Arts

As part of their ongoing exploration of art and technology, ILA, Australia’s Centre for Immersive Light and Art have enlisted Berlin-based multi-disciplinary art collective flora&faunavisions to create an immersive and interactive experience. The experience, called TIMELIGHT ‘Beyond our ticking world’ allows visitors to interact with a virtual digital canvas to explore themes of time and…

Agatha Christie is a timeless story-teller, weaving intriguing stories about complex characters with dark secrets. With some 66 crime novels, 150 short stories and over 25 plays, she is regarded as the Queen of Crime. Director Robyn Nevin AO has bought And Then There Were None to life with style and humour. The play is set…

Riverside Theatres is currently host to a world-class, spine-tingling production of 1984, an adaptation of George Orwell’s iconic novel by Orson Welles, brought to life by the brilliant Shake & Stir Theatre Co. Even if you’ve never read the book, the themes totalitarian control, surveillance, and the distortion of truth that are so deeply embedded…

It doesn’t need to be the hard knock life. Take a trip down Easy Street with one of Broadway’s brightest sources of love, laughter and happiness. Returning to Australian shores, Annie the Musical has delighted audiences worldwide for nearly 50 years, capturing the hearts of generation after generation. It’s a truly joyous adventure following the…

It may be counterintuitive at a sound, light and music festival to disconnect from your phone for a few hours of quiet time, but it really helps reset the mind. The Offline Club as a concept started in the coffee shops of Amsterdam. It has trended (ironically via Instagram) to places such as Dubai, Berlin,…

Part of the winter school holiday line-up at the Sydney Opera House (see: Kids & Families | Sydney Opera House), The Twits is a staging of the disgusting(!) Roald Dahl book. The people behind the show, Shake and Stir Theatre Productions, really lead the way with children’s theatre (that can be sincerely enjoyed by parents…

For the fifth year in a row, Illuminate Festival has opened in Adelaide to shake off the cold winter chills. The opening night of  Night Visions in the leafy Botanic Gardens was an ethereal adventure. Illuminate Adelaide Co-founders and Creative Directors Lee Cumberlidge and Rachael Azzopardi have assembled a team of artists including Chris Petridis,…

If you can believe it, CATS is now over 40 years old. One of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s signature stage musicals (on this rare occasion, without artistic teammate, Tim Rice), CATS has been around the world touring every city imaginable including Paris, London, New York, Athens, Bangkok, Tokyo, Amsterdam, and back now to Australia after tours…

Australia’s leading First Nations performing arts company, Bangarra Dance Theatre, is once again taking to the stage at the Sydney Opera House to present their new work, Illume. After 20 years performing out of the Drama Theatre, Bangarra are making history by bringing their latest work to the main stage in the Joan Sutherland Theatre,…

While Homer’s epic of Odysseus leaving his Ithaca home for ten years to fight for Helen’s honour in the Trojan war is well celebrated, what is not so well documented is the story of his devoted wife Penelope who was left behind. Booker Prize-winning author, Margaret Atwood penned the 2005 novella The Penelopiad, which was…

Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Be… witness to one of the most extravagant and impressive productions to ever hit Australian shores. The hotly anticipated musical adaptation of Tim Burton’s classic film, Beetlejuice, has debuted six feet down-under with Melbourne’s own Eddie Perfect sliding into the titular role for the first time. The musical takes themes of family, love and…

Grab your lyre and take a trip down the Styx to the Underworld… but just remember, don’t look back. Where love, tragedy and Greek mythology combine, Hadestown debuts the timeless love story of Orpheus and Eurydice at Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre. This Tony award-winning production, fuelled by the music and lyrics of Anaïs Mitchell, weaves…

UPU are a collective based in New Zealand who aim to create more opportunities for Pacific performing artists by making contemporary, Pacific centred works for both stage and screen. UPU, meaning ‘word’, in many different languages of the Pacific Islands, brings together the voices of those living among the islands of the Pacific Ocean, also…

The hugely popular comedy streaming service Dropout has just announced plans to tour Australia and New Zealand in 2026 for the Dropout Improv tour. Dropout has quickly become one of the most popular comedy streaming platforms, producing original series that the fans know and love such as Very Important People, Game Changer, and the hugely…

Celebrating its 40th anniversary, CATS, the record-breaking stage musical from Andrew Lloyd Webber, is set to tour Australia from June 2025. Starting its season at the Theatre Royal in Sydney, CATS will then move on to Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide from 20 September and to Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne from 21 December. A Perth…

Aussie Indie Artists is a Q&A series with smaller Aussie creators that shares exciting new works, finds new angles towards the art, and peeks behind the scenes. Faces, and colours, and abstractions, and feelings meld together in Magali Feuga’s work. Somehow, they look both freeform and intricate – it’s a delicate balance, with the weaving…

Australian writers, Jamila Rizvi and Rosie Waterland are unlikely friends. This odd couple met while working together at Mama Mia online and are now co-authors. Their book, Broken Brains is about their unvarnished lived experiences with different forms of brain sickness. The Sydney Opera House was the first stop on the pair’s book tour. It…

Any concerns that the world’s longest-running musical was losing its edge are put to bed in a stunning Sydney gala performance of Les Misérables. Even if musicals aren’t your thing, you’ll know of Les Misérables: it’s been a pop culture icon for as long as most of us can remember. But for Australia’s insatiable theatre…

Aussie Indie Artists is a Q&A series with smaller Aussie creators that shares exciting new works, finds new angles towards the art, and peeks behind the scenes. Fabian Artunduaga’s collages are seamless worlds for you to inhabit, if just for a single dramatic moment. Working under the name HouseCatStudio, the Sydney-based artist layers photography, collage,…

Once upon a time, Adelaide had the reputation of shutting shop for the winter. However, for the last five years, Illuminate Adelaide has been drawing people out into Adelaide’s chilly mid-winter streets. With a combination of lights, lasers, fires, interactive displays, music, food and dance, the event (or series of events) is a winner in…

The HerStory Arts Festival (23 – 26 April 2025), presented by Lost Voices Australia Inc. aims to celebrate and amplify women’s stories, especially those that have been lost to HIStory. The three-day event, which includes plays, readings of poetry, memoirs, essays, along with musical performances and art displays, is designed to foster creativity and ignite…

Anisa Nandaula is in the midst of her first Australian comedy tour entitled You Can’t Say That. She reflects on her journey from Uganda to Rockhampton, where she expected a multicultural paradise, but instead found cows and cultural confusion. We had an opportunity to chat with her and discuss her comedy experience. Hi Anisa. How…

The comedy festival circuit in Australia is like a right of passage for up and coming and established comedians alike. The circuit takes in all states and each year it’s a chance to check out the latest and greatest in funny acts from around the country and the world. The Brisbane Comedy Festival is fast…

This 65-minute mini musical, playing at the Sydney Opera House, is based on four books in the Dog Man comic book series, including Dog Man (2016), Dog Man Unleashed (2016), Dog Man A Tale of Two Kitties (2017), and Dog Man Lord of the Fleas (2018) by Dav Pilkey. Geared towards readers and fans 8…

Pro Wrestling Australia (PWA) is bringing its most personal and high stakes battle yet to The Factory Theatre with CHEVS VS TROY. This highly anticipated main event will see PWA Heavyweight Champion Jessica Troy defend her title against her former best friend turned bitter rival, Charli Evans, in a Last Wrestler Standing match on Friday,…

Brisbane’s home of the heavy is set to become the home of the heavy hitters, with Crowbar playing host to Red Castle Entertainment‘s Viva BrisVegas next weekend. Viva BrisVegas is the latest show from the Brisbane wrestling promotion, following on from their collaboration with New Japan Pro Wrestling‘s Oceania branch, Tamashii, back in February. This…

Hailing from its original run at Melbourne Theatre Company in 2023, Sydney has been blessed to have a season of Bloom, a new Australian musical, playing at the Sydney Theatre Company. Writer, Tom Gleisner, is hesitant on referring to this production as such, suggesting it, “would be enough to frighten most people off, let alone…

We’ve just had a quick peek at this year’s Dark Mofo offerings, and they’ve managed to jam in as much if not more as past festivals. The program includes free and ticketed events, including the ever popular Winter Feast as well as the Nude Solstice Swim at dawn on June 21st. Other free events include…

Based on the iconic 1992 movie starring Whoopi Goldberg, Sister Act, The Musical launched in Adelaide to an enthusiastic reception.  Everything about this production is big, bold, brash and beautiful. The story is as fresh as when the movie was released. Casey Donovan stars as Deloris Van Cartier, a singer in a club managed by…

“Baddest. Cowboy. Texas.” These are a few words that describe the baddest cowboy in Texas. With the help of director Cecily Nash, Minnesota clown Lil Wenker has created  a laugh a minute comedy journey, in which a Cowboy meets his Nemesis. Bangtail is basically an unbridled hour of controlled clown chaos. Performed in the intimate Gallery…