Paper Jets

“I come away for four days and I still get the wet patch.” Yep, there is plenty of sex chatter to be had when six gal pals head off for a weekend tramp in Roger Hall's Social Climbers. It may have been written by a man, but you wouldn't know it by watching his recognisable characters play out on stage at the PumpHouse Theatre in Takapuna. There is plenty of girl power in the between-scenes song choices alone, from Tina Turner to Beyonce. The stand out performer though has to be Louise Wallace, whose brazen character Maxine creates a stir as soon as she enters the stage. Her teasing, spewing and ‘histrionics' are a welcome bit of mischief in the mix of slow-burning character and relationship development around her. Maxine is joined by her well-cast teaching colleagues played by Lisa Chappell (of McLeod's Daughters fame), Darien Takle, Michaela Rooney and Michelle Leuthart. The colleagues, along with a reluctantly accompanying daughter (played by Donna Brookbanks), end ...

I was overcome with ecstasy at what I had birthed and yet my new found confidence was crumbling as the question dawned on me, would I be enough? It's been a year since I really wrote anything. For eight years I pushed out words, hour after hour, day after day, my world not caring whether my creativity flowed freely or not. Carving out new angles, splicing pithy phrases, I honed my craft. Then came my greatest ever creation and the enormity of this masterpiece snatched every ounce of my focus. August Lotter Kotuku. For once, words evaded me. How could I begin to translate the tide of emotions which overwhelmed me? As one predecessor so aptly wrote, it was though all my hopes and all my fears were suddenly in front of me. So greatly desired, this tiny picture of perfection awed me, his vulnerability ensnared me and his innocence frightened me. Who was I to carry this precious gift, this gargantuan responsibility? I was overcome with ecstasy at what I had birthed and...

James Galea, Adam Mada, Ben Hanlin and Brett Loudermilk How well do you trust your partner? Your daughter? Your brother's best friend? How about that guy three rows ahead of you, slightly to the left? Thanks to the mind-taunting stunts of the fabulous four that are the Band of Magicians, you will be eyeing everyone up with suspicion as you try and work out who's in on the act. Surely some audience members have been prepped to play into the hands of these clever tricksters. It's the only explanation for how the four could know the activity, place and famous person that three audience members were collectively thinking of. It's the only reason for British magician Ben Hanlin knowing which number one chosen audience member was thinking of. And how he managed to create a mind-blowing number of mathematical equations to match that answer – 73. Interestingly enough, my husband had that same number in his head. Was the audience lead into guessing that nu...

"Nothing happens. Nobody comes and nobody goes." This pretty much summed up my experience of Waiting for Godot, the classic French and English tragicomedy adapted by Shoreside Theatre. A millennial child, I visit the theatre to gasp at a murder mystery, giggle at slapstick or marvel at a polished soliloquy. Rarely do I find politics or philosophy entertaining as much as I do disturbing or even boring. So the idea of an absurdist fiction that lamented on the purpose, or more to the point of this play, the purposelessness of life, sounded somewhat dreary and depressing. But for some reason I decided to give this 1940's Samuel Beckett play a go. Sitting in The PumpHouse's chilly new Coal Bunker Studio space, I'm actually glad I did. "Do you find it tedious? "I have been better entertained." One hour into watching two old men nattering about nothing, I admit I wanted to make a run for it. It wasn't the fault of the protagonist actors, Tr...

Living in a house full of women is enough to send any man off his chump. So says Amyas Crale, the victim in the classic whodunit, Go Back for Murder. I appreciated the Shoreside Theatre's adaptation, full of saucy cheek and innuendo. It started with the flirtations of a suave solicitor and his client and ended with the indiscretions between a would-be victim and his mistress. It's wartime Britain and an M.I.5 solicitor has been employed by Crale's daughter Carla to piece together her father's final moments in 1927. The victim's wife Caroline was sent to prison for poisoning him but Carla has received a letter claiming her mother's innocence. Carla's rounded up the witnesses, her father's mistress included, to step back in time and relive his last moments to try and identify the real killer. The stand-out of this production, for me, was the casting. The accents were near flawless, the male characters were physical ...

Lee Tamahori doesn't know why people think he lives in Hollywood. He's directed big name actors Morgan Freeman and Sir Anthony Hopkins and is about to work on the Charles V inspired film Emperor with Adrien Brody. But New Zealand is still home. The 64-year-old director of cult 90s film Once Were Warriors splits his time between Auckland and Tologa Bay on the East Coast where his family hails from. "It depends on work, how long I'm here for. But I've been based in New Zealand since 2003. I don't know why everyone thinks I still live in Hollywood." Tamahori is reassuringly chatty. His clear, somewhat-British accent rolls out responses thick and fast. But he keeps to the point. No, he doesn't want everyone knowing what he spent on recladding his luxury Shangri-La tower penthouse in Herne Bay. The complex's multimillion-dollar apartments needed refitting for weather-tightness and there was a squabble over who should foot the b...

It was rain, not women's underwear, that pelted the stage the previous time Ricky Martin came to visit. The sexy Puerto Rican pop star attracted a legion of female fans when he performed in Auckland at the turn of the century. That fateful weekend at the then-Ericsson Stadium, some 20,000 fans waited 24 hours for their idol, thanks to issues with his production crew not being able to build a stage shelter in time. This time, not only do we have a new stadium, Vector Arena, but we also have a new out-and-proud Martin. With more than 70 million album sales under his belt and a 30-year-strong career, the 42-year-old has been open about his sexuality since coming out in 2010. But it's a banned topic when speaking with New Zealand media. As are other areas of his private life, if he doesn't bring them up first. Today's celebrities are speaking less and less about themselves, with the likes of Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Pink and Beyonce limiting interviews and opti...