Reviews

19 Weeks feels different from the outset. Played in the pool at COMO - The Treasury, the audience sit with their feet in the water, and are soon submerged in this fascinating, gripping and heartbreaking story. 

After the death of her beloved Auntie, shy and timid Josephine lives in the vents of an apartment building and observes the lives of the residents.  She meets William who plays violin and offers to be her friend. When William goes missing, Josie sets off on the adventure of a lifetime. 

Second Chance Theatre’s rip-roaring adventure feels like a favourite children’s book - very appropriate seeing as Josephine is a voracious reader. The show is a gorgeous journey play, full of colourful and exciting characters.

A visit to the spacious foyer of the Castle Hill Players with free tea and biscuits at interval is always a pleasure. Long may the cranes of redevelopment (seen ominously just a few hundred metres away building a new railway station) keep their distance from this oasis of well-produced comedy and drama.

Four Flat Whites in Italy is a comedy written by Roger Hall, who can be best described as New Zealand’s equivalent of David Williamson. In this play he presents a smorgasbord of first world problems endured by tourists to Italy.

Therry’s latest offering, Glorious! pays homage to the surprisingly successful career of the late Florence Foster Jenkins. Playwright Peter Quilter journeys through the later part of her success in the 1940s leading up to her sold-out show at Carnegie Hall.

What makes Jenkins’ story so unique is the enthusiasm and confidence she possessed despite her lack of talent; she is remembered by many as ‘the worst opera singer who ever lived’- or died…pun intended.