Arts

Forsooth! In just a few days, the residents of Sydney will get to experience Shakespeare the way Londoners have been enjoying the Bard for centuries – at the Globe theatre! If you’ve not had the pleasure of attending a play at the Globe, fear not dear friend. Here’s your guide to impressing your friends and…

ABC and Screen Australia have announced four short-form documentary projects have received funding through ABC and Screen Australia’s Art Bites Initiative. This initiative is currently in its third year, encouraging filmmakers to produce a total of 6 x 5-minute documentary series for ABC’s online viewing platform ABC iView, based around art. Each team will receive…

We’re coming to the end of the Edinburgh Fringe, though these are the only days I’m on ground for the event. It’s a bit of a strange time to be seeing and reviewing shows, because you know the performers have already been going at it for some three weeks. There’s fatigue, and as Rhys puts…

Tomorrow the 2018 instalment of the Melbourne Writers Festival will kick off. Naturally there are so many panels, conversations and workshops to choose from, so we’ve unpacked the assortment of irresistible and noteworthy guests taking part in this action packed program and come up with these hot tips on what not to miss! Sally Seltmann: Lovesome…

Having made a name for herself on Live at the Apollo (BBC Two), Mock the Week (BBC Two), Room 101 (BBC One) and regularly heard on BBC Radio 4’s News Quiz, Just a Minute, The Now Show and plenty more, the popular Brighton based comic Zoe Lyons has returned to the Fringe with her new…

The Brisbane Festival kicks off on in a couple of weeks on the 8th of September. With the festival boasting 600 performances of almost 70 shows across 17 venues, it’s close to impossible to see everything, or indeed to decide what you should go and see. So, like the good citizens we are, we’ve compiled…

Madame Butterfly is a timeless love story involving a beauty and a beastly character and Opera Australia are currently staging a regional tour of the renowned Puccini’s opera. In doing so, they have made one of the world’s most famous operas accessible to a wider Australian audience thanks to a scaled-down, English language version. This…

Using everyday items such as brooms and buckets, the eight performers who make up STOMP create their own soundtrack, a hybrid of noise that form a melody which will see you tapping your feet in no time. Incredibly theatrical, no words are spoken for the duration of the performance yet the cast are able to…

Aussie comedian Rhys Nicholson is on his way to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, and en route he kindly answered a Q&A for us about the show he’ll be performing there – Seminal. Here’s what he sent back, and everything you need to know about the show… Who are you, and what is your show? It’s me, Rhys…

Meet Aussie Matt Gilbertson, and his acclaimed alter-ego Hans, “The boy wonder of Berlin”. Let us be clear: he is not from Australia. He’s heading to Edinburgh to bring his show Like a German to UK audiences, following performances at events like the Adelaide Fringe. I spoke to Hans – again, he’s from Berlin, not Australia –…

In the next in our interview series with Aussies set to light up the Edinburgh Fringe Festival next month, I catch up with Anya Anastasia – self-described writer, thinker, composer, activist, slacktivist and cabaret femme fatale – who will be bringing her acclaimed production The Executioners to the famed event. What can you tell us about…

The acclaimed touring West End production of Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time wrapped up its Sydney last night, before it heads off to Adelaide and Perth. Based on the celebrated book of the same name by Mark Haddon, the play tells the story of Christopher Boone (Joshua Jenkins in a masterful performance),…

NB: Spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned. Most people are familiar with the story of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Even if they haven’t seen the ballet, they will know some of the iconic music, in particular the dance of the cygnets. Personally – I love Swan Lake – so when an opportunity to see it performed on…

The acclaimed touring West End production of Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time wrapped up its Sydney last night, before it heads off to Adelaide and Perth. Based on the celebrated book of the same name by Mark Haddon, the play tells the story of Christopher Boone (Joshua Jenkins in a masterful performance),…

Michael Griffiths is an Australian cabaret performer from Australia coming back to Edinburgh for his 6th Fringe in a row, this time armed with his hit show Songs By Kylie. As the title suggests, the production is an hour of all things Kylie Minogue. We caught up with Michael to find out more about it and being…

Shelley Davidow is an author and academic who grew up in South Africa during the apartheid era. Davidow is white, and looking back she knows that during her formative years she experienced privilege and certain allowances due to her skin colour. This theme of race relations and how one family negotiated this oppressive arrangement is…

The world’s biggest Fringe Festival is back for yet another year and the line up of acts is endless! Kicking off August 3, Edinburgh Festival is offering up a gigantic serving of arts and entertainment, and if you’re lucky enough to be making your way over you’re probably already scrambling to get your ‘Must See,’…

If you love jogging through the Botanical Gardens near Mrs Macquarie’s Chair on a bright Autumn night, be prepared to hear the name Maria echoing through the trees as Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour brings the iconic West Side Story to the outdoor stage. In an effort to top the romance of this season’s La…

It is as magnificent, jaw-dropping, gasp-enticing and lavish a staging as you can imagine, but Opera Australia’s decision to rely on digital technology for its latest production of Aida nearly came unstuck on opening night, due to a tiny, blinking square of blue light. Using soaring, rotating LED panels as the primary set, onto which…

“With an audience full of performers, you’d think they’d know how to take their seats on time!” This observation from my patient (?) plus-one came as the clock ticked past 8.05pm and Sydney’s Capitol Theatre was still only half full. It also perfectly summed up our experience of the 2018 Helpmann Awards. You see, while…

When you stop and think about pronunciation it’s very easy to break into a verse of “You sing potato and I sing potahto.” The academic, linguist, author and broadcaster, David Crystal certainly appreciates this. He has after all released the informative and scholarly guide: Sounds Appealing: The Passionate Story of English Pronunciation. Over the years Crystal…

Even if you don’t love ABBA, I dare you to listen to ‘Dancing Queen’ and not to get out of your chair and dance! Now add colourful boas, a sun kissed set, chiselled men dancing in flippers and an all-star cast- and you will have absolutely have no choice but to jiggly your body. Mamma…

We so often read about history but what about her-story? At school many of us learned about the contributions of John Macarthur to Australia’s agricultural industry. But little has been said about his wife, Elizabeth Macarthur, another integral player in this story. Michelle Scott Tucker rectifies this  with her debut, the engaging biography: Elizabeth Macarthur: A Life…

Tackling Verdi’s Rigoletto in the #metoo era could have been a real opportunity for Opera Australia. A story featuring a leader who believes women merely objects for his desire and a disadvantaged subject who cheers on this behaviour until it is directed towards his own daughter – just think of the possible political parallels to…

The bright lights of Broadway will shine on the Sydney Opera House 12-14 July as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra presents the classic Broadway musical Funny Girl in Concert. With the film celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2018, this special concert production directed by Mitchell Butel will feature some of Australia’s favourite leading ladies who each…

The world’s premier theatrical ice skating company, The Imperial Ice Stars, returns to Australia with its award-winning masterpiece Swan Lake On Ice, touring to Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney this July. Sydney audiences can enjoy the classic tale at the Capitol Theatre from 25 – 29 July. Set to Tchaikovsky’s glorious score in the intimate setting…

With winter upon us the urge to stay rugged up inside is VERY tempting- I mean what other options do we have? Well, what if I told you that instead of sitting by the heater bored at home you could be drinking wine in the Royal Botanic Gardens, surrounded by warmth, watching death-defying acrobats? Sounds…

Warm up the long winter nights ahead with these sizzling art events on showcase this month around Australia. From classic show stoppers to cultured exhibitions, here are our five top picks for July! Aida (Sydney) Feel like doing something cultured? Why not head to the Opera for a fancy night out. Aida makes its way…

Kitty Flanagan is an accomplished stand-up and regular on TV shows like Utopia and The Weekly With Charlie Pickering. She is a chronic over-thinker in the best possible way, and this is evident in her first book: Bridge Burning & Other Hobbies. A collection of funny anecdotes and personal stories, readers will find this book as relatable…

Awake from your enchanted slumber and get read for the family fun fairy tale panto adventure, Sleeping Beauty – A Knight Avenger’s Tale. Bursting into Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre for a strictly limited season from 29 June to 8 July and Sydney’s majestic State Theatre from 13 to 22 July 2018. Featuring dazzling costumes, stunning sets,…