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.
THE BRAVE
New Plymouth, Wellington, Auckland, Tauranga
17/04/2012 - 28/02/2015
"Extravaganza of heighted reality profoundly grounded in truth..
"A show for everyone..
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THE TWO FARTING SISTERS
Wellington, Auckland
17/02/2015 - 03/03/2015
"Worthy of deeper exploration..
"Sweet and sour flatulence..
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TIMON OF ATHENS
Wellington
13/02/2015 - 28/02/2015
"Long-awaited Timon is timely..
UNDER THE SAME MOON
Wellington, Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, New Plymouth
10/02/2015 - 15/09/2016
"Falls short of its promise..
"A keen observation of human nature and family..
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THE ISLAND
Wellington
04/02/2015 - 07/02/2015
"Creative skills could deliver more potent satire..
THE DEMOLITION OF THE CENTURY
Kerikeri, , Wellington, New Plymouth
31/01/2015 - 16/08/2015
"Flamboyant, laconic, witty, wry, dark, bleak, rich..
"Cabaret-style enhances the reading..
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STOMACH
Auckland, Wellington
11/03/2014 - 31/01/2015
"Powerful play provides plenty for audiences to chew over..
"A delight to digest..
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TWELFTH NIGHT
Wellington
24/01/2015 - 08/02/2015
"A fluent flow of seamless unseemliness..
"Art gallery woven into comic take on Shakespeare..
THE RAGGED (Wellington 1840)
Wellington
20/01/2015 - 28/01/2015
"Richly textured, insightful, humorous, sobering and energising..
SEED
Wellington
17/01/2015 - 14/02/2015
"Lack of babies creates drama..
"Deserves to flourish..
THE KITCHEN AT THE END OF THE WORLD
Greytown, Wellington
18/10/2012 - 24/01/2015
"Marionette play tugs on feelings of warmth for old values..
"Engaging at human, metaphysical and meta-theatrical levels..
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RICHARD III
Wellington
15/01/2015 - 31/01/2015
"Shakespeare meets Black Adder and Monty Python..
"A memorable satirical romp with bite..
MARY’S CHRISTMAS in Wellington
Wellington
16/12/2014 - 17/12/2014
"Quietly insightful humour..
THE REVIEWERS
Wellington
09/12/2014 - 13/12/2014
"Multiple rings of ‘reality’ ring false..
DOGS
Wellington
09/12/2014 - 13/12/2014
"Not enough..
DEAD TRAGIC
Palmerston North, Wellington
10/07/2010 - 21/12/2014
"Dead Tragic anything but..
"Bound to make you feel better about your own lot in life..
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WATCH
Wellington
22/11/2014 - 13/12/2014
"Espionage thriller launches BATS transformation..
"BATS flies home into tangled webs..
FORTY YEARS OF CENTREPOINT THEATRE: THE HISTORY ACCORDING TO HAWES
Global
17/11/2014 - 31/01/2015
"Comedy, tragedy, anguish and joy amid too many inaccuracies..
VANILLA MIRAKA
Wellington, Auckland, Global
04/11/2014 - 31/05/2020
"Delightful, funny and poignant..
"A sincere quest or an ‘othering’ piss-take?..
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BLUE STOCKINGS
Wellington
28/10/2014 - 08/11/2014
"Prejudice at heart of Swale’s play..
"As enlightening as it is entertaining..
I’LL BE FINE
Auckland, Wellington
21/10/2014 - 20/06/2015
"Young in Trouble..
"Like Woody Allen on speed..
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ISAAC’S EYE
Wellington
18/10/2014 - 15/11/2014
"A provocative peep into Newton’s mind..
"Thoroughly engaging if somewhat ethereal..
ONCE UPON A TIME IN WELLINGTON
Wellington
16/10/2014 - 25/10/2014
"Crime story laden with a few too many clichés..
"No way in..
