Herald Theatre 
Hobson Street Theatre Company
Directed by Borni Te Rongopai Tukiwaho and Bronwyn Bent

If you feel as though you recognise the performers in Last Chance Café, it may be because you’ve seen them before – on Auckland’s streets.

The Hobson Street Theatre Company is run by Auckland City Mission, and the members of the group have used the mission’s services. Some of the actors have experienced, or currently experience, homelessness.

Read the full review on The 13th Floor.

A Spiegeltent is large travelling entertainment venue made from teak and decorated with velvet, stained glass and mirrors. Such a tent is home to Spiegelworld, the New York-based troupe who’ve taken circus, cabaret and burlesque and given them an extreme makeover for our post-Playboy world.

I spoke to Jonathan Taylor, AKA Oscar the Impresario, about the new show Empire.

Q: On a sexiness meter of 1 – 10 (with 1 being ice cold and 10 being burning hot), where’s Spiegelworld and why?
A: Inside our Velvet lined wooden and mirrored 700 seat Vintage Spiegeltent, 16 performers wear very little while performing the impossible. We are off the charts! Even the audience feels sexy in this show.

Read the full interview on The 13th Floor. 

Lucia di Lammermoor
Mercury Theatre
10 and 12 October

The performer who sent shivers down my spine with the very first note she sang was Marlena Devoe as Lucia. She has absolute control of her dazzling voice, whether it’s light with love, heavy with fury or avant-garde with insanity. If you can get through the whole opera without Marlena making you cry, you deserve some kind of award for stoicism...


Read the full review on The 13th Floor. 

“Do you know the movie Pretty Woman?” Marlena Devoe asks. She sips tea at Alleluya Café, looking as glamorous as her name sounds. “Richard Gere takes Julia Roberts to the opera, and he says when you listen to opera for the first time you will love it or hate it – and if you love it, you will always love it. That’s so true. My mum loves opera, she loves it. But my dad – not so much. He’s into jazz..."


Read the full interview on the 13th Floor website.