Nancy Harris should have been in Auckland tonight for the opening of her play Two Ladies. Instead she’s been chatting with the cast via Zoom from locked-down Ireland, where live theatre is a distant memory. It was a surreal moment in a year of surreal moments. I was sitting in my mother’s living room in … Read more
Auckland Theatre Company opened two shows this week, performed under Covid-19 restrictions. So what’s it like to go to the theatre during a pandemic? One of the last theatre shows I saw before we went into the first lockdown was Auckland Theatre Company’s Black Lover. It’s fitting, then, that it’s one of two shows the … Read more
Sam Brooks surveys the devastating impact of Covid-19 on the performing arts community. As Covid-19 took hold across the world over the past few weeks, the ripple effects began to be felt across New Zealand’s performing arts sector. In late February, one of the flagship shows of the Auckland Arts Festival, Place Des Anges, due … Read more
A Fine Balance opened yesterday in Auckland, marking a historic collaboration between two pillars of Auckland theatre. Sam Brooks talked to two of the team – Prayas president Amit Ohdedar and director Ahi Karunharan – about the show. On paper, it seems like a no-brainer of a collaboration. Auckland Theatre Company, arguably the biggest theatre company … Read more
She has scores of credits to her name, awards galore, she’s an CNZM, and she stars in the cabaret Delicious Oblivion, opening tonight in Auckland. Jennifer Ward-Lealand talks to Sam Brooks about her most memorable roles. It’s not hyperbole to call Jennifer Ward-Lealand a living legend. Across her 40-year career, the actress has graced both … Read more
Much like its subject, The Audience is blandly pleasant and frustratingly naive. Sam Brooks reviews Auckland Theatre Company’s latest production. Every week, Queen Elizabeth II has an hour-long meeting with her prime minister to discuss the matters of the day. This has happened since her coronation in 1953, and will happen until she abdicates, she dies, or … Read more
This week it was announced that Auckland Theatre Company’s Shortland Street: The Musical would be cancelling its planned 2019 tour. Sam Brooks asks why the show fell short of its ambitions – and what it says about the industry. Shortland Street: The Musical had the potential to a be a long-running, bonafide hit. It was … Read more
Last week, Auckland Theatre Company announced their 2018/19 programme – one with a glaring lack of representation for women and new New Zealand work. James Wenley takes the company to task. Auckland Theatre Company’s response can be found at the bottom of this piece. During the uproar over the Pop-up Globe’s decision to use an all-male cast … Read more
Alex Casey interviews Eleanor Bishop, a theatre-maker whose new work reimagines the rugby classic Foreskin’s Lament in the world of Tony Veitch and the Chiefs stripper scandal. If a phone case is a window to the soul, the pink “well behaved women seldom make history” emblazoned on theatre-maker star Eleanor Bishop’s pretty much nails it. … Read more