The following reviews have been added to theatreview.org.nz in the last week.

Theatreview is the New Zealand Performing Arts Review & Directory.

Musgrove Studio, Maidment Theatre, Auckland - SILENT NIGHT: Parsons right on the nose

- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

The following reviews have been added to theatreview.org.nz in the last week.

Theatreview is the New Zealand Performing Arts Review & Directory.

Musgrove Studio, Maidment Theatre, Auckland - SILENT NIGHT: Parsons right on the nose

- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

Yvette Parsons creates a Kiwi Eleanor Rigby in her haunting portrait of an elderly widow busying herself in preparation for a Christmas Day gathering that no one will attend.

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The New Media Club, 195 Armagh Street, Christchurch - RANDOM ACTS OF GOD & OTHER STORIES: A CONTEMPORARY CABARET: Daring and intelligent tangle of music and dance theatre
- reviewed by Kerri Fitzgerald

Corrupt Productions (a dance theatre initiative) delivers what it promises and more. Described as a 'contemporary cabaret', Random Acts of God is a blend of live music and quirky contemporary dance that is 'edgy', earthy, and downright cheeky.

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BATS, Wellington - MEMBERS OF OUR LIMBS: Madcap antics and zany delight
- reviewed by Jennifer Shennan

It is sheer pleasure to see this work 40 years after Theatre Action, a company of five graduates of the same Ecole Jacques Lecoq, led by Francis Batten, brought alternative theatre to new territories here in New Zealand. That was before any of these young performers was born, yet the pedigree of their school remains intact ...

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Musgrove Studio, Maidment Theatre, Auckland - SILENT NIGHT: Harrowing hilarity earns standing ovation
- reviewed by Nik Smythe

Irene McMunn is a dear, doddery old biddy preparing to entertain a few guests on Christmas afternoon, after her customary morning church service. With able guidance from her director Stephen Papps, Yvette Parsons delivers a tour-de-force performance as poignant as it is parodic.

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BATS, Wellington - MEMBERS OF OUR LIMBS: Emotional truth at the heart of success
- reviewed by John Smythe

We all have a clown within us; not just a child to be rediscovered in adult form but someone whose naivety, gullibility and susceptibility to strong and deep-felt emotions would come to the fore in idiosyncratic ways if certain controlling factors were subtracted from our learned strategies for survival.

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MIC Toi Rerehiko Gallery, 321 K Rd, Auckland - INSTALLATIONS AND DANCE FILMS: Visually arresting and absorbing imagery
- reviewed by Shanon O'Sullivan

A spellbinding array of extraordinary dance films by Kiwi expat Sue Healey is currently on exhibition as part of the 2010 Tempo Dance Festival. Seven articulately crafted films blend choreography and technology and Healey utilises time, space, form and motion in a myriad of dimensions that intrigue and capture the imagination.

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Basement Theatre, Te Whaea National Dance & Drama Centre, Wellington - I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE: A fantastic night's entertainment
- reviewed by Jo Hodgson

What a great night out at the theatre! As the promotional material states - this piece is a celebration of the mating game with "everything you secretly thought about dating, romance, marriage, lovers, husbands, wives and in-laws but were afraid to admit."

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As Is Theatre, 377 Princes St, Dunedin - FUN SHY: Vividly unusual and brutally beautiful verbal imagery
- reviewed by Thom Adams

Fun Shy starts out giving you the impression that it's a witty romp about a group of gay friends who take a homeless street preacher under their wing and liberate his own fabulous sexuality. Then, slowly, and rather gently ...

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Opera House, Wellington - AOTEAROHA COMEDY CARNIVAL 2010: Stand-up, magic, songs and silence

- reviewed by Priyanka Bhonsule (Hutt News)

A bit of Aussie, a lot of Kiwi with some French dressing on top - that was the line-up for AotearoHA in Wellington.

MC Peter Helliar was quite comfortable in his role, starting things off on the right laughter track with jokes about the ever-increasing scandalous nature of NRL ...

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TAPAC - The Auckland Performing Arts Centre, Auckland - BIRDS OF PARADISE 2010: Mixed bag of birds need more room to move
- reviewed by Bernadette Rae

Cramped display of beautiful plumage and sassy courtship rituals

Magnificent and just slightly mad, Morag Magnolie Brownlie's "birdlesque cabaret" is more than a pukeko's squawk, a tui's warble, a flirty fluff of tail feathers, a celebration of mating rituals - both the avian and human kind.

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Basement Theatre, Te Whaea National Dance & Drama Centre, Wellington - I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE: Love's complex joys and pains explored
- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

"First date, new romance, different partner, same dance, / Ready now, almost time, here we go, door bell chime" sing six nervous men and women in Cantata for a First Date  hich is the prologue to the highly enjoyable ' revuesical' I Love You, You're Perfect - Now Change.

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BATS, Wellington - CHRIST ALMIGHTY!: Not for the faint of heart
- reviewed by Lynn Freeman

OMG! An irreverent retelling of the nativity as seen through the eyes an innkeeper who's reminiscent of good old Chloe (as played by Sophie Hambleton), of a smoking, swearing angel (a divine Ben Crawford) who's jealous of the plain and now pregnant to God Virgin Mary, of an oversexed shepherd (Jed Brophy in delightful form) ...

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BATS, Wellington - MINGE: Better than the script
- reviewed by Lynn Freeman

When a play programme features actors the calibre of Erin Banks and Jean Sergent, expectations are high. This though is a classic case of the material not doing them and the rest of the cast full justice. There are moments when you can see what it might have been ...

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TAPAC - The Auckland Performing Arts Centre, Auckland - BIRDS OF PARADISE 2010: Sit back and enjoy the fun
- reviewed by Raewyn Whyte

Morag Magnolia Brownlie's gorgeous looking, lavishly costumed, crackingly paced Birds of Paradise certainly provides an evening's worth of entertainment, at a little under three hours including intermission. Taking the TAPAC studio theatre under its wings, the show transforms the normally flat performance floor into a cabaret ....

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Basement Theatre, Te Whaea National Dance & Drama Centre, Wellington - I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE: Mixing and matching through multiple ages and stages with wit, panache and flair
- reviewed by John Smythe

Special praise, then, to Hanaray and her splendid cast for changing the New York references to Wellington ones, allowing the five Kiwis and one Welly-based American to use their own voices in dialogue and - yes! - in song. The result is authentic, intimate, insightful, touching and highly amusing: incontrovertible proof that truth in song came be found in the Kiwi voice.

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Gagarin Way Garage, 181 Hobson Street, Auckland - GAGARIN WAY: Scottish wit with a political edge
- reviewed by Janet McAllister

Gagarin Way is about current political apathy ... But even if you're not familiar with "devolution" (Scotland getting its own parliament) and have only the vaguest idea about socialism, this bleak, real-time comedy is enjoyable: excellent staging, good acting, amusing one-liners.

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