Surrealist Art

Te Papa are holding an exhibition of Surrealist art at the moment. This is likely to be very popular, so we decided that a Tuesday morning would be a good time to go along as it wouldn’t be as crowded as at the weekend. Our best-laid plan included breakfast at The Larder, then we headed into town and parked at Te Papa. 

As expected, there weren’t many people there, and we were able to make our way through the exhibition, spending as much time as we wanted. The exhibition documents the Surrealist movement, how it grew out of the Dadaist movement, which itself was a response to the horrors of trench warfare in World War One. They had many significant paintings and other works on loan from around the world, including several by Salvador Dali, the best-known proponent of Surrealism. There were also some sculptures, books and films, and a display which recreates the painting Not To Be Reproduced by Rene Magritte:

 

There was also this famous sofa: 

So if you want some serious art, go see this exhibition.

Jersey Boys

Jersey Boys has been a successful musical in the US, UK, and around the world for a number of years. This touring production in New Zealand has been playing in Auckland, and has now come to Wellington. What’s not to like?

First, of course, dinner. We haven’t been to Loggy B’s for a while so thought to head along there for a pre-theatre dinner. They’ve changed up their offering since Covid, and now offer a prix fixe menu for $75, with three options of starter, main and dessert. It’s still cooked to Logan Brown quality, of course, but they don’t have the full à la carte they used to offer. As fashions in dining change I guess they have to do what they can to stay in business. That said, we had no problem deciding on what to have – the pāua ravioli is still on the menu, and will probably never leave.  And it was delicious.

We arrived at the Opera House in good time for the show, and took our seats in the stalls. The show is told in four parts, from the point of view of each of the four main protagonists – the original members of the Four Seasons. It starts in New Jersey, where a band eventually forms (some early members drop out), they’re occasionally a threesome as one member is banged up in prison, and eventually Joe Pesci (yes, that Joe Pesci) introduces Bob Gaudio to the band. The show documents their early life, problems with debts, gambling, drugs and women, as well as playing some of their best-known hits. Of which there are many more than you think, as memorable song after memorable song is belted out by the accomplished cast of singers, dancers, and musicians. Thoroughly enjoyable, and if you get a chance to see a production of this (it’s finished now in New Zealand, sadly), you should go.

The next day I was working at Zealandia, taking a tour. I was chatting to one of the guests (I only had two people on that particular tour) and it turns out he was the lead saxophonist of the show! I should’ve asked him for Frankie’s autograph.

Paradise, Or The Impermanence Of Ice Cream

Indian Ink are back, with a  new show titled Paradise, Or The Impermanence of Ice Cream. You’ll remember them from such past productions as The Pickle King and Mrs. Krishnan’s Party, both of which we enjoyed.

It was on at Te Auaha again, so I took the opportunity to nip up the road to Choice Bros for one of their wagyu burgers. This is a place that I have haunted regularly of late, as they’re open of a lunchtime, and make a tasty burger. Other places also make tasty burgers, but fail to open at lunchtime (yes, Grill Meats Beer, I’m looking at you). It’s usually deserted when I go there, but it turns out that it’s a popular evening spot (I guess that’s how they’re still in business) and I could barely find room to sit! Still, burger consumed and washed down with a Starman, I made my way back to Dixon Street.

Paradise… starts with the arrival on stage of Kutisar, with a loud thump. He’s prostrate on the lump thingy in the middle of the stage. Alive? Dead? A vulture lands on his chest, and pecks at him. He laughs and brushes it away. The vulture pecks again, more painfully this time, and Kutisar opens his eyes, yelps and leaps to his feet! The vulture flaps away.

Where is he? He steps off the painted area in the centre of the stage, and is immediately consumed by flames. He jumps back to safety, and tries the other side of the stage – freezing ice storm! He goes to the back of the stage – cacophony! He can’t go forwards (audience in the way), so he’s stuck there.

Via a series of flashbacks, we explore his past life. This involves meeting Meera at a Mumbai nightclub, and their lives intertwine, with her overbearing uncle, mad aunt and the recent death of her controlling grandfather, as well as supporting parts from a moneylender and Dr. Prakash, curator of the local museum. And a vulture. An actual, live vulture (OK, a puppet). They are all part of the Parsi culture, and Meera is distraught that her grandfather’s remains aren’t being eaten by the vultures in the Tower of Silence.

Did I mention this is a one-man show? The vulture is operated by a puppeteer, but all the other parts are played by Jacob Rasan, who has adopted Freddie Mercury prosthetic teeth for the show (Mercury, aka Farrokh Bulsara, was also a Parsi), and even sounded like him at times.

As we’re struggling with the symbolism of the vulture in the play, we find out more about Meera’s life, and why she’s now running her grandfather’s kulfi shop. The plot thickens when Kutisar is taken to a cattle dump by the moneylender, where rabid dogs roam (literally; there’s a serious rabies outbreak in the city), and there is but one, lonely vulture, which sickens and dies before their eyes. Kutisar takes the corpse back to Dr. Prakash, who performs a post-mortem to discover the cause of death.

At this point we begin to realise that the vulture symbolises…vultures. The play is actually about India’s vulture crisis. As we come to the end, Kutisar’s soul is released into paradise, and the vulture dances. He’s a really good dancer.

Indian Ink have once again delivered the goods, and I look forward to their next production. 

 

Austen Found

The NZ International Comedy Festival is drawing to a close, and one of the highlights of recent years has been the presence of Penny Ashton, who has regaled us in the past with her take on Austen, (Promise & Promiscuity) and Dickens (Olive Copperbottom). This year, her show is called Austen Found.

With a slightly later start time of 8:15pm, we decided to head into Hataitai for dinner at BambuchiSan, which is what Bambuchi morphed into a couple of years back. I thought it had closed as a result of Covid-19, but it turned out the notice that they placed in their window earlier in the year was merely to announce an extended break, and they’re back in business. They do modern Japanese-inspired food, and very delicious it was too…definitely try the beef cheeks! As we had plenty of time we ploughed into their desserts – the Snickers slice was particularly good.

We found a place to park and walked to BATS with still a bit of time to spare, so had another drink and did the crossword. The foyer, crowded at first, soon emptied as the show in the Dome was announced and nearly everyone headed upstairs. Shortly after, our doors opened and we took our seats.

This show was slightly different to Penny’s previous productions…it was an improv. First up, she got a suggestion of a title from the audience, having first picked a word at random from a book. We ended up with the title Sacred and Scandalous, and it was to feature Margaret Scattybottom, a zebra, a rose garden, and a library. Also unlike the previous shows, she had some assistance in this one, with Lori Dungey playing half the roles, and Jason Smith on piano to help with the songs. The story basically follows Pride & Prejudice, and features pushy mothers, younger sisters, and gossiping villagers, as well as a seemingly-obnoxious new tenant of “The Beehive”, Henry Courtenay of Courtenay Place. Margaret initially dislikes Henry, but through a series of contrivances, set to song, decides to abandon her prospective career as a bride of Christ and ends up becoming the bride of Henry instead. Hooray! All set to song and with many comic interludes, including a long-running gag about taking herself in hand.

All the shows have sold out, but they’ve added an additional show on Saturday night, so if you can get along to that, it’s highly recommended!

 As with previous performances, at the end of the show Penny sells fridge magnets afterwards. Usually they’re $2 each, or three for $5, but this year, due to a delivery failure, they’re $2 each or two for $5. “Maths was never my strong point!” simpered Penny. A bargain, nonetheless.

 

General Admissions

We’re in the middle of the NZ International Comedy Festival and, due to the Covids, whilst they’re keeping the “international” in their name, there’s precious little in the way of internationality about it this year. Now, I love New Zealand comedians as much as the next guy. That’s not very much, apparently. We have one or two megastars, but they’ve mostly buggered off overseas to find fame and fortune, leaving the stalwarts of 7 Days and similar shows to take up the slack. Even some of our homegrown talent aren’t putting on a new show – nothing from Rhys Darby or Hayley Sproull, for example.

One who is putting on a show is Sera Devcich. We haven’t seen much of her recently, and she explained why almost as soon as she arrived on stage. She’s had a baby, and she shared some of the details about that. Overshared, possibly. She also gave us some information about irritable bowel syndrome without which I could have happily lived the rest of my life. But she did so in an amusing way, and she generally regaled us with stories about her life, whilst also engaging the audience in some of her routines…to the slight discomfort of some. There was a long involved story about a home-made glow-in-the-dark dildo which had us all in stitches.

It wasn’t a long show, but very funny. We’d taken the decision, due to timings of Miss Daisy duties and the show’s start, to dine afterwards instead of our usual pre-show dinner, and decided to go somewhere we hadn’t been before: Panhead Brewery’s pub on the corner of Tory Street. The food there was good pub grub, nothing exceptional but a well-made burger is always welcome. And Panhead beer, of course, which is pretty good.

Another Mammal

Another week, another play at Circa Theatre: Another Mammal. This is a new New Zealand play by WFINZ* playwright Jo Randerson; who, according to a review in Theatreview, “surely needs no introduction”. Well, yes she bloody does, ’cos I’ve never heard of her. Have you? Anyway, she’s written some plays.

But first, of course, dinner. Last week we were unable to get to Capitol, so decided to go there for a pre-show dinner. We’d forewarned them that we needed to be out to get to Circa by 7:30, so made good progress through starters and mains, but then made the rookie error of ordering dessert. Even though it was pre-prepared and didn’t require any assembly, the restaurant was pretty full by this time so took a while to emerge from the kitchen. We rather bolted it, before making our way to Circa at a brisk trot. Made it with a minute to spare!

Another Mammal is a metaphor. For what, though? A couple are going through the same old argument as “Y” returns home late – very late – to “Z”, to her inevitable anger and accusations. He solves this altercation wordlessly, and very directly, by pulling out a gun and shooting her. Damn! This is going to be a short play!

The stage manager comes in, straightens the furniture, and the stage is reset. Y enters again. This time the altercation is subtly different, but the end result is the same.

And so on. Each vignette is interspersed with music by New Zealand artists (I only recognised one, Ladyhawke). The stage keeps being reset, and different arguments take place. Sometimes Z comes in to Y, and shoots him instead. The argument becomes wider-ranging, not just about the couple but covering colonialism, isolationism, protectionism, Covidism – a huge range of -isms.

Whilst all this has been going on, three Wolf-Apes, as they are characterised in the programme, have been gradually interjecting themselves into the play. What do these represent? Our subconscious selves? We’re never told. Also, the Stage Manager starts to impose herself on the couple and the dynamic changes from one of confrontation to (attempted) reconciliation.

What does it all mean? Well, it’s a metaphor, innit. That’s Art, that is.

 

 

* World Famous In New Zealand. As if you didn’t know.

Things I Know To Be True

It’s been a while since we’ve been out to the theatre, largely due to a dearth of shows that look like anything we want to see. Things I Know To Be True is an Australian play, first shown at the State Theatre Company in Adelaide, and now a co-production between the Court Theatre in Christchurch, and Circa Theatre in Wellington. 

With an early 6:30pm start, I checked out our usual haunts for a pre-show dinner. Capitol was fully booked at that hour, and Field & Green was doing a special event, so was unavailable. No worries, we’ll head to Hot Sauce at the QT Hotel instead. We duly showed up, and ordered what turned out to substantial courses of bibim-bap and tuna salad. I’d had a burger earlier in the day, so I didn’t want pudding, but Nicola fancied the banana, Kahlua and peanut butter gelato. We’ve got half an hour until the show starts, so we’ll be fine. “I’ll check to see if we have that” said our waiter…”I’ll be right back”. “Right back” turned out to be 10 minutes. There was only one other table in the whole place. Having placed the order…nothing. More nothing. How hard is this to make? After another 10 minutes we abandoned the idea, and went to pay…just at that moment it appears from the kitchen, but there’s no time to eat it now. The to-ing and fro-ing over removing it from the bill eats further into our time. Fortunately the theatre is just across the road, and we made it with minutes to spare.

We took our seats and the lights went down. The play centres on the Price family in suburban Western Australia, and the four grown-up children take centre stage for each act of the play. In the first, the youngest, Rosie, has just returned from an OE in Europe, surprising her parents by turning up unexpectedly. Each act is centred on a season, marked by the changing of the roses in the garden. As the children’s lives and decisions take place, these impact on the parents and the way that they deal with the crises in their children’s lives show up their morality and attitudes to modern life. The mother, Fran, has always been the voice of the family, giving advice whether wanted or not, and sardonically commenting on the foibles of her offspring. It is presented as a metaphor for modern Australia and the way that the old ways of doing things aren’t now being followed by the younger(-ish) generation.

The ending was foreshadowed at the beginning of the play, but still comes as a bit of a surprise. Some of the choices made by the children are revisited as a result, whilst others are left unresolved. A bit like life, really. Definitely worth watching.