It’s very windy round out place tonight. The trees are shushing. Street lights flicker as the leaves manically bounce in front of them. A high pitched note squeals its way past the windows. Battening down the hatches and going to bed.
librarykris
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Author Archives: librarykris
Ahi Kaa festival 9 June – 11 July 2015
Celebrating Matariki with the best of Maori theatre and dance, the inaugural Ahi Kaa Festival officially opens tomorrow night. I welcome it with open arms. In a city where theatre practitioners think it’s okay to use blackface on stage because it fits with the style of the theatre form they are using, this festival will show off truely innovative work that draws on tradition to create something new. Works in the festival range from in development, to new works, to return seasons of classics, to family friendly shows. I can’ t wait.
http://www.wellingtonnz.com/discover/things-to-do/events/ahi-kaa-festival/
Photo from the exhibition
The Great War exhibition has a side room with photos from the Gallipolli campaign. Some are official. Others were taken by sneaky soldiers smuggling cameras onto the Peninsula and surriptiously taking pictures. The information boards use a mix of commentary and verbatim to describe what happened day by day. It is another visceral experience with the conditions vividly described. The dead are listed for each day of the campaign.
Rest in peace Trooper Alexander D McKay, greatuncle on my Mum’s father’s side.
Great War exhibition
I have no desire to visit the Great War exhibition currently on at the Dominion Museum. I was quite content to visit Pukeahu, the recently revamped memorial park in front of the War Memorial in order to watch my friend read the Ode of Remembrance and to leave it there. She was reading the Ode as part of an ongoing commeration of WWI with a Last Post ceremony performed at Pukeahu every evening of the 100 years since the war. But with my parents in town and both keen to see the exhibition I played driver and took them there.The building has been renovated so the old style atrium looks classically imposing if a little stark. There are nice touches like the small kiwi on the stair railings. The greeters and guides are very friendly and easy going.
Then the exhibition. It is a winding one way route through reasonably narrow corridors. Theyre probably wider than I remember actually as it was quite busy when we walked through. Different years are highlighted by great stone look arches which you walk through into the next year. It is beautifully done. The information posters have personality. They are informative without being overwhelming. There is an excellent time table of the events leading to the declaration if war. They look like I expect communication design looked at the time. There is an ongoing series of words coined during the war that are still in use today. At the same time the information posters dont shy away from the horror of war. They are factual but not sensational.
The exhibits are a mixture of authentic memorabilia, reproductions, models, and life size tableaus. I was torn between admiring the staging and unpacking how it was done – bearing in mind that the work was done by Weta so of course details like hoof prints would be in the recreation. The ones I was particularly drawn too were the ones where I felt a visceral connection to the knowledge I hold. A model of a Belgian fort with a cramped gun tower; a tableau flipping between the lush green forest prewar and the open brown earth after the war; ducking under a tank that protrudes out from its exhibition into the corridor; my human size against the vehicles.
Most people walking through had their arms folded or clasped behind their backs. There was a quiet murmer of voices. It felt like a respectful atmosphere.
Theres no need to rush to see the exhibitions as they will continue for at least four years. Judging by the blank or black spaces on the wall there are more things that will be added.
http://www.greatwarexhibition.nz/
friday
Friday night. Spent cooking, drinking, talking malarkey rtc. G’night.
Reviewing styles
Oops. Forgot to cross post yesterday’s review from the Wellingtonista to here yesterday. I promise I blogged yesterday…just not here. Anyway it’s up now. The two reviews show my contrasting reviewing style depending on who I’m writing for. On the official site that I review theatre for I’m much more circumspect about what happens. I tend to write about the ‘how’ of things. My style is based on informing people what the show is like so they can make up their own mind whether to go. I name check anyone I think has done a great job. On my own site I’m much more freewheeling about the things I write about. I still try to avoid spoilers but I might include some of the moments that stood out for me in the production.
I was asked to write for the Wellingtonista based on the reviews that I (used to) write here so I’m not sure I’m giving them what they want. I imagine that they’d like me to be a bit more timely…
Review: Lysistrata
War has been going on forever. Lysistrata convinces the women of Greece and the known world to withhold sex from their husbands (and lovers, occasional shags, one-night-stands etc) in order to force the men to broker world peace. The women agree and despite being tempted hold true to their promise. Will the men come together and stop fighting so they can get laid?
Adapted from the play by Aristophanes Lysistrata is sexy, silly, political, and meta-theatrical. It’s energetic in true Bacchanals fashion with actors playing multiple characters, gender neutral casting, live music, and choreographed dancing. There are numerous pop culture references, pointed political jokes, a tiny bit of self-promotion along with fantastic chorus work and comic timing. Occasionally it feels like a lecture on the woes of the world but mostly it is anti-war rhetoric of the most entertaining sort.
- Lysistrata at BATS Theatre, to 6 June 2015 .
Mau
A more coherent series of pieces than in previous years, it used the myth of the punishment of Sisyphus to tie the performances together. Although Sisyphus was punished for being tricky & deceitful (wikipedia says so) it is rather the myth of the never ending, possibly pointless task of pushing a rock up a hill only to have it roll away to the bottom that is focused on here. Drawing parallels between the rock and collections, the site-responsive work opened on the lowest publically accessible floor. Collections of objects were laid out neatly in lines. They were grouped by colour and each object was tagged with a little card and a barcode. Traditional clowns (as in exaggerated characters in white face) were scattered throughout the space. They gradually came forward to interact with the audience as we took our seats. A nice little story encompassing copyright, use of the collection, colecting, description, the colonisation of New Zealand, and the WWI commemorations played out. Performers had strong characters with some excellent voice work. The next section was on the ground floor. We went up throuh the stairwell and were greeted at the top by 3 women who invited us to take a seat. There were two lines of seats in traverse with a striking tableau of upturned tables at the end. The three women, wearing neat grey outfits and white gloves, walked along the rows pausing every so often to adjust how an audience member sat. A man in a black jacket wandered around the space while another man dressed as a soldier brought in file boxes and carefully arranged them at the end opposite to the tables. A third man came running in to take a seat. He smiled at the man next to hi then said "excuse me, youre in my seat." This started a narrative about the Erebus disaster with diversions into questions of preservation and access, documentation and the documenters, and a brief yet powerful comment on (some) glorification attitudes to disasters and wars. A short light piece invited us to climb the internal stairs to the Reading room. Three women sang their way out of the stacks to the tables between us. They told stories, repeatedly asked us to look at them, to see them, to remember them like this. Threads of whanau and whakapapa and identity wove together in a more immediate piece than the previous two. Finally a monologue linking all three pieces together closed the show.
blogjune15
Nearly forgot I had planned to do this again. And therefore dont have anything planned.Tune in tommorow for my annual review of the site-responsive work by Toi Whakaari students at the National Library of New Zealand.
Happy June!
LIMBO
I felt like a bit of an egg for not paying attention to the name of the show (big clues to the theme right there). The company hit the theme straight away and do not let up during the show. Featuring an angelic (or maybe fallen angel?) ringleader/master controller, a band, and several circus performers. The performers are alternately part of the establishment and one of the people in Limbo trying to get free. Except for the band who seem to be firmly ensconsed in their debauched, slightly aloof role. (And ‘dude stroking beard’ – it’s an excellent sinister look for you, keep up the good work! I would like to know what the instrument with all the little metal bits is called.)
I think I am guilty of reading too many books which talk about The contortionist, The acrobat, The magician’s assistant etc. I’d forgotten that in the modern circus environment the performers all have multiple talents. They sing, they dance, they look fantastic with hardly any clothes on… (A+ costume design. I liked the feathers and the little red neckerchiefs…) Most of the time I was silent with admiration at their skills while the rest of the audience gasped and applauded. I’m glad other people could move! I was totally spellbound by the skill and amazingness which the human body is capable of.
Yes, good, go!
librarykris 