Arts

80% of Indigenous souvenirs sold in this country are fake! Adding insult to this injury, much of this product is being manufactured overseas as part of a very damaging unregulated industry going on in Australia around the Fake Art trade of Indigenous art. Through the hard work of advocates like Nancy Bamaga, managing director of…

Christmas is coming early to the Eternity Playhouse with Darlinghurst Theatre Company set to host the world premiere of Silent Night. In the directorial hands of Glynn Nicholas and featuring some of Australia’s best comedic actors, we figured the rehearsal process has been an absolute riot. We asked cast members Amanda Bishop, Aaron Glenane, Michael…

Grace Under Pressure examines workplace and training within the health industry and presents a verbatim theatre project in which four performers recite transcripts from real interviews with healthcare professionals at varying stages of their careers. Created by David Williams and Paul Dwyer, in collaboration with the Sydney Arts and Health Collective, Grace Under Pressure presents…

How much do children perceive of the world around them? How do children cope with sadness? Hannah Cox and Caitlin West tackle these tricky questions in Tammy & Kite, a play about two sisters whose love for each other appears to be stronger than anything the world can throw at them. The performance opens with…

It is clichéd to say that a picture tells a thousand words. But there’s also some truth to this and one photographer who certainly knew and appreciated how an image could confound or shape one’s perception is Robert Mapplethorpe. He is the late artist, photographer and former muse to Patti Smith. The Perfect Medium is…

A true tale of mental illness told from the perspective of both the sufferer and the bewildered friend, Eyes Too Dry is a joint venture from Alice Chipkin and Jessica ‘Tava’ Tavassoli. Switching between Tava, a medical student slipping into a deep depression, and housemate Alice, losing herself in her friend’s darkening struggle, this graphic…

Taronga Zoo is shifting into a space of contemporary art, offering a wild lens into the relationship humans have with birds through an outdoor photo exhibition. QBE Muse @ Taronga is the stunning photographic work of artist and wildlife advocate, Leila Jemarks. Running from the 1st to 30th November 2017, the exhibition celebrates the 20th…

In the first half of the twentieth century, the Australian media began spreading tales of a huge, lightning fast species of snake that was seemingly taking lives at a rate of knots. Attaining a near mythical status, the nguman, or taipan, was all too real. The press demonised them, wary farmers hunted them, and desperate…

Bell Shakespeare Company’s latest production of The Merchant of Venice has a few high points. But overall Director Anne-Louise Sarks has played it pretty safe and as a result there’s nothing about this show that really stands out. Listed among Shakespeare’s comedies, The Merchant of Venice contains some of Shakespeare’s most well-known characters. First, there’s…

This year marks the 20th anniversary since the death of the legendary, Michael Hutchence. In this time, a lot of books and articles have been published about this enigmatic man. A new biography, Shine Like It Does, from journalist Toby Creswell, may not be the most necessary title, but his book is an intriguing one; with Creswell managing…

Hold on to your broomsticks because Harry Potter and The Cursed Child is coming to Australia!  After sell-out seasons in London and New York, the smash-hit stage show is making its way to Melbourne. The two-part play will open in early 2019 and run exclusively at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre. “When we embarked on this journey,…

In a final two-week season at the Capitol Theatre, Opera Australia is farewelling one of the most beloved productions in its history – Moffatt Oxenbould’s Madama Butterfly. Someone who is very well acquainted with Butterfly is Opera Australia soprano Hyeseoung Kwon! This will be the fourth year you take to the stage as Cio-Cio-San with…

Dancers are nothing short of athletes. Their athleticism, precision and dedication to their craft evokes an innate sense of wonder to the regular person, but in a show like Tree of Codes, it leaves you bewildered. Choreographer Wayne McGregor joins forces with visual artist Olafur Eliasson and music genius Jamie xx to produce a work that accentuates the human form through an…

In an average restaurant, somewhere in America, a guy and girl meet. What follows is a familiar story, told in a not so average way; a lifetime condensed into just over an hour. The Depot Theatre’s latest production, The Big Meal, is an epic tale shrunk to fit a tiny stage. It is big on…

As any self-respecting You Am I fan knows, Tim Rogers can spin a yarn or ten. What they may not realise is that this legendary songwriter, artist, and musician has also achieved this in a book format, without the need for a guitar, mic-stand or a drink. Okay, maybe he did need the latter. His debut…

FORM Dance Projects and Riverside Theatres will present an exciting triple bill of contemporary dance performances by young artists in Common Anomalies from 2nd to 4th November. Vastly different in style, the three works will explore each of the performer’s unique personal histories. The performances adapt breakdance, visual art, contemporary techniques, vogue and folklore styles…

It may sound rather dark and grim, however the We’re All Going To Die Festival is far from it. In fact, the festival is a celebration of immersive art, music, films and talks that aims to inspire youngsters to fear less and live more. Kicking off on Friday 17th November from 6-10pm, over 100 artists, psychologists and producers are…

There’s something to be said for expectations. When you go to a Cirque du Soleil show, you have plenty of them. In their new production Toruk: The First Flight, set in the world of the 2009 film Avatar, the iconic Montreal circus company have taken the expectations of a Cirque audience and thrown them out…

Miracle City is not your typical musical. The show’s director even dubbed it an anti-musical. It’s what you get when the shiny veneer of a Christian family of televangelists implode, live on air. The results are something that are ironic, funny and tragic in almost equal measure. This show first premiered at Sydney Theatre in…

He’s widely known as founder of the triumphant St Jermone’s Laneway Festival, the mind who brought a world’s first glamping experience as well as one of the city’s coolest bars, and the guy who turned a disused factory into a hipster chapel of love and creativity, but for his latest gift to Australia Jerome Borazio…

Sex is such a wonderful exploration of two bodies on an intimate and physical level. For some, it started at a very young age, for others they may have been late bloomers or are even still virgins. Either which way, sex has always been a conversation topic for everyone, but have we as a society…

Over the past six years, StageArt has fast become one of Melbourne’s leading theatre companies, allowing performers the opportunity to be a part of works that are fresh from Broadway and not necessarily major touring productions in Australia. MEMPHIS won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2010 and is loosely based on the true story…

Scattered throughout the varying levels of the Ian Potter Museum of Art, 36 singers stand lining the outskirts of the towering stair case wearing metallic-sliver hooded capes. As a Cellist plays, coloured lights flicker on and off, mirroring the rotating sound of the chorus who send their voices echoing throughout the open space. A Galaxy…

Michael Ball. Alfie Boe. Together live in concert. Review done. For what more really needs to be said? This is an incredible concert with two incredible theatre superstars, and it is truly an unmissable experience. The evening opens with the “Somewhere” overture from West Side Story before Ball and Boe take to the stage. The…

There’s something very appealing about translated fiction these days.  Whether it’s because more amazing novels from other languages are being translated than ever before, or whether the quality of those translations is better than it is ever has been is something an expert would need to weigh in on.  I can only comment on my…

Like the dawning of a new day, a gentle light envelops the stage. Slowly we become aware of a solitary figure crouching in the gloom, gradually becoming clearer. Aakash Odedra dressed in traditional flowing Indian robes, unravels his body and dances across the stage in increasingly faster yet controlled movements. The name of this piece,…

Melbourne’s trams are brightening up your everyday commute, with the first art tram hitting the tracks as part of the Melbourne Festival and Art Trams initiative. Eight trams are hitting the city’s tracks until April next year offering Melbournians a creative contemporary art experience.  The first Melbourne Art Tram for 2017 has hit the tracks…

Liveworks, the celebration of performance and cross-disciplinary art, is returning to Carriageworks this month with its most exciting program yet. From 19 to 29 October 2017, a mix of leading Australian and international artists will showcase their works exploring gender, the environment, queer and trans identities, sexuality, race, politics, Indigenous memory and land rights, and the…

It’s astonishing to think about how much music has filled our ears and hearts over the years; and I don’t just mean the years we’ve been alive. I’m talking from day one, when Earth was created. Think about the genre discoveries, the melodies, the development of instruments, idols both past and present. Imagine, what it…

Oftentimes, a contemporary theatrical work can leave a strong impression on an audience, but none more so than the modern-day adaptation of Federico García Lorca‘s YERMA. Directed and re-written by Australian Simon Stone is a radical production of this intense Lorca masterpiece. Starring Billie Piper in her Olivier Award-winning role, and joined by acclaimed Australian actor Brendan Cowell sees the…