Part of The Wirecutters’ appeal is this: you just don’t know who’s going to come through the door next.

Knock, knock, who’s there? It’s Neil Finn (Gabe Parkin), alone on stage with no band, unsure what to do next because big brother Tim has just shot through, but guess what, he’s got this idea for a song …

Now it’s Pauline Parker (Maya Lala), mum not bludgeoned to death with a brick yet, fantasising about escaping in a sailing boat to the Antarctica, the jungle, Hawaii, anywhere but Christchurch …

Gareth Farr (William Robinson) needs someone in the audience to pull off his high heeled shoes and undo his bra …

Nancy Wake (Emily Butler) holds a gun on the Germans who didn’t search her because she’s a woman, and therefore weak – big mistake …

Olivia Hall (Brodie Domb) is searching patiently for a way out of the labyrinth of eating disorders and body image …

Laura Daniel (Natalie Stewart) wants to tell us 100, make that 101, ways she’s tried to get out of Palmie…

Is that the lot? Why no! Who can this be? It’s Kate Walker (Maddie Brooks Gillespie), late Victorian reformer and feminist, and she’s here to Rock Your World.

The plain language key to all these visitations is that The Wirecutters gives us six or seven (depending on the night) solo performers presenting material of their own devising, each performer portraying / interpreting a New Zealander of note.

Unless you have inside knowledge, or have been reading previous Theatreview reviews closely, The Wirecutters is a bit of a lucky dip. But it’s one of those lucky dips where you can be reasonably confident of getting a surprise you’ll like.

Take Kate Walker, for instance. A founding member of the New Zealand Dress Reform Association of the 1890s; joint author, with her husband, of a 35-page pamphlet on dress reform. A good kind of person, no doubt; forward-looking, yes indeed; but doesn’t Kate sound maybe a little bit, um, worthy? As in, dull? Not the way Maddie Gillespie Brown does it – if anyone can make riding a bicycle in bloomers wild and groovy, she can.

Highlights for this reviewer:

Gabe Parkin, for his character’s well-conveyed diffident charm and for actorly skill displayed when shifting between “What am I doing here on this empty stage?” to “Why did my big brother leave me?” and back again.

Maya Lala, for a strong finish, shooting for the moon but with one foot stuck in the spaceship.

Maddie Brooks Gillespie, for a brilliant concept, backed up with lots of other inspired ideas, executed with skill and energy.

Natalie Stewart, for coming up with a lot of ideas for getting out of Palmie, and good luck with #102.

This reviewer has commented in previous reviews of The Wirecutters [see links below] on the excellent work of Emily Butler, William Robinson and Brodie Domb. Their performances have come on since first airing, as the actors pick up confidence and build on experience.

Director Deborah Eve Rea’s note in the programme plays down her contribution, but she deserves to be congratulated for bringing the show together, all the same.

A final reflection on all three versions of The Wirecutters (as in three different groups of performers) – is there a common thread here? Or is this mostly an opportunity for a particular group of young local actors to show their stuff individually?

The advertising blurb tells us that we’re going to see “the most famous and most infamous characters in New Zealand’s history.” No advertising blurb is on oath, but this claim is, your reviewer suggests, open to dispute (not that it matters).

But here’s another idea: there is a connecting theme between the show’s performances, if you go looking for it. It has something to do with bravery; in their own very different ways, just about every New Zealander of note we see is taking on the conventions, trying to find a way to be themselves, and free. And you’d have to say, the youthful performers are brave as well, taking on the challenges of the show’s solo, devising/acting format, and making a pretty good job of it. Bravery isn’t all it takes to make a successful show, but it’s a fine start.

If that makes you want to find out more, you can: The Wirecutters is on for three more nights: Group A on 2 March, Group B on 3 March, Group C on 4 March.
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“Quirky, passionate, subversive, unexpected, sometimes very funny, The Wirecutters lets a group of talented young Wellington actors loose on the theme of famous and infamous characters in New Zealand’s history.”  That’s how this reviewer described the opening night of The Wirecutters, and the same words apply equally to the second night, although it’s a mostly different show.

Why different? Because The Wirecutters is three separate shows linked by a common format. Each of the three shows gives us six solo performers presenting material of their own devising, each performer portraying / interpreting a New Zealander of note.

The format is demanding for its performers, particularly because there’s no narrative or other connection between the solo pieces. Each actor starts off cold, with limited time to establish their character (who, where, why and so forth), develop some kind of story or insight and, while they’re about it, grab, entertain and possibly instruct their audience.

Directed by Deborah Eve Rea, the Group B cast, like Group A, leaps on the challenge with enthusiasm and inventiveness. The six solos are drawn from these:

• A Kiwi entertainer out to make his mark in London, brainstorming a new kind of show: a musical with sex appeal, alien cowboys and Dr Frankenstein in fishnet tights (Richard O’Brien / Sol Maxwell)
• An English teenager trapped by illness in boring New Zealand, seeking escape through increasingly crazy fantasies (Juliet Hume / Alex la Rooij)
• A tough, sophisticated heroine of the French Resistance in World War 2 (Nancy Wake / Lauren O’Hara)
• A young woman giving evidence about being raped by policemen (Louise Nicholas / Kate Truman)
• A writer of young adult fiction wrestling with criticism that her troubled characters aren’t like “real teenagers” (Mandy Hagar / Maya Symmans de vere Green)
• A young woman with a gun taunting unseen enemies for underestimating her strength and deadly intent (Nancy Wake / Emily Butler)
• A young girl who wants to climb trees, steal lollies, triumph over annoying schoolmate Elizabeth, and sit among the clouds (Jean Batten / Kaia Holborow).

Group B shows a good grasp of the range of techniques that help to make the show’s format work. They start and finish strongly, highlight emotion and conflict, control and vary pace, shift perspectives, use the stage, reach out to the audience. The range of inventive variety revealed on stage continues to impress.

Standouts for this reviewer include Sol Maxwell swooping around the stage on glittery platform heels, like a charming, hyper-inventive praying mantis; Emily Butler cutting straight to the heart of the matter with her ferocious, take-no-prisoners prose poem / monologue; and Kaia Holborow’s schoolgirl bounce and playground acrobatics, her piece hitting just the right balance between what she’s saying now, and what we know she’ll become one day.

A special award for bravery goes to Kate Truman for her fairly hard-core piece about a young woman talking frankly with the realities of rape.

What this reviewer wrote about the Group A performance of The Wirecutters also goes for Group B. There’s a lot to like in this show; every piece has something of value to offer its audience, and there’s plenty of acting skill and creative flair on display. The cast has taken on an ambitious project, so it’s no surprise when material doesn’t quite come off, for reasons of design or technical ability. It wouldn’t be a Fringe show without some experimentation going on; anyone looking for the tried and true can find plenty of re-runs showing on the telly.

It would be interesting to know more about why the performers chose their characters; something to go in the programme next time around?

The Wirecutters is on for four more nights: Group A on 2 March, Group B on 3 March, Group C on 1 March and 4 March.

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Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

Quirky, passionate, subversive, unexpected, sometimes very funny, The Wirecutters lets a group of talented young Wellington actors loose on the theme of famous and infamous characters in New Zealand’s history. The resulting show might possibly not satisfy a professional historian (no Prime Ministers, no All Blacks, sober or otherwise, no Americas Cup winners), but if there were any quibbling historians in the audience last night, their grumbles were drowned out by the enthusiastic applause.

The show is made up of a sequence of one-person segments; one actor/deviser comes on, presents their piece, then off, a brief pause and it’s the next performer’s turn. It’s a demanding format, particularly because there’s no narrative or other connection between the segments. Each performer starts off cold, with limited time to establish their character (who, where, why and so forth), develop some kind of story or insight and, while they’re about it, grab, entertain and possibly instruct their audience.

A wee bit daunting? Not to our brave cast, who hurl themselves upon the challenge with enthusiasm and inventiveness. There’s something breath-taking about the variety of what’s on offer:

• A classical composer who also likes to perform Edith Piaf in spectacular drag (Gareth Farr performed by William Robinson)
• A writer mourning her dead brother (Katherine Mansfield / Grace Tromop van Dalen)
• A masseuse driven to campaign for sex worker’s rights (Catherine Healy / Max Steel);
• A tough, sophisticated war hero (Nancy Wake / Lauren O’Hara)
• A young woman coming to terms with her predestined role as a Maori leader (Dame Te Atairangikaahu / Charm Tuapawa)
• A young woman grappling with body and self-image (Olivia Hall / Brodie Domb)  
• A TV celebrity who’s just been edged out of her show and isn’t comfortable with that (Hilary Barry / Imogen Macalister). 

The cast shows a good grasp of the range of techniques that can be used to bring the format alive: start strongly, highlight emotion and conflict, control and vary pace, shift perspectives, use the stage, reach out to the audience. Again, we see a lot of inventive variety here.

Standouts for me include: William Robinson inhabiting the stage with cast-off clothes, shoes and bits of body padding; Lauren O’Hara’s smooth cocktail party aplomb; Brodie Domb methodically going through her body-measuring routine; and Imogen Macalister’s speeded-up relaxation routine, a comic gem that’s worth the price of admission all on its own. 

There’s a lot to like in The Wirecutters; the audience gets to see plenty of acting skill, and visit some odd, diverse chinks and corners of our history (your guides may be young, but they know what they’re doing and where they’re going). The cast has taken on an ambitious project, so it’s no surprise that some of the material doesn’t quite come off, for reasons of design or technical ability. It wouldn’t be a Fringe show without some experimentation going on; if you’re looking for the tried and true, there’s plenty of re-runs showing on the telly.

It would be interesting to know more about why the performers chose their characters; something to go in the programme next time around? 

The Wirecutters is on for five nights between 28 February and Saturday 4 March, with varying casts (most performers appear twice). 

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