Auckland writer Olivia Hayfield* explains how she resurrected 16th-century playwright Christopher Marlowe to star in her new novel, Sister to Sister. Olivia Hayfield is a pen name. Real name: Sue Copsey. When I’m planning my modern retellings of historical tales, I read widely on the characters and see who leaps out at me. I try … Read more
Linda Burgess climbs the eternal staircase at the Opera House in Wellington to watch the virtuoso actor. At the interval her legs are aching. But in the second half, magic happens. There’s one person wearing a face mask, just the one, and it turns his face into a disposable nappy with two scared eyes above. … Read more
The Pop-Up Globe will be popping down at the end of its 2020 season and setting off overseas. Sam Brooks talks to its founder, Miles Gregory, about where the future of the company lies. More than 650,000 tickets; 17 productions; 1206 performances; 212 acting jobs. Regardless of where you stand on the Pop-Up Globe, the … Read more
Sam Brooks has a transcendent experience at the part of the Auckland Writers Festival grown-ups never hear about: the school sessions. A few years ago I could’ve been mistaken for a teenager, especially given that I dress like a toddler recently given autonomy over their fashion. As I walked around the Aotea Centre, a space … Read more
Chloe Blades on the raw, complex and unabashedly feminist new novel by the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. There’s a plethora of novels hitting shop shelves that retell the ancient epics. Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls gives voices to the pillaged slave women of Homer’s Iliad. In … Read more
President Trump has been compared with Shakespeare’s autocratic Richard III. New Zealanders watching their diminishing KiwiSaver balances should take note. The first thing you’ll notice is this is the business editor writing about Shakespeare. It may be a summer rush of blood to the head; I prefer to think of it as a perk of … Read more
Yesterday, the Pop-Up Globe announced their new season of work, with #metoo and #timesup hashtags flying wild in their marketing. Penny Ashton responds. “Scarce can I speak, my choler is so great: O, I could hew up rocks and fight with flint, I am so angry.” Mate. Just like York in Shakespeare’s Henry VI right now … Read more
Arriving December 19, Lightbox’s new historical epic The Hollow Crown is bringing some serious silver screen stars to your little streaming device. Sam Brooks shares a guide on where you know them from and who the heck they’re playing. There are two things that happen when you watch one of these period dramas with loads … Read more
Eugenia Woo reviews HAMLET: The Video Game, a brave attempt to bring together the disparate worlds of gaming and theatre. HAMLET: The Video Game – A Shakespearean Stage Show is a mouthful. It’s also got all the earnestness of a high school production, with none of the good-natured missteps or overbearing parents being idiots in the … Read more
If Bill Shakespeare was around today, the old huckster would probably have a crack at making a video game. A stage show currently playing in Auckland aims to construct what that might look like, complete with Angry Birds and live Tetris. Eugenia Woo talked to director Greg Copper. Auckland’s theatre scene is no slouch. With … Read more
After last summer’s successful debut, the Pop-Up Globe is returning to Auckland in February. That’s great news for audiences, says Laura Irish – but less wonderful for New Zealand’s actresses, who’ve been shut out once again. So here’s the thing. I love Shakespeare. I’m a thespian through and through. I’ve studied Shakespeare extensively, performed Shakespeare, … Read more
A group of young Wellingtonians have scored millions of online views for their idiosyncratic Shakespearean revamps. With the launch of their third series, Bright Summer Night, we asked them to explain themselves, and they sent us a video. The first two web series by the Candle Wasters put a girdle around the earth in hardly … Read more