Review Archive
John Smythe has trained and worked professionally in New Zealand, Australia then back in New Zealand as a playwright, director, screenwriter (& screenwriting teacher), actor, theatre critic and book writer.
His formal qualifications include a Bachelor of Dramatic Art from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (Sydney) and a Certificate in Screenwriting from the Australian Film Television and Radio School. He has also completed honours papers and a range of script writing courses.
Theatre directing credits in Australia include plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Gorki, and world premieres of plays by himself, Len Radic, David Williamson, Louis Esson, Katharine Susannah Prichard, Jack Hibberd and David O’Brien. Back in NZ he directed his own trilogy of short plays – ENTRANCING EXITS: Ms Conception; Nothing Twisted; Used Heads, at Bats Theatre, Wellington International Festival of the Arts; Faulty (sic) Towers & Blackadder’s Banquet at the Museum Hotel.
Playwright credits include Entrancing Exits (BATS Theatre), Conundra (Ensemble Productions), Swaggy Mack and his Magic Back Track (Arena Theatre), The Seven Stages of Hugh Mann (Melbourne University Theatre), Party Games (Jane St Theatre; La Mama) and Making A Play (Melbourne Theatre Company; Central Theatre), Where There’s a Will (BATS Theatre). Unproduced plays include Thelma, Weather and The Virtues of Reality.
John has also written The Peace Monster (Vintage, 1991); Downstage Upfront: the first 40 years of New Zealand’s longest-running professional theatre (Victoria University Press, November 2004) and The Plays of Bruce Mason – a survey (VUP & Playmarket, November 2015).
Amid a wide range of acting roles on stage, television and film, John has played Polonius and the Gravedigger in Hamlet twice (2006 and 2011). In 2012 and with Arts On Tour NZ in 2013 he played James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Carl Jung in Jan Bolwell’s Dancing in the Wake. In 2015 he played Barry Scanlan in his own play, Where There’s a Will, at BATS Theatre. (Since 2000 he has also played Birdboot in an annual VUW English Dept reading of Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound.)
Before becoming the founding Managing Editor of Theatreview.org.nz in 2006, John was a theatre critic for The Melbourne Times, The Australian, Theatre Australia Magazine, The National Business Review.
Welcome to the review archive.
Theatre and dance reviews since 2006.
TROLL
Wellington, Tauranga, Christchurch, Gisborne
12/02/2017 - 04/10/2020
"A captivating old fashioned, modern fairytale..
"A near-perfect little nugget of mythic storytelling..
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SWAMP JUICE
Wellington
09/03/2019 - 16/03/2019
"Shriekingly delightful..
IMPOSTER CHILD
Wellington
07/03/2019 - 11/03/2019
"An excellent comic sensibility..
STACK THAT BASS
Wellington
06/03/2019 - 07/03/2019
"Infectious pleasure in exploring skills..
I NEVER THOUGHT I'D HAVE TO EXPLAIN IT ALL
Wellington
05/03/2019 - 09/03/2019
"Succeeds as a showcase..
BLONDE MOUNTAIN WOLF MAN
Wellington, Palmerston North
06/10/2018 - 05/03/2019
"A fascinating historical plot dug over with ingenuity..
"Funny and engaging..
A NEW MAN
Wellington
01/03/2019 - 03/03/2019
"A long way short of meeting its objective..
ONCE THERE WAS A WOMAN
Auckland, Wellington
28/02/2017 - 02/03/2019
"Celebrating our shared humanity..
"Recalled with levity, warmth, dismay, resignation, fear, disorientation c..
MELANCHOLY PLAY
Wellington
27/02/2019 - 09/03/2019
"The pleasure of melancholy v the horror of happiness beautifully explored..
FULL SCALE
Wellington
26/02/2019 - 02/03/2019
"Daughter/ mother relationship navigated with creative ingenuity..
HAMLET
Wellington
15/02/2019 - 02/03/2019
"Verbally and physically crisp, clear and dynamically-paced..
CAPTAIN COOK THINKS AGAIN
Wellington
13/02/2019 - 24/02/2019
"Gets all of us looking at things anew..
THINKING DOLPHINS
Wellington
12/02/2019 - 16/02/2019
"One man’s life-changing encounter delightfully dramatised..
THE DREAM
Wellington
05/02/2019 - 09/02/2019
"A credible insight into the truths of unreality..
THE ATTITUDES – REFUSING PERFORMANCE
Wellington
29/01/2019 - 02/02/2019
"An innovatively classical way of “speaking unspeakable things” and “being the unspeakable”..
RANTS IN THE DARK
Christchurch, Wellington
19/01/2019 - 03/10/2020
"Energetic, relatable and mostly well-paced..
"A hero’s journey indeed..
LIFE IN THE WHALE
Wellington
11/12/2018 - 15/12/2018
"Dream (non)logic generates a reality-riddled metaphor..
STORY STUDIO LIVE
Wellington
09/12/2018 - 09/12/2018
"Inventive performance abetted by fun-to-watch live SFX-creation..
SANTA CLAUS
Wellington, Auckland
01/12/2017 - 15/12/2018
"The retrospective backwash dilutes the entertainment value..
"Ho Ho No..
More reviews
THE CATHERINE TATE SHOW – LIVE
Wellington
30/11/2018 - 07/12/2018
"No face looks bovvered..
PETER PAN GOES WRONG
Christchurch, Wellington
21/11/2018 - 02/12/2018
"A side-splitting romp for the whole family!..
"Oh so right when it goes wrong..
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THE TURKISH DOGS ARE RACIST
Wellington
20/11/2018 - 01/12/2018
"Ingeniously replicates the way such experiences resonate in our memories..
PUSS IN BOOTS
Wellington
17/11/2018 - 12/01/2019
"A great night of fun and laughs for all ages..
"Ideal family fare..
