Arts

Tim Flannery, is a leading writer on climate change, a scientist and an explorer. His current book, Sunlight and Seaweed, explores the possibilities on how to feed, power and clean up the world. Whilst it’s no book for dummies, it is a rather accomplished achievement put together, cleverly researched and bounded in a not-too-thick book…

Audiences will have the unique opportunity to experience the sublime musicality of Andrey Gugnin, winner of the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia, as he performs a thrilling repertoire live at Riverside Theatres on 30th August 2017. Andrey graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory in 2010, where he studied under Professor Vera Gornostaeva;…

The characters in Terence Rattigan’s After the Dance spend a lot of the play complaining about people they consider boring. But sadly for the New Theatre, the biggest bore in this production is the play itself. Despite some commendable performances by key members of the cast, this play just doesn’t seem to have anything to…

In the lead-up to Father’s Day journalist, copywriter and author, Claire Halliday follows up her previous book, Things My Mother Taught Me with one about the dads. Both books are collections of short interviews undertaken by Halliday with well-known Australian identities, where they describe the relationship they have with a parent. These range from warm…

Death is the great unknown. Yet it is something that we will all have to experience one day. Nina Riggs’ The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living & Dying contemplates some of these very things, as well as some other big existential questions. The book is an excellent meditation on life and death, and serves…

A new novel from Australian author Robert Drewe is something to celebrate.  After all, this is the man who brought us The Shark Net, The Drowner, and The Bodysurfers.  This July saw the release of Whipbird, Drewe’s first novel since 2005’s Grace, though he certainly hasn’t been silent since then. A regular columnist in the…

Melbourne cabaret artist and power pussy Sophie deLightful is all about the #GirlPower in her latest work, Diary of a Power Pussy. Taking part in Melbourne Fringe Festival‘s cracking line-up for 2017, which was revealed last night, this show will open your eyes up to a whole lot more than meets the eye. Ms deLightful is one-of-a-kind…

The world is ending. On the eve of the apocalypse, seven actors come together to stage Shakespeare’s Hamlet, that infamous tale of crippling indecision, madness real and feigned, and murder most foul. Over the course of the production, the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur, as the cast try to come to terms…

I speak from personal learnings when I say that most people are probably unaware that One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was a play on Broadway before it was that classic film starring Jack Nicholson. That the play has even starred the likes of Danny DeVito (who went on to reprise his role in the…

A new grant of $100,000 delivered by The Copyright Agency Cultural Fund hopes to develop a method for measuring the influence of crowd behaviour on AFL/NRL player performance over a period of three years. Artist Baden Pailthorpe, whose focus is on the relationships between technology, power and culture, will work alongside Aaron Coutts, a Professor…

On June 1st, one of the most influential and celebrated albums of all time – The Beatles‘ Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band – celebrated its 50th Birthday in the USA. As a self-confessed Beatles obsessive, I took to the skies and headed to the permanent Cirque du Soleil production in Las Vegas, Love, which…

Heloise Chancey enjoys a life of luxury. From humble beginnings as a common prostitute, she has risen to become a sought-after courtesan, with a retinue of staff at her beautiful Mayfair home. But Heloise has a second occupation, one that would cause even more raised eyebrows. Armed with formidable detective skills and an inside knowledge…

To review a book based on a small nook of the life of a hated book critic, to be in the head of Raymond Saint and to be included in his thoughts and actions throughout makes me want to drink a bottle of red to soak it all in – however, if I did grab…

It’s fair to say that most people, at some point in their lives, will experience a dark period, a crisis or just an overwhelming desire to know more. The book, You’re Not Alone: A Practical Guide For The Awakening Soul by Rebecca Jackson is designed to help at these very points. There are some readers…

Australia is undoubtedly going through a renaissance of short fiction—from collections by household names (at least to lovers of the form) such as Tony Birch, to stunning debuts like Australia Day by Melanie Cheng, there is a little bit of something for everyone. It goads me to hear anyone say that they hate the short…

Heading to Flow Festival in Helsinki this year? Great choice; not only will you be getting amongst performances from world-renowned acts like Frank Ocean, Lana Del Rey, Aphex Twin, London Grammar, the xx, and Angel Olsen, you’ll be able to experience an immersive cutting-festival which has been named one of Europe’s very finest. And that’s…

This weekend I had the pleasure of hosting a Q & A with Tex Perkins at the Byron Bay Writers Festival about his new book Tex. The famous line from the John Ford film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance “If you are going to print the facts about the man or print the fiction,…

A ground breaker in early expressionism, Paula Modersohn-Becker sold only a few paintings in her lifetime. Torn between her home in northern Germany and the vibrant art scene of Paris, her subjects of choice were mothers and children, depicting them in ways that made contemporary critics both uncomfortable and excited in equal measure. The first…

As you enter the Beckett Theatre, ‘Rebel Yell’ by Billy Idol is blasting through the speakers and various Google searches are being projected onto the big screen at the back of the stage. Ever wondered how much a horse costs, or how much a blow job costs, or if you can take a dead squirrel…

Spanning all three floors of the Ian Potter Museum of Art at Melbourne University, is an exhibition that explores music and dance notation from Medieval manuscripts through to graphic notation of the 1960s, alongside artworks and performances. Curated by Jacqueline Dought, The three-month long exhibition The Score features international and Australian artists from the early 20th century…

Prior to the commencement of the Second World War, Britain took in over 10,000 Jewish refugee children from Europe. This was known as Kindertransport, with the majority of the children never seeing their families again. Diane Samuels play, Kindertransport, follows the story of Eva who is sent from Hamburg to England in 1938 when she…

In 1892, Italian painter Girolamo Nerli travels to Samoa to paint famous author Robert Louis Stevenson, known to the locals as Tusitala, ‘the teller of tales’. His goal? To capture something of the Hyde within Stevenson’s Jekyll. Over a century later, art historian Lewis Wakefield makes the same pilgrimage, in search of the story behind…

We all know the story about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the undeniable suffering he endured in his last hours. Well, this musical – Jesus Christ Superstar – chronicles the days leading up to Jesus’ last, and does so through song and dance. With Andrew Lloyd Webber as the almighty creator of this work, it’s understandable…

The 2017 17th annual Helpmann Awards were held last Monday at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney. Lachlan attended the ceremony and reflects on the experience – his first time at the iconic celebration of stage performances in Australia. They’re long… and for good reason Clocking in at 3 hours with no commercial breaks, the ceremony…

From Cabaret to Theatre and Contemporary Dance, August is offering up a delightful assortment of options to get you out of the house all over the country. Here are just arts events we think should not be missed this month! Melbourne: Crazy Horse Paris presents Forever Crazy Celebrating 65 show-stopping years of naked couture and…

You’ll never meet a guy quite like Josh Lefers. There’s something about him that is intimidating, yet somewhat calming in the way his creativity flows. The Melbourne entrepreneur can now add another bow to his belt; a children’s book author with his first titled How to Hypnotise a Droid. Given his complete and utter love for…

In 2015 writer and academic, Mandy Len Catron went viral when an article she wrote was published in The New York Times. It was called, “To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This” where she described her recent date with a new acquaintance. They had answered 36 questions together from a research study designed to…

Coming up in a couple of weeks is a brand new work by Australian choreographer Stephanie Lake. Pile of Bones is a visceral and eccentric choreographic and audio-visual exploration of the intricacies of our closest relationships. Before we see this work come to life, we had a chat with Lake about the need to self-fund in the…

Hello, Goodbye & Happy Birthday explores the fears and hopes of those looking for direction at the start of their lives and those searching for peace at the end. The cast is made up of three young performers (Aileen Huynh, Izabella Yena and Matthew Connell) and three older performers (Jim Daly, Roger Oakley and Evelyn…

What happens when one of the biggest names in musical theatre and Britain’s most popular tenor come together? They create an album together of course! Quite literally for Michael Ball and Alfie Boe, whose album “Together” quickly became the best-selling album in the UK in 2016. The album features some of the greatest hits of…