Guns and apples – it’s bound to get a little bit messy
GIGS & COMEDY TODAY Dollhouse, Leather Tattoo, Mighty Mighty, Wellington PlayShop Live, Paramount, Wellington, 10.15pm Big Rick, Soviet Space Dog, Mermaidens, Toucan Stubbs, Bodega, Wellington, 9pm Avi Diva, Upper Hutt Cosmopolitan Club, 9pm NZSM Lunchtime Concert (12.10pm-1pm); Music Forum: (3.10pm- 4.30pm) Adam Concert Room, New Zealand School of Music Kelburn Campus, Victoria University, Wellington Wellington Heads, Ombra, Wellington, 9.30pm Chopped, Screwed & Funky, Bettys, Wellington, 9pm Too Many Chiefs, The Bent Horseshoe, Tokomaru TOMORROW The Rag Poets, Thunderbird Cafe,
is a long and entertaining show, but over- The Playlist is your weekly guide to gigs, live comedy, theatre, dance, classical, opera, galleries and museums. To have an event listed, email playlist@dompost.co.nz or write to: The Playlist,
PO Box 3740, Wellington, by noon Friday, the week prior to publication. Photographs must be captioned and in the JPEG format. SUNDAY The Rag Poets, Shepherds Arms Hotel, Wellington, 3pm WEDNESDAY Mighty Quiz (6.30pm), Hammondhead, Mighty Mighty THURSDAY Killing Bear, Bodega, 9pm Bull Frog Rata, King Street Live, Masterton
Re:Genesis, Studio 22,
Tunes of I, Salad Boys, Christian Rock, Mighty Mighty Wellington Heads, Ombra, 9.30pm Raw Beats with DJ Ribera, Bettys,
AFEW kilos of apples, a folding table and a small arsenal of guns are the main props of two new productions at Bats this week.
What Goes Up is surrealistic and philosophical, while Gunplay Gunplay, Bats Theatre, until August 24 What Goes Up, Bats Theatre, until August 24 Play Reading – St Peter’s Hall, Paekakariki, Sunday, 2pm Love and Money, Downstage, until August 24 The Price, Circa One, until September 7 Earthquakes in London, Te Whaea: National Dance & Drama Centre, Newtown, Wellington, until August 24, 7pm Gunplay, Bats Theatre, until August 24 What Goes Up, Bats Theatre, until August 24 The Improvisors present Theatresports Freestyle, Circa Theatre, August 25-October 13 What Goes Up, by Pat-A-Cake Productions, directed by Bop Murdoch Gunplay by Paul Rothwell, directed by David Lawrence. Bats Theatre, until August 24 Reviewed by Laurie Atkinson NZTrio: Art Heartbeats, City Gallery, August 27, 7pm Luidwig Treviranus, Illot Theatre, Wellington Town Hall, August 24 Hungry & Frozen by Laura Vincent book launch, Unity Books, Wellington, August 27, 6pm Writers on Mondays, The Marae, 4th floor Te Papa, August 26, 12.15-1.15pm Latin American Film Festival, Soundings Theatre, Te Papa, until August 31 Tomorrow: (Chile), 2pm;
(Brazil), 4pm. Sunday: (Cuba), 12.15pm; (Mexico), 2.10 pm; (Ecuador), 4pm; August 29: The Grandfather (Spain), 6.15 pm. The Piano in a Factory, Wellington Film Society, Paramount, August 26, 6.15pm. Newtown on Film, 1900 - 2011, New Zealand Film Archive, Wellington, until August 24, 7pm A Place to Stay: Salisbury Garden Court, NZ Film Archive, today, 12.15pm is a dark, satirical comedy about America’s obsession with guns.
Just as there was a Grover’s Corner in all 50 states for Thornton Wilder’s famous play Our Town, so there is a Fairview for every state in Paul Rothwell’s Gunplay, which begins with a narrator introducing us to the citizens when suddenly and marvellously everyone sings a rousing and funny, full-on patriotic Broadway musical opening chorus.
Unlike Wilder’s folksy, pipesmoking narrator dispensing wisdom and talking of the eternal verities of small-town America, Rothwell’s narrator is a remote, Talks and special events The Art of the Fall: Malia Johnston and Emma Willis, City Gallery, today, 1pm Talk & Tour: Volker Albus, Dowse Art Museum, tomorrow 11am Showing 30 Upstairs, Wellington: Ben Clement & Andrew Kennedy – until August 24 Adam Art Gallery, Wellington:
– Lieko Shiga, Paul Johns, Francis Alys, until September 29 Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art & History, Masterton: Puwawau, until September 15; Barry Ellis – until September 1; 8. Artrium Gallery, Wellington: August 31 Artscape Gallery, Te Horo:
– Jennifer Turnbull, until September 17 Bartley + Company Art, Wellington: cynical observer of the plain hometown folk.
And he has, of course, a lot to be cynical about, what with a corrupt sheriff, his kinky brother who wears a dress and thinks he’s Shirley Temple, an extreme Rightwing radio ham, a naive Left-wing radical, an emotional woman who was once eighth runner-up in American Idol, and Cody Garcia, described in the programme as an everyman, who commits a massacre in the school gym.
Seventeen regular members of The Bacchanals perform with pizzazz throughout this long and entertaining show, but they can’t quite prevent the over-
until September
until
until August 24 Cecil Veda Gallery, Wellington: – Tom Sladden, until September 8 City Gallery, Wellington: Gregory Crewdson –
until September 8 Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt: Kobi Bosshard, until October 13, until September 1; The Dowse, August 24-September 22; September 9 Expressions, Upper Hutt: September 11 Kiwi Art House Gallery, Wellington:
– Vincent Duncan,
until August 30 Mahara Gallery, Waikanae: Sophie Saunders – until September 1;
– Janet and Wilf Wright, until September 1; Frances Hodgkins & the Field Collection – until September 1 Minerva Textile Bookshop & Gallery, Wellington: – Elizabeth Harcourt and Nancy Millichamp, until August 31 National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, Wellington: complicated plotting from slowing things down towards the end.
Or maybe we are just too familiar with the tragic consequences of, as David Lawrence writes in the programme, some Americans’ God-given right to live out their fantasies regardless of the consequences.
What Goes Up is closer to abstract dance than theatre and is built around a game which the actors perform as the audience enters the theatre: a variation of Grandma’s Footsteps involving apples, which get eaten, thrown, juggled, and offered to the audience.
August 24-September 22 Enjoy Gallery, Wellington: –Simon Morris and Brenda Sullivan, until August 24 Exhibitions Gallery of Fine Art, Wellington:
until until September 5 McNamara Gallery Photography, Whanganui:
until
until November 15 7 NZ Portrait Gallery, Wellington:
until September 8 Ngaio Fine Arts, Wellington:
– Tony Allain, Michael Blow, Eugenea, Jan Haisman, Brian Baxter , Michael Moore, Jacky Pearson, Micheline Robinson, Nicki Waters, Colin Wynn. Ngaio Fine Arts, August 25-September 7 Photospace Gallery, Wellington: Rob Wilson – Nightscapes, until September 7 Odlin Gallery, Lower Hutt: Ngaire Leahy, until August 25 Onslow Historical Centre, Wellington:
until December 31 Otaki Heritage Bank Museum:
until August 31 Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington: Karl Maughan, until September 8 Pataka Art Museum, Porirua: – John Pule, until September 15; – Marian Maguire, until September – Rob McLeod, until September
There’s hardly any dialogue and what there is softly spoken. We do get a hint of what is going on when a couple sit at a table of the Karma Cafe where they are served only what they deserve.
The programme tells us to relax our entitlement of plot narrative and sharpen our alertness to our own ‘‘convection currents of karma affecting the momentum of this community’’. Not easy to do when the eating and playing with apples around a table or the nurturing of bodies with a watering can are repeated in numerous variations despite the presence of four likeable performers. NZ Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington:
until August 25 NZ Film Archive, Wellington:
until September 15; until September 29; 15 Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington:
– Peter Robinson, Matt Hunt, MT Woollaston, Colin McCahon, Michael Illingworth, Charles Tole, Nick Austin and Ava Seymour, until August 24 Quoil Gallery, Wellington: David McLeod, until September 5 Reserve Bank Museum, Wellington:
until December 31 Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington: Brendon Wilkinson – until September 14 St James Gallery, first floor St James Theatre, Wellington: until September 25 Solander Gallery Works on Paper, Wellington: Faith McManus – until September 7; Sheyne
until
– Tuffery – September 7 Tapu-te-Ranga Gallery, Wellington:
until August 30 Taylor-Jensen Fine Arts, Palmerston North:
– Brian Chrystall, until September 28 Telecom Central, Wellington: 2013 World Press Photo exhibition, until August 25 Te Papa, Wellington: until August 25; January 12; January 20 Turnbull Gallery, National Library Building, Wellington:
until September 28 Vincents Gallery, Wellington: Lynda Nelson and Gaye Stewart, until August 28 Zimmerman Contemporary Art Gallery, Palmerston North: Bruce Luxford –
until August 31
Te Papa, until
until