures talent and creativity and has developed into what is referred to in the trade as a ‘producing theatre’ with some of its work touring extensively

A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings typifies this. It is the work of a small cooperative group under the leadership of Dan Colley who have created a perfect show for young and old to share, gorgeously formed around music, puppetry and live video, but also thoughtful and emotionally rich in its exploration of human nature.

Its informality and studied casualness is very quickly established. Non-speaking actor Manus Halligan (well he makes some mouth-noises) is ‘doing things’ with tiny models on a table as the audience is seated. When the lights find a little focus, narrator Genevieve Hulme-Beaman simply announces “we’ve started”. She goes on to urge the audience for this offbeat adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez’s children’s story, to not go looking for a lesson. “There isn’t one.”

And that’s precisely what we get. It’s like a children’s story told by children and, as is often the case with children’s stories, introduces flashes of unexpected insight and depth. The story certainly examines the human response to those who are weak, dependent, and different and there are moments of striking cruelty and callousness throughout. But it essentially brings a magical revelation of itself to the stage and reveals itself through a beautiful, strange, emotional richness. It is offbeat, quirky, funny and its 43-minute runtime flies.

Above all it reveals what creative minds can generate using little more than ingenuity. And what can gestate in a small regional arts centre where producing is as important as receiving.

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Samoan play about the clash between traditional value systems and the modern world

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Semu Filipo as Pili Sā Tauilevā Photo: Anna Benhak

Auckland Arts Festival

O Le Pepelo la Gaoi, ma le Pala’ai

The Liar, the Thief and the Coward

By Ui Natano Keni and Sarita Keo Kossamak So

ASB Waterfront Theatre

Until 23 March

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder, 7 March 2024

A co-production by Auckland Theatre Company, I Ken So Productions and Auckland Festival

Director Ui Natano Keni

Producer Sarita Keo Kossamak So

Assistant Rehearsal Director Maiava Nathaniel Lees

Choreographer Tupua Tigafua

Composer Poulima Salima

Set & Properties Mark McEntyre & Tony De Goldi, GOM Arts Collective

Costume Design Cara Louise Waretini

Lighting Design Jennifer Lal

Sound Design Karnan Saba

Visual Design Delainy Kennedy, Artificial Imagination

I am a palangi and my knowledge and detailed understanding of fa’asāmoa is rudimentary at best.  So it would be presumptuous to pretend that I do – and no doubt very few Samoans would speak to me again.

My own antecedents settled here from Scotland, harking back mainly to small village communities in the north.   I have enjoyed visiting many times and am constantly learning things about their society from long ago.  So it would be presumptuous to pretend that I do – and no doubt very few Samoans would speak to me again!

My own antecedents settled here from Scotland, harking back mainly to small village communities in the north where they worked as crofters.   I have enjoyed visiting many times and am constantly learning things about their society and the customs young and productive people left behind in the fairly feudal society four or five generations ago when they sought betterment through emigration elsewhere.

However some customs and traditions travelled with them and scraps of those links remain today.  The result remains as some kind of low key but deeply-rooted spiritual melange – sort of what was ‘then’ overlaid with what is ‘now’.   Let’s face it, in my own case I have a spine that unfailingly frizzles each time I see and hear that lone piper playing Flower of Scotland high on the roof at Murrayfield before a rugby test.

All of which is a long way from Samoa. But the parallels are not dissimilar even though I approached O Le Pepelo with a certain sense of trepidation and even wondered if I had made a dreadful mistake during the first couple of context-setting scenes which are conducted almost entirely in Samoan.  Good heavens, I thought – Samoan speakers in the audience seem to be getting all the jokes while I didn’t have a clue!

But that soon changed as Samoan merged with English, my trepidatious concerns evaporated and I became totally absorbed as an excellent piece of theatre revealed itself.  You know … something about a simple story told well.  

O Le Pepelo started out that way.  The publicity machine had outlined the basic plot well – an ageing and ill village elder, concerned about who should inherit his position and status on his passing and the decisions this would require.  But that is just a context and this is a play that is so much more.  It is about a clash between the traditional value systems and customs confronting Pili and a more modern world where lifestyle becomes a determinant.  They are in no way simple.

This leads quite easily to discussion and debate, to adaptation and expectation, and eventually to a form of resolution.  Different characters flesh out these themes, and the more they do so, the more complexity and depth is revealed.  In fact, this simple story told well quickly moves to a grander more universal scale without losing its more intimate familial setting.

The bones of O Le Pepola are fleshed out with sparkling characterisations, liberal sprinklings of comedy and a remarkably competent cast, while my more personal echoes of the Scottish diaspora points to its universality.  Keni and So point to this using a fairly classic idiom that echoes the dilemma of a certain Shakespearean king.

In the village of Moa there are three key protagonists. The ill, aged and dying Pili Sā Tauilevā (Semu Filipo), a longstanding chief or Ali’i and his two children.  His eldest son Matagi (Haanz Fa’avae-Jackson) is a traditionalist with high expectations, while his daughter Vailoloto (Ana Corbett) returns from New Zealand embracing the new and the future, appalled because she cannot get a strong wifi signal.  Pili is strongly supported by his wife Fa’asoa (Aruna Po-Ching) .  But it is Masina (Andy Tilo-Faiaoga) who quietly and assuredly reinforces the dignity, wisdom and humility that underpins the both th inherited position and the play itself and becomes a significant part in its resolution.

Billed as a darkly comic exploration of mores and debate, O Le Pepola expands on something we all know a little about, gives it a contemporary currency and its key characters will remain with me for a while yet.

Auckland Theatre Company and Auckland Festival are to be congratulated on bringing this work to life.  It is on point.

Oh, and I loved the chickens.

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Categories
Reviews, News and Commentary

Not King Lear: A sophisticated play addressing social and personal issues

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Arts Festival

Open stage: Not King Lear

Hobson Street Theatre Company

Until March 10

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Goethe once noted that “Ein alter Mann ist stets ein König Lear” – an old man is a King Lear, meaning that the problems which Lear faced were the same for all old men.

Lear’s problems were not necessarily of his own making as events and people conspired to take advantage of him and he found himself virtually alone, deprived of home, authority and family.

This gradual loss of place in society is central to a new play “Not King Lear” which is directed by Adrain Jackson who has worked for many years Royal Shakespeare Company and with people experiencing street homelessness in London

In this latest play he has created a playful yet serious retelling of the story of an old man in conflict with his children, who gives away his authority and falls into homelessness and mental ill-health.

“Not King Lear” has had input from and is performed by members of the Hobson Street Theatre Company which works in partnership with the Auckland City Mission, with an aim to tell stories that are based on real life experiences, addressing social issues.

There is level of sophistication to the play  that is rewarding both in terms of the ideas it explores about relationships and homelessness but also in its approach to theatre.

In making use of Shakespeare’s original text, they are able to background some of the issues with a few passages from the play and some brief character and plot outlines. They present most of the Act I dialogue of the speeches of the three sisters which includes the powerful speech by  Lear.

The cast also use this as an opportunity for jokes about the characters with Regan being referred to as Vegan and Cordelia as Corduroy. There are other parts of the play which are dealt with in a light hearted and ironic way while others are eloquent and insightful.

The players are uneven in their acting skills but there is a passion and honesty to all the performances which make for a rewarding theatrical experience. Some of the actors are brilliant with the one playing Lear providing a profound and expressive interpretation of the character.

The play has elements of Shakespeare’s approach to drama with the idea of the play within play as we see in Hamlet or Midsummers Nights Dream while another sequence features is a Men’s Group which touches on the issue of estrangement.

The audience participation is at a very different level. Early on the audience was asked to take out their cell phones, divided up into groups who then have to find things on their phones which will get used later in the show. So people had to search for Branch, Climate change, Storm and Trumpet. These then  became the source of sounds which audience could then contribute to the soundscape. So when the King first appears the Trumpets let their trumpets blast away.

There is some very effective staging as in the final sequences where projected images of the mean streets of Auckland are used as a counterpoint to Lear’s blasted heath and the filmed images of the homeless pushing shopping trolleys is replicated with a shopping trolley being moved around the stage.

The inclusion of this work by the Hobson Street Theatre Company alongside international productions in the Auckland Arts Festival is to be commended and shows that New Zealand theatre has a crucial role to play in addressing social and personal issues as well as reaching new audiences. 

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