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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.

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Theatre and dance reviews since 2006.

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Wellington

07/03/2006 - 11/03/2006

"Skazzle Dazzle baffles..

BATTALION

Wellington

02/03/2006 - 01/03/2014

"True power and wonder in the showing..

"Full-on to a fault..

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Aarero Stone

Dunedin, Auckland, Wellington

01/03/2006 - 28/04/2007

"Frothy coffee..

"Addictive theatre..

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Eraritjaritjaka

Wellington

24/02/2006 - 26/02/2006

"Easier to admire than like..

"Audience abuzz..

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Blood of the Lamb

Wellington

26/02/2006 - 28/03/2006

"Doing Bruce Mason proud..

The History Boys

Wellington

24/02/2006 - 28/02/2006

"Lives up to expectations..

"More is more..

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King and Country

Dunedin, Wellington

24/02/2006 - 10/10/2006

"Fearsome realities faced with song and humour..

"Cathartic theatre..

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Dr Buller's Birds

Wellington

25/02/2006 - 18/03/2006

"Passion of lecture in full flight..

"He killed what he loved..

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The Cottage

Wellington

24/02/2006 - 27/02/2006

"The Cottage..

"Infectious energy in gay play..

Les Arts Sauts in Ola Kola

Wellington

24/02/2006 - 20/03/2006

"Heavenly spectacle..

Heavenly Burlesque

Wellington

16/02/2006 - 04/03/2006

"High notes..

"A hit..

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The Operation of the Sun in the Garden at the End of the World. Part 1: The Victorians

Wellington

24/02/2006 - 03/03/2006

"I feel uninvited..

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