16th March, Friday

Hohepa is an event to be celebrated inNew Zealand theatre. It is a collective, decisive step forward in terms of how a bi-cultural society can conceive of and create itself. And it has a prismatic, rich beauty. Read on

15th March, Thursday

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15th March, Thursday

It is well known that James Thiérée is the son of Jean Baptiste Thiérée and Victoria Chaplin, whose father was Charles – better known as Charlie – Chaplin. Read on

15th March, Thursday

War and Shakespeare are two themes running through this year's theatrical offerings at the International Arts Festival. Read on

15th March, Thursday

Opera singers have to wait until they're deep into their 30s before they get a true sense of their talent. They're the late bloomers of the arts. Read on

15th March, Thursday

Irish accordionist Sharon Shannon won people over instantly with her charm and her playing. Read on

15th March, Thursday

Like his grandfather Charlie Chaplin before him, James Thierree is a master of expressing actions and emotions through the physicality of his body unaided by words. Read on

15th March, Thursday

Had it not been for the need to vacate the venue to allow Cantina to set up I have no doubt we would have all been quite happy to keep this duo until midnight, such was the camaraderie between audience and performers. Read on

14th March, Wednesday

The setting for German theatre company Circle of Eleven's Leo is a room with a red wall and blue floor, which solo performer Tobias Wegner appears trapped in with no way of escape no matter what type of extraordinary acrobatic-type feats he attempts. Read on

14th March, Wednesday

Back in 2000 there was a Stab show at Bats called AAARGH! –The Live Movies – involving the likes of Bret McKenzie, Jemaine Clement and Taika Cohen (better known now as Taika Waititi). Read on

14th March, Wednesday

TIGHTROPE walking in heels, magic tricks in the nude, a barbershop quartet and vaudeville dancing – to us it just sounds like just another day on level nine at the Beehive. Read on

14th March, Wednesday

In front of a packed Wellington Town Hall and missing two key members, Tinariwen - the name is roughly translated into "Desert Boys" - simply rolled up their collective sleeves and proceeded to break down perceived musical ideas, leaving the ethnical Read on

14th March, Wednesday

It was loud, it was an assault on the senses and it was electrifyingly good in every way that contemporary dance can be. Read on

13th March, Tuesday

Pioneering feminist Germaine Greer has despaired at the growth of a "paedophillic culture" obsessed with celebrity, looks and sex. Read on

12th March, Monday

According to my friend Mr Pedia, first name Wiki, the term "klezmer" comes from a combination of the Hebrew words "kli" meaning useful and prepared instrument and "zemer" meaning to make music. Read on

10th March, Saturday

A standing ovation in the packed 'standing-room-only' Te Papa marae confirmed the success of this brave and challenging enterprise: a Māori translation – by Te Haumihiata Mason – of Troilus and Cressida, one of Shakespeare's lesser-known and more pro Read on

9th March, Friday

1927's mix of live action and animation was extremely popular when its last show, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea played in the 2010 Festival Club. Read on

9th March, Friday

Much anticipated great expectations. Met? Yes! Read on

9th March, Friday

This tornado skips, trembles, crashes and searches through 70 minutes of bleak yet somehow resilient theatre. Read on

7th March, Wednesday

THE centre of this programme was the music of Samuel Barber, the early spiky String Quartet in B minor Op 11, rarely heard these days, since its adagio movement, arranged for fuller strings, is the elegiac, most frequently played piece at funerals of Read on

7th March, Wednesday

After an hour in the kinky company of Cantina, one can’t help but think Woody Allen’s film Midnight in Paris* would have been immeasurably enlivened if he’d sent Owen Wilson back in time to this particular 1920s nightclub. Read on

7th March, Wednesday

English all-male shakespeare company Propeller have, over the past 15 years, cultivated a reputation for fast-paced high-energy performances which are both respectfully adherent to the text and rigorously modern in their aesthetic. Read on

7th March, Wednesday

The show is White and colours are banished, but one of its lead actors will be hitting the stage tonight red-faced. Read on

6th March, Tuesday

THERE is a meteorological phenomenon curiously familiar to New Zealanders, yet largely unknown to the rest of the world. Read on

6th March, Tuesday

Read on

5th March, Monday

Techno music rattles your eardrums and bright lights dazzle your eyes as you enter the TSB Arena which has been arranged so that the audience is seated on three sides of a boxing ring without ropes. Read on

5th March, Monday

This season of TeZukA is sponsored by Sauce, the digital media people, whose managing director uses the word “exhilarating”. Read on

5th March, Monday

TeZuka is a multi-media spectacle that saturates the senses – dance, music, text, comic strips and calligraphy unfold in dazzling layer upon layer. Read on

5th March, Monday

Tezuka begins with a dancer rolling and contorting around the stage like a rubber man, reading a comic book held between his toes. Read on

5th March, Monday

What do you know before you go? You know that you will see a contemporary, thought provoking piece of theatre. Read on

5th March, Monday

Rosencrantz clearly got it wrong when he told Gertrude that Hamlet was “niggard of question” (unwilling to start a conversation) because in this, the fourth and funniest and most outrageous Shakespearean offering of the festival, he talks a great dea Read on

3rd March, Saturday

Masi is another 'must see' festival show. Like the quest it embodies it is simultaneously mysterious and exotic yet strangely familiar. Read on

3rd March, Saturday

Imagine, if you will, Captain Beefheart running a circus. Read on

3rd March, Saturday

Now, this is the kind of concert in terms of impact and quality that helps make a festival worth remembering. Read on

3rd March, Saturday

Fijian tapa cloth or masi is made from tree bark which is beaten until soft and pliable and then the sheets are interwoven, and plaited until a mat is made. Read on

3rd March, Saturday

Masi is another 'must see' festival show. Like the quest it embodies it is simultaneously mysterious and exotic yet strangely familiar. Read on

3rd March, Saturday

Imagine, if you will, Captain Beefheart running a circus. Read on

2nd March, Friday

Tonight Propeller jumps a decade or so forward in Shakespeare's career to one of his late plays and romances, The Winter's Tale. Read on

2nd March, Friday

Hone Kouka and his Tawata Productions have created a powerful, moving and resounding play inspired by Patricia Grace's novel, Tu. Read on

2nd March, Friday

Recently the West's Arts Editor Stephen Bevis, commenting on the definition of art in the context of Cottesloe's Sculpture by the Sea, wrote, "(Art) can be high-minded polemic and debate, pure escapist entertainment or lots of time-wasting jibber jab Read on

2nd March, Friday

The darkened stage is dominated by a huge slanting obelisk and there is a dull rumble punctuated by an electronic beep. Read on

2nd March, Friday

Hone Kouka and his Tawata Productions have created a powerful, moving and resounding play inspired by Patricia Grace's novel, Tu. Read on

2nd March, Friday

Bringing the magic of vaudeville to a contemporary stage only takes a bit of creative thinking, and a touch of walking on bottles. Read on

2nd March, Friday

Fijian tapa cloth or masi is made from tree bark which is beaten until soft and pliable and then the sheets are interwoven, and plaited until a mat is made. Read on

2nd March, Friday

Being a circus aficionado, when I approached the Ronaldo's Circenses circus tent last night, I could sense that something was different, and not just the season. Read on

2nd March, Friday

After hearing their abilities on disc it was no surprise that this was a concert by the Sixteen of Handel works of the highest quality. Read on

2nd March, Friday

This "bawdy planet", as Leontes describes the world and his kingdom of Sicilia, is in this sharp, enjoyable production influenced by a full Moon, thunder storms and an eclipse of the Sun as he tumbles into his ungovernable jealousy over his "slippery Read on

2nd March, Friday

THE Galileo Project, presented by the Canadian baroque chamber orchestra Tafelmusik, was developed by the orchestra's double bass player Alison MacKay to mark the year of astronomy in 2009, the 400th anniversary of the year in which the great Italian Read on

1st March, Thursday

Rip It Up's Paul Comrie-Thomson reviews last night's hugely successful Death Cab For Cutie show, as part of the Wellington International Arts Festival. Read on