Fatuous Days And Crapulous Nights

Nicola has been playing with Sven Olsen’s Brutal Canadian Love Saga (known as “The Svens”) for a couple of years now, as part of their string section. They play live gigs every time there’s a Fringe Festival, and occasionally in between. None of them are called Sven, or Olsen, and none of them are Canadian. (A Canadian chap once turned up to one of their gigs, expecting something Canadian – Celine Dion covers, maybe?)

This gig, was, however, something a little different: the launch party for their pizza box. Say what? Yes, they have released a pizza box:

Inside there are six (count ‘em!) CDs with 63 songs in total, and a big book of lyrics so you can sing along with them! During their live shows there is a rear projection, animations and clips relating to the song, with some of the lyrics on it; but they are (a) often partly obscured by the band members and (b) aren’t always synchronised with the song (deliberately). So here are the undoubted, definitive, guaranteed words to such masterpieces as Kron Of Hastings. It comes with no page numbers or index, so finding your way around it is a haphazard journey through the minutiae of New Zealand life – much like The Svens themselves.

The launch party was in one of their usual venues, the Newtown Community Centre. Food and drink had been laid on, and t-shirts were also available for sale – Nicola and I both availed ourselves of these – as well as the pizza box itself, available for the bargain price of $50! So if you feel the need to dip your toe into the fantastic world of New Zealand’s most obscure pop orchestra, get in contact…they are a limited edition of only 250 (ours is #93), and Nigel Beckford (“Sven”) would dearly love to get them off his living-room floor.

They played a few songs, then broke for a “surprise event”. This, it turned out, was getting the entire audience up on the stage to re-enact the photograph on the cover of Wings’ Band On The Run album. I will no doubt reference this when it is published.

Afterwards we went for a “burger” at Mediterranean Foods.

Bill Bailey - Vaudevillian

How many times have we been to see Bill Bailey? Loads. Does this stop us from going to see him again? It does not. Because he’s brilliant. He’s back, this time with a show called Vaudevillian. 

Obviously, dinner first. We booked into perennial favourites Mr. Go’s, at a slightly later time than usual. It was packed! Clearly everyone else had had the same idea, and it took somewhat longer than usual for our food to come out, so we were a bit rushed towards the end. This caused some issues when it came to paying, as I had the Mosaic Passport, but even so it came to more than I was expecting *. We paid and hoofed it up to the road to take our seats with minutes to spare at the Michael Fowler Centre.

On came Bill, to rapturous applause, and he started off with describing how wonderful our country is and how much he enjoys coming here…obviously a crowd-pleaser. He then took issue with one tiny part of our culture, and that was a pie that he’d bought at a roadside café. Not that there was anything wrong with the pie per se, but he likened the temperature of the contents to lava, magma, molten rock in general. At this point he was heckled by an audience member. At first he couldn’t catch what they were saying, so various members of the audience continued to shout it until he understood: “always blow on the pie!” This was something that he’d never heard before, but is familiar to Kiwis. Fortunately, he had a screen cunningly placed on the stage in front of him (presumably operated off-stage) that supplied him with the answer. “Have I walked into a meme?” he asked. Yes, Bill, you have. No doubt he continued to relate this story throughout the rest of his tour.

The rest of the show continued his usual themes of whimsy, musical interludes and general entertainment. He’d warned us at the beginning that he was unwell, and was recovering from a cough that made him swear. He called it the “Fuckough” and he did it every time he coughed. He ranted about a certain orange character in the White House, and complained about the current state of politics in the UK. As usual, he invited audience participation, particularly for song suggestions for the various musical instruments he played, which included a one-stringed lute and a miniature banjo. Ever heard Enter Sandman on a one-stringed lute? Well, now I have!

As always, he gives value for money with a show that lasted over two hours, including encore. Can’t wait for his next one!

* Next morning, I got a call from Mr. Go's. Apparently they had two tables booked for someone called Rory, and they'd charged me the wrong one. Everything got sorted out.

Those shows in full:

Thoughtifier (Nov 2023)

En Route To Normal (Mar 2021)

Larks In Transit (Oct 2016)

Limboland (Nov 2014)

Qualmpeddler (2013)

Dandelion Mind (2011)

 

The Tempestuous

The Tempestuous is described as “A Shrew’d new comedy by Will Shakespeare and Penny Ashton”. Penny Ashton I’ve heard of, but who’s this other fella? It's currently showing at Circa Theatre.

Yes, Ms. Ashton is back! This time working in collaboration with William Shakespeare. Those of you with long memories may recall that she has worked with Jane Austen (Sense and Sensibility, Austen Found, Promise and Promiscuity), and also Charles Dickens (Olive Copperbottom), and also that we’ve been to see all of these shows, as well as listen to her present at Te Papa. We’re definitely fans of her work, and with her taking on Shakespeare, this is definitely a must-see.

In the ordinary course of events we’d wait until Nicola was allocated a night of ushering at Circa, and I’d go along that night. However, Ashton is a huge draw card and I couldn’t risk the possibility of the show being sold out on the night she was working, so we booked ourselves in to go and see it on a non-working night. It did of course subsequently transpire that Nicola will be ushering later on in the run so she’ll get to see the show twice.

Although we’d arrived early with the intention of dining at the in-house facilities, these were somewhat thwarted by the fact that the kitchen is currently closed as they complete the rebuild of the theatre. All they had was cabinet food, including some pies. We considered going out elsewhere, but (a) we hadn’t booked, and (b) it was raining, so we contented ourselves with said pie and a muffin.

Circa Two now has allocated seating – it used to be a mad scramble for the best places - and as I’d booked early we were centre in the second row. As the show’s blurb hints, it’s loosely based on The Taming Of The Shrew, in that it involves a woman who does not wish to be wed, and certainly not wed to Duke Olivano, the candidate picked for her by her uncle Enzo, now king of Sicily. There’s a lot of allusions to other Shakespearean plays, with witches abounding, murders and poisonings, cross-dressing, a fool and a competition. Penny Ashton sings and dances all the roles, putting on different voices, affectations and poses, even a false moustache, to indicate who she is playing each time. This includes the main character, Rosa, her mother, Queen Carlotta, her father and her uncle; three suitors; a fool, a baker, and a nurse; and the witches. At one stage she co-opts two audience members into her coven to mix a magic potion; and later, brings another on stage to be one of the suitors, unfortunately knocked out in the first round of the game-show competition devised to select her husband, called “The Chaste”.

Shakespearean language, filthy jokes and modern references also abound (there’s a lot of abounding going on) and the whole jolly jape lasts around 90 minutes in a non-stop whirligig of action, drama and fun, (nearly) all in rhyming iambic pentametric verse! Go and see it if you can!

 At the end of the show Penny was outside selling merch, notably the now-infamous fridge magnets (or “meat safe magnets” as they are designated in the programme), and tea towels.

Ailments

It seems like an age since we last saw Hayley Sproull live on stage. A quick glance back through my blog reveals that it was 2018! Since that time, Hayley has been, well, busy! She’s starred in Golden Boy, Educators and Funny Girls, hosts her own show HYBPANZ, co-hosts New Zealand Bake-Off and ZM Radio’s breakfast show, is a regular on shows such as Seven Days, Patriot Brains and HYBPAA, and is generally everywhere. No wonder she doesn’t have time for standup!

 But she’s managed to make a hole in her schedule to return to her home town, Wellington, and perform her new show, Ailments. This is a musical show about, unsurprisingly, her ailments. And there are a lot of them! After doing a quick lap of the auditorium to say hello to everyone, she starts with a song (with a very long intro – so she can get her breath back) which basically lists all the things that are, or have ever been, wrong with her. This is a rich source of comedy as she shares, and overshares, her number of kidneys (below the accepted average), the shape of her uterus, and the effects that her recent diagnosis of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) has had upon her body, including weight gain which has led to her having proper boobies at last! Yay! But also bingo wings (boo!); hair growing everywhere, except upon her head, where it falls out instead. She throws light on the treatments for hair growth and how there’s always “extras” added to the bill…like you’re going to leave your toes hairy after doing your legs. Yup, that costs more. She interspersed her musings with a handful of songs, and left us wanting more. It’s an our-long show but feels like it’s longer. Definitely worth the wait, don’t leave it so long next time!

 

10CC

We went to see seventies legends 10CC in 2015. Really? Eight years ago? Now they’re back, so we decided it was high time we went to see them again. Have they released a slew of new albums and material since then? No. 10CC are a “heritage act”, playing their greatest hits.

We went to dinner at Concord beforehand. This is a newish establishment on the Wellington foodie scene, on the site of the former Lido café. Their aim is to provide upmarket European bistro-style food, including steak-frites in various disguise, i.e. different steak cuts. I had the eye fillet with frites, although bavette and sirloin are also available. Nicola had cacio e pepe. As we hadn’t had starters, we had desserts instead – a lime tarte and crepes suzette.

We were in the back row of the stalls of the Opera House for the show. We arrived just about on time, and the support act came on. Last time we saw 10CC, the support act consisted of...10CC! Playing acoustic versions of some of the songs they’d written, in various guises, for other artistes in the 60s, before they formed the band. But this time they had a proper support band, New Zealand icons Hello Sailor, no less. If you’ve never heard of them, don’t worry. They were also big in the late seventies, produced two albums and disbanded. Then they reformed, produced four more albums, and finally ceased following the deaths of two original members. 2023 is the first time the remains of the band have got back together. They played seven songs which were big hits in New Zealand. I must try to find an album of theirs…

10CC reached the stage at around 9:00pm, and played almost a solid 2-hour set, which included some lesser-known tracks such as The Second Sitting of the Last Supper, Old Wild Men, and Clockwork Creep. Despite being a heritage act, they did include two new songs, one by Graham Gouldman, and one by Iain Hornal, a touring member of the band and artist in his own right. They also played all the classics, finishing their main set with Dreadlock Holiday, before playing an encore of an a cappella version of Donna and then an extended Rubber Bullets. That set list in full can be found here.

It was good that they didn’t play an exact facsimile of the set last time we saw them, that they’d mixed it up a bit with some deep cuts, and also had a support band. Unfortunately they weren’t selling the “I Don’t Like Cricket” t-shirts (mine’s getting a bit tatty), so I just got a tour shirt.

 

Cringeworthy

Nicola is back ushing at Circa again, this time for 60s music show Cringeworthy – Swinging In the 60’s! I decided to tag along as well.

Cringeworthy is a show of 60s music and fashions, as they reached New Zealand – so some of the singers or versions are attributed to New Zealand acts. The songs are sung and danced by the cast to a backing track, and they have additional dancers to assist. The songs span the 60s decade, but are concentrated on those with vocal arrangements and harmonies as there are four singers in the cast. For the first half, they are dressed in black and white outfits that recall the early sixties, the heyday of swingin’ London, Mary Quant, miniskirts, kinky boots etc. In the second half they start out as flower power hippies, then morph into Monkees-style late sixties costumes.

The mastermind behind this is Andrea Sanders, who brought us BeatGirls (largely 50s and 60s-based girl group songs), and the original Cringeworthy. Herein lies my beef: The title. The original was set in the 70s, and we can universally agree that this is the most cringiest of decades, without a doubt. They then moved on to the 80s, which produced the best music ever; and now the 60s. The music is not cringeworthy!

That set list in full:

Afterwards we toddled along to Field & Green for dinner. We mixed it up a bit from last time, but still couldn't get past their salmon mousse and  Gruyère soufflé, but mixed it up with cos and courgetti, and saltimbocca.

In Bed With Schoenberg

In bed with who now? Arnold Schoenberg, 20^th century composer, theorist, and inventor of serialism; a hugely influential figure in the world of modern “classical” music, i.e. music for orchestras. Nope, me neither, but Nicola knows all about him. 

In Bed With Schoenberg is on at Circa. It’s basically a one-man show, with a string quartet for accompaniment. The original actor, Andrew Laing, was unable to continue in the role due to unforeseen circumstances, but Circa stalwart Gavin Rutherford was able to step up and take over. We’ve seen him in numerous productions since we’ve been in New Zealand, and his shuffling, grumpy old man has been played almost to death. It would have been interesting to see someone else do it, but it wasn’t to be. Nevertheless, he gave a spectacular performance as Schoenberg in the evening of 13^th July 1951, the day of his death; recalling his past life, his family, his students and friends, and “the shy country boy”. When “the shy country boy” took power in Germany, Schoenberg moved to the US, and poured contempt upon his countrymen for so enthusiastically embracing Nazism. The show was liberally interspersed with music, as he illustrated not just his own work, but also those of other notable pieces relevant to the story – everything from Mozart to Mahler, Bach to Berg, and all points in between. As one of the early proponents of dissonance, his work was often poorly received, and he was regularly booed when premiering his new pieces. All of this is revealed as he tells his life story - heavily edited, of course – as an unreliable witness. At the end (spoiler alert) he dies, as the quartet play Mahler’s Adagietto from Symphony No.5.

Nicola was on ushering duty so we had to hang around a bit and tidy up afterwards, but we were in good time to get down the road to Capitol, for dinner. We’ve not been there in a while (they’ve had reduced opening due to staff shortages, same as everyone else in the post-apocalypse; but as Bluff oyster season has just begun, I felt a revisit was timely. The standard is, as ever, excellent, and yes, I had a half-dozen Bluff oysters to start, followed by venison. Proper restaurant food! Nicola had the bruschetta to start, followed by tarakihi. All good stuff, and quite rich too – so much so that we didn’t linger for pudding.

 

 

Rob Brydon

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. It seems like ages since we’ve been out for entertainment. This isn’t strictly true, as we’ve had a summer of cricket, with mixed results both locally and nationally. We’ve also both been volunteering at the Fringe Festival this year, about which more later. But Rob Brydon! Star of I’m Sorry, I Haven’t A Clue, Gavin And Stacey, and presenter of Would I Lie To You? What’s not to like?

The show was at 8pm, so we took ourselves off for our traditional pre-show dinner. There was one drawback, however, and that is that the show was on a Monday night. In these post-apocalyptic times, many establishments have found themselves short of staff. The solution is to reduce opening hours, so very few restaurants are open on a Monday night. We managed to find one – The Old Quarter, a Vietnamese restaurant on Dixon Street, and booked a table. It was just as well we did, as the place was heaving – with what I guess to be a different demographic to their usual clientele. Yes, pretty well everyone else there was going to the show later.

Dixon Street is just across the way to the Opera House, so we ambled over and took our seats in the gallery. Not the best seats in the house, and looking down somewhat on the band, but better than most because we were in the middle access row so had leg-room once everyone had taken their seats. Not always the case in The Gods…note to self: don’t book seats in the gallery at the Opera House again. In fact, they don’t usually open it up for sale, but this was a sell-out crowd and it was filled to the gunwales. 

Yes, you read that right: a band. Why did Rob Brydon have a band? Well, this was an all-singing, not quite all-dancing comedy show, with music liberally sprinkled throughout the night. As he himself said “this would be a very different show without these people. Profitable, for a start”. There was a pianist, bassist, drummer, guitarist, violinist, cellist, saxophonist and trumpeter. They played various songs from Tom Waits to Tom Jones, all significant to Rob’s story; including a request section in the second half, and finished with his No.1 hit single, Barry Islands In The Stream. In between, he entertained us with stories about his life and career, including celebrity impressions. He also chatted to members of the audience, finding the oldest (Martin, 86), and youngest (Freddie, 11). Commenting on the general attire of the audience, he noted that there was a time when people would dress up to go to the Opera House, but now “I didn’t know Kathmandu did evening dress”.

All good clean fun, we thoroughly enjoyed it. After the final show in Christchurch he’s taking this tour to the West Island, so catch him if you can if you live there.

…Thursday Night, ‘Round Ten

You Am I have been around the Australian music scene for decades. Somehow, I have six of their albums…I think I bought the first one from a bargain bin because I vaguely recognised the name. It turned out to be You Am I’s #4 Record (that’s what it’s called) and contains, amongst other gems, the seminal Heavy Heart. They’ve never really hit the big time, but they’ve always been part of the background. They announced their tour of New Zealand in 2020, so you can imagine how that went. Yes, after two postponements, they managed to finally get to play at the San Fran in Cuba Street on Thursday.

The San Fran is one of those trendy places frequented by young people – you know, the ones who stay up past 10 o’clock. Doors opened at 8pm, so we decided to go for dinner at Floriditas first. We’ve not been there in a while, so thought we’d give it a go. The food was good, but not great. The price, however, was great, but not good. Yes, I know we’ve all been suffering from inflation, but frankly, we could dine at Capitol or Logan Brown for that…and the quality definitely wasn’t up to that level. They’re good for daytime café stuff, but won’t be going there again in the evening in a hurry.

We were amongst the first in at San Fran, so managed to secure that rarity – a table! The support band came on at around 9 o’clock, a local outfit called Voodoo Bloo, who play a kind of alternative rock/punk style, with a bass player whose energy, frankly, was exhausting just to watch. I googled whilst they were playing, and found out that their singer was called Rory. When they finished, they headed back out to the audience, so I introduced myself to him…us Rorys have to stick together! We had a brief chat, then he went to join the rest of the band. 

Voodoo Bloo

At around 10 o’clock, You Am I came on. They played a long set, maybe 90 minutes, of which I knew about a third. They’ve been busy releasing albums since my last purchase, which was Convicts in 2008. Guess I’ll have to go shopping again – their latest, The Lives Of Others, came out in 2021. They played a good mix of old and new, and generally rocked the house. I was a little surprised at the size of the audience – they’re an established band, but even playing a small venue like San Fran, the crowd was only about 200 or so (the capacity is 500)…this despite Wellington being the birthplace of bassist Andy Kent. Last time we were there was for The Muttonbirds, and the place was packed. 

Tim Rogers

They didn’t play an encore – as Tim Rogers explained, he considers them condescending. Around 1130 they finished up, and we headed home.

 

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the title of this post: ...Saturday Night, 'Round Ten

Midnight Oil

Spring has sprung, so naturally the night we went to see Midnight Oil was the coldest night of the year. So far this winter has been warm and wet – the wettest on record – in New Zealand. Why am I telling you this? It’s a matter of gig logistics. Going to any kind of performance is easier in the summer, you just rock up in your t-shirt and shorts. In winter, you’re going from an extremely cold environment to one that gets extremely warm very quickly, as the heat thrown off by thousands of bodies, and also the lighting rig, heat up the interior. How to dress for that? Fortunately we were seated so could put our coats under the seat, but many people were sitting in thick outdoors coats throughout, and as for those downstairs in the mosh pit, what did they do?

This gig has been rescheduled twice. Originally planned for September 2021, then for May this year, it has been affected by the country’s Covid response. Also, fortunately, the venue has changed to the Michael Fowler Centre, which has much more comfortable seating than the Opera House. Just as a reminder, New Zealand is still officially in Orange traffic light setting, so we were supposed to wear masks throughout the performance. Ha ha, didn’t happen. We arrived in plenty of time, queued to buy a new t-shirt, grabbed a drink then found our seats in the upper gallery.

First on was support act Liz Stringer, who also sings as backing vocalist to the band. She’s released 6 albums in Australia, but only broken through with her most recent, First Time Really Feeling. She does a lot of explaining her songs, and the songs are quite long, so she only played four. And that was quite enough for me.

Liz Stringer

At 9 o’clock, the lights dimmed a second time, and the Oils came out fighting with King Of The Mountain, to get the crowd going. The set list contains a lot of new material, as they’ve released two works over the last couple of years: The Makarrata Project, a mini-album featuring collaborations with First Nations artists; and Resist, their final(?) album, released earlier this year. They also played some obscure album tracks from earlier in their career, so the set was very different from last time we saw them for the Great Circle tour in 2017, where it was all pretty much Greatest Hits. Also, we had a much better view of the stage this time, and were able to fully appreciate Peter Garrett’s trademark manic, spasmodic dancing style. Halfway through the set, Rob Hirst came out from behind his drum kit when they slowed down for a couple of acoustic guitar songs – In The Valley and Luritja Way – and the band performed from the front of the stage. We had a little dramedy for Blue Sky Mine, as MOGP* Dan was pulled up on stage…he’d been holding a sign that said “I’m a drummer, can I come and play drums on Blue Sky Mine?” They didn’t let him drum, but they gave him a tambourine and gave him strict instructions to stay in time!

The main set finished with Beds Are Burning and Forgotten Years, then a three-song encore ensued, starting with We Are Not Afraid, from the latest album, then Read About It and Hercules.

We finished up and re-donned our outdoor clothing for the walk to the car, and got home about 11:30. Is this the last time we’ll see them? They’ve packed it in twice before, and come back twice, so maybe not?

 

* Member Of (the) General Public

 

Salzburg

The weather has finally broken here in Mitteleuropa, and today the maximum reached a mere 27°C. Last night our programme director, Krzysztof, gave us some bad news…the water level of the Danube has fallen to very low levels, and this is going to prevent us from docking at our final port of call, Regensburg; in fact, we were lucky to get a berth at Passau. Alternative plans have been put in place, though. Once again we cruised all night, eventually docking around 8:30am, in time for our departure at 9:15. We have arrived in the small village of Engelhartszell. 

The usual procedure applied, and we were again enjoined to bring our passports as, having just arrived in Germany, we would be leaving it to go back to Austria. The bus journey took us over two hours, on a picturesque route with quaint little villages everywhere. We arrived and immediately set off on the walking tour. Our guide, Julia, told us all about the history of Salzburg (salt city), and how salt made the city rich. She told us there were four things we should experience whilst in the city: salt, beer, Mozart balls, and pumpkin oil. Well, I had some beer at lunchtime. We managed to take in pretty much all the sights of the Old Town on our tour, including the cathedral, views of the castle (we didn’t go up) and the nunnery made famous by The Sound Of Music. 

Residenzbrunnen fountain - made in the Italian style, by Italians

Shopping street

The castle

The nunnery

Mozart, of course, is a major draw to the city and we went past the house where he was born and lived, which is now a museum. The main square is called Mozartplatz. What it was called before he arrived we weren’t told. It’s on the main shopping street, which in olden times conveyed the contents of the shop with symbols, as people couldn’t read – an umbrella for the umbrella shop, scissors and people in clothes for a tailor’s, etc. The modern shops which are now on the street pay Unesco a large amount of money to put their logo inside these old signs (the old city is a World Heritage site), and the shops must still reflect what the sign says – the tailor’s sign is now a Zara, for example (the umbrella shop is still the original umbrella shop, still selling handmade umbrellas). The exception to this rule is McDonald’s, which paid an even larger amount of money to put an M in the sign for a brewery, as fast food shops didn’t really exist back then. 

Mozart house - back. The ground floor is a Spar, for historical reasons, apparently

Mozart house - front

We were pretty well knackered by lunchtime, which was around half past one. Although the temperature had dropped 10°C from the previous day, it was very humid. We trooped upstairs to a grand ballroom for our rubber chicken, and were entertained by a quartet dressed in traditional costume, who sang the main songs from The Sound Of Music whilst we dined.

After lunch we had just over an hour of free time, so we took a quick gander inside the church of St Peter before making our way back to the Mozart House, where we spent the rest of the afternoon, seeing the violin he played as a child, and also a spinet (a type of early piano) they had owned. The house tells the story of the family and employers of the Mozarts (dad was famous for writing the definitive “how to play a violin” book) and how they spent their lives. Apparently Wolfie himself spent around ⅓ of his life in coaches, going from place to place. 

Inside St Peter's

Statue of Mozart in Mozartplatz

His violin

We arrived back in Mozartplatz with ten minutes to spare – enough time to get a t-shirt from a souvenir shop. There were no I ♥ MOZART t-shirts available, which I thought was a trick missed – it even rhymes!

The trip back was uneventful, following the same route. We returned just in time to hear the briefing, which included important information on how and when to get breakfast and disembark on Saturday. The ship needs to be cleared by 8:00am so we won’t be shilly-shallying, nor indeed lollygagging, over breakfast. Departure times and luggage tags are colour-coded depending on which airport or onward destination you’re going to – ours is one of the latest, at 7:45am (some have to leave at 1:00am!), for our journey to Nuremburg.

In the evening, the chef had prepared a traditional Austrian dinner. Yeah, it wasn’t brilliant. The Austrians are known for music, alps, and picturesqueness, not for their cuisine. Very meat-heavy, and the only vegetable in evidence was cabbage. They managed a decent pudding, though. 

Esterhazy cake and sachertorte

Van Gogh Alive

Van Gogh Alive is an exhibition of Van Gogh’s works, projected and set to music. Some pieces are also animated. It’s been all round the world and is currently in several cities – St Petersburg, Mexico City, Birmingham, Sydney and Zurich, as well as New Zealand. The whole thing tells the story of Van Gogh’s artistic life, from Netherlands to Paris, Arles, Saint Rémy and Auvers-sur-Oise. It also contains biographical details and excerpts from his letters to family and friends. It’s travelled around the world and has been in Wellington before, in 2020, when it was an outdoors exhibition. For its return they’ve moved it indoors to the TSB Arena.

We went on a Monday morning to try to avoid the crowds, and were reasonably successful in that – there were only a few people in the exhibition. Before entering the projection room there’s a display of his art and the various phases of his work, so you can follow his artistic development. There’s also a mock-up of his bedroom at Arles, the subject of one of his paintings, in which you can stand to have your picture taken.

The projection runs on a loop lasting around half an hour or so. We’d joined it near the end, so waited whilst it completed, then took us back to the start. Slightly out of kilter, but it didn’t make much difference to us. We stood, then sat, through the show, as people wandered around and children played on the floor projections. 

At the end there’s a room full of sunflowers and mirrors in which to take your picture as well. Finally, exit through the gift shop, where we bought some fridge magnets.

So, is it any good? Well, the difference between getting up close to the actual pictures in a gallery is obvious. On the other hand, all the pictures are in various galleries around the world, so your chances of seeing them all together depends on there being a major exhibition. And then being able to get to it. It also provides a pretty good potted history of Van Gogh’s paintings, styles and influences. So overall it gets a thumbs up from me, and a thumbs up from her.

Afterwards we went to lunch at a new place we’d spotted when we parked the car: The Lab, which appears to be the bigger brother of the one we visited a few months ago on Victoria Street. Apparently there’s four of them now in Wellington. Anyway, tasty food, but no beverage license so had to have soft drinks or water. It turns out it’s been there a while, actually, but as we don’t visit this part of town with any kind of regularity, we’d missed it.