Review Archive
Dione Joseph is a writer, director and dramaturge. She has an academic and practical background in live performance and her work has an emphasis on culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
Over the past ten years she has directed a range of productions including new dramas by contemporary writers, classics and their adaptations, experimental works, musicals, comedies and community-based theatre productions in the USA, New Zealand and Australia. She has also been active as a stage critic for both dance and theatre and has engaged with a variety of topical issues as an arts journalist.
Dione has also held various residencies and fellowships in the UK, China, Mexico, Canada and the USA and is the recipient of numerous awards for theatre including the Lorna Stirling Theatre Award (2012), a Creative Young Stars Australian government grant (2013), the Ian Potter Cultural Trust Award (2013) and has been invited twice as a guest scholar and Artist in Residence to the University of Saskatchewan (2014/15).
She is the first New Zealander to have been awarded a place at the prestigious Lincoln Centre directors’ lab in New York (2014) and was the only New Zealand critic to have been shortlisted for the Allen Wright media award at Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2014). In the past Dione has been a senior theatre critic at Australian Stage, arts editor at Melbourne City Newspaper and features writer at Aussie Theatre.
Currently based in Aotearoa New Zealand, Dione writes for Theatreview, The Big Idea, DANZ (Dance Aotearoa NZ) and her reviews can also be found on Radio NZ.
Welcome to the review archive.
Theatre and dance reviews since 2006.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM
Auckland
07/12/2017 - 27/02/2018
"Enchanting entertainment for a midsummer night..
"Bi-cultural dream full of comic energy..
SISTER ACT The Musical
Auckland
25/11/2017 - 16/12/2017
"Actors shine as Sister Act takes to stage..
"Nun better as an end-of year tonic..
MAGICIANS
Wellington, Palmerston North, New Plymouth, Auckland
19/10/2017 - 04/11/2017
"Slick acts generate entertaining show..
"An alluring challenge to sceptics..
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TE PUHI
Auckland
13/06/2017 - 17/06/2017
"Te Puhi definitely a beauty..
"Chuckles and tears for a different time..
TIKI TAANE MAHUTA 2017
Napier, Tauranga, Hamilton, Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin
22/05/2017 - 16/06/2017
"Immensely powerful..
"A rich evocation..
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IN TRANSIT
Auckland
04/05/2017 - 13/05/2017
"Moving drama shows we are all in transit..
"Entertainingly revealing..
AWA: When Two Rivers Collide
Auckland
25/03/2017 - 25/03/2017
"Journey across an extraordinary bilingual aural landscape..
"Cross-fertilisation of cultural forms in multi-layered storytelling..
CARMEN with L'ARLESIENNE
Christchurch, Dunedin, Palmerston North, Wellington, Auckland
16/02/2017 - 22/03/2017
"Carmen and L'Arlésienne shouldn't be missed..
"Power of Petit..
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HORROR
Auckland
21/03/2017 - 26/03/2017
"Stage frights a little too stock horror..
"Here’s Johnny (and other references)..
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iD - CIRQUE ÉLOIZE (CANADA)
Auckland
08/03/2017 - 12/03/2017
"Circus arts light up concrete jungle..
"A playful, surprising, exciting spectacle..
HENRY V (Pop-Up Globe 2017)
Auckland
28/02/2017 - 07/05/2017
"The fullest theatre experience of a lifetime..
"Janitor opens door to high drama Henry..
deVine
Whangarei, Auckland, Kerikeri
07/02/2017 - 18/02/2017
"Twisted Sisters..
"Characters scarily accurate and human..
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Sau E Siva Company presents Lalelei
Auckland
08/12/2016 - 15/12/2016
"An aesthetic that defies conventional categories..
FRESH 2016
Auckland
05/10/2016 - 07/10/2016
"Creative thinking and a strong narrative evident in all five pieces..
"Emerging works in a diversity of genres..
SONGS FOR THE FALLEN
Auckland, Nelson, Havelock North, Dunedin
28/09/2016 - 13/10/2016
"Formidable team keeps up incredible pace..
"Helter-skelter spiral from abandonment..
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SHOT BRO – Confessions of a Depressed Bullet
Auckland, Wellington, Tauranga, Kaikohe, Wairarapa, Dunedin, Invercargill
09/06/2016 - 09/05/2019
"Confronting and hard but also a safe space in which to explore the ugly realities of mental health..
"Funny, powerful, demanding..
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BOYS WILL BE BOYS
Auckland
08/09/2016 - 24/09/2016
"Swimming with the Sharks..
"A searing interrogation of value systems..
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THE ABSURDITY OF HUMANITY
New Plymouth, Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington
24/08/2016 - 20/09/2017
"From the jocular to the jugular and beyond.....
"Poignant moments of tenderness..
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VENUS IN FUR
Auckland
20/08/2016 - 18/09/2016
"Theatrically Stimulating..
"Kinky costumes steam up stage..
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HIPPOLYTUS VEILED
Auckland
16/08/2016 - 20/08/2016
"Highly stylised melodrama..
"Accessible, contemporary and relevant..
HEALR
Auckland
09/08/2016 - 06/10/2018
"Self-healing resolves in graceful provocation and sensuous unconcern..
"An intriguing exploration of the concept of wellbeing..
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THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME
Auckland
23/07/2016 - 14/08/2016
"Killed the Cat..
"A Star is Born..
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YOURS TRULY
Auckland, Waiheke Island, Hamilton
26/02/2016 - 16/07/2016
"Superior literary flourishes..
"Definitive horrific exposé..
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