Auckland Fringe Festival saves the best till last

All-female improv troupe Heartthrob's latest parody show is Lust Island, inspired by TV reality show Love Island.

What: Lust Island
Where & when: Basement Theatre, until Saturday
Reviewed by Ethan Sills

For the last two years, all-female improv troupe Heartthrob's parody shows (Mackenzie's Daughters, The Salem Bitch Trials) have been highlights not only of the Fringe Festival but of the entire Auckland theatrical calendar. They always deliver a slick, hysterically funny package, so it's no surprise that this year's edition, Lust Island, is just as successful.

A perfectly pitched parody of Love Island, each night sees 10 members of the group tackle reality TV tropes as well as audience-submitted personality traits. The brutal British accents are fully embraced and each performer slickly realises their assigned trait. Kura Forrester's comic timing as bodybuilder turned on by the word "island" is flawless, while Emma Newborn sent her "snobby whino" down an increasingly dark path. Though not quite as disturbed as Freya Finch's slightly psychotic, scene-stealing role as a Scottish interpretation of John Campbell.

These shows are always magical to watch, as the performers manage to craft a reasonably coherent, if fully ridiculous, storyline. The premiere show featured arson and attempted kidnappings among the dating show jokes, and I was excited for the storylines to collide in a gloriously messy finale. Yet the show was determined to end with a Love Island recoupling ceremony – given these shows are always a winner, the improvised madness should be allowed the freedom to reach its natural and very funny conclusion.

What: The Wall
Where & When: TAPAC, until Saturday, March 7
Reviewed by Dione Joseph

Written by Mallika Krishnamurthy and directed by founder of Babel Theatre, Daniel Fernandez, The Wall is a raw and poignant exploration of what it means to be an immigrant.

The 25-strong cast share personal stories through a well-woven ensemble performance and while there is no obvious mention to Aotearoa New Zealand, it's easy to recognise the anti-immigrant rhetoric of our politicians and former leaders. At one end of the stage, the "wall" itself looms as a large and constant reminder of barriers while a narrator surrounded by books and papers, compelled to write a story that she confesses is not "mine to write", occupies the other.

Performers are from a variety of backgrounds and the mix of languages (especially the from the Middle East and Latin America) is encouraging to hear. Natascha Diaz, Sneha Shetty and Maulik Thakkar all give endearing performances and while the cast as a whole is strong, occasionally voices and stories blur as the volume rises. The show, while emphasising the issues of immigration, doesn't quite respond to the role of tangata whenua and some of the closing remarks veer on the didactic. This does little justice to the wealth of knowledge and cultural capital that immigrants bring - they are more than just taxi drivers, cleaners, nurses. Ultimately, it's a powerful community production that holds some very hard truths with great tenderness.