On Saturday we went to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the ‘Pop up Globe’ in Ellerslie Park.
The structure was impressive: it looked life size. I guess it doesn’t ‘pop up’ all that quickly… The play was well acted and fun, even raucous at times! The guys playing the craftsmen (’tradies’ in NZ speak) were good musicians too and they serenaded the audience in the garden at the interval: nice touch.
The only issue for us, and – from the article in the Herald at the weekend – for many people, was that Oberon and Puck spoke in Maori. It was about 20% of the play and although they made the most important bits obvious with gestures etc, it was hard to follow at times.
We were keen to get our theatrical cultural fix this last week, but as we couldn’t find one …we went to see the only play in town during our stay: Hilary Clinton / Young Lover.
I’m afraid that New Zealand humour doesn’t always translate to us Brits. For example, only last night I had to translate my comment on the wine to our enthusiastic NZ waiter:
‘When I say the wine is ‘not too bad‘ this is British speak for the NZ word ‘awesome!’’
In general I think I would have to agree with the New York Magazine’s description of the play; they described it as ‘demented’, a description which is proudly displayed as part of the publicity distributed by Circa Theatre. I didn’t have the heart to tell them …
It wasn’t a compliment guys…
The Circa Theatre on Wellington’s waterfront does put on some excellent theatre over the year.
What is Karma Snort you may ask? Well its just another example of quirky NZ branding.
Karma Snort are a group of New Zealand comedians.. at last count up to 14 of them. They were appearing on stage at a late night performance at the Q Theatre; at the top of Queens Street, Central Auckland. It was a nine thirty (ish) start for about an hour. They had a couple of special guests and improvised comic routines based around random words suggested by the audience. They were pretty good actually. Val was even given a pack of Karma Cola (no additives – all natural and organic .. I think!)
Before the show we visited an interesting little Japanese sake bar. It was called Tanuki.. the one next door called Tanuki’s Cave was trendier, with lots of youngsters.. but the waiting time was 20 minutes. We snacked on Sashimi, Edeme green soya beans, broccoli with sesame mayonnaise, Prawn Tempura and Vegetable Suchi. Swilled down with a little medium sweet saki…
The only issue for us, and – from the article in the Herald at the weekend – for many people, was that Oberon and Puck spoke in Maori. It was about 20% of the play and although they made the most important bits obvious with gestures etc, it was hard to follow at times.
