Sam Brooks

1 week ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Sam Brooks

Pop Cultureabout 12 hours agoHis name sits above the title of most of his plays. It might even sit above the phrase ‘New Zealand theatre’. Sam Brooks speaks to Sir Roger Hall about paving the way for an entire artform. The country’s most successful playwright cuts an unassuming figure. He is unostentatiously dressed, peers at me through spectacles, and has a freshly printed list of his plays, all 47 of them, in front of him.

2 weeks ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Sam Brooks

Sam Brooks reviews the new show from Red Leap, a visually stunning mix of theatre and dance. A mundane breakfast, repeated ad nauseam. A coat check in a club. A bloody operating table. A woman pulled in two in a moment at a bus stop. These are images that show up in Red Leap’s new show, Wrest, a hybrid of theatre and dance exploring early motherhood. These are also the images that have lingered with me long after the show.

3 weeks ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Sam Brooks

NZ Opera’s production of Puccini’s masterpiece looks and sounds lovely, but would it work better in a different space? Operas come with their own assumed cultural cache. Even if the general public – if such a thing exists anymore – isn’t familiar with specific pieces, they at least know that certain operas exist, and that if they’re still being performed they must at least be a little good. The Magic Flute, The Barber of Seville, and a few other Mozarts have this level of recognition.

1 month ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Sam Brooks

The new circus show from The Dust Palace isn’t just a fun night out, it’s an introduction to an exciting new space in Tāmaki Makaurau, writes Sam Brooks. As a resident of the very centre of Auckland’s central business district, I often forget that there are spaces beyond the view of the Sky Tower where exciting and new art is being performed. “1010” is just a postcode, not a designation of where all the cool stuff is happening.

Jan 15, 2025 | letterboxd.com | Sam Brooks

★★★★★ Gorgeous, horrid, harrowing and raw film about the toxic relationship between art and commerce.