Defeating Terror is a behind the scenes look at the hunt for the Bali bombers. Although, given the nature of the book, many of the names and situations, have been altered for legal reasons. The author, David Craig, was a senior officer in the Australian Federal Police (AFP), he has trained with international forces including the…
Dementia is a truly terrifying condition, one that attacks the very sense of self. It affects not only the sufferer but also those closest to them in the most distressing of ways. In Sydney Theatre Company’s production of The Father this distress is both portrayed and felt keenly, even when the play itself deliberately makes…
Make Nice have announced its full program for the Sydney based annual real-life conference for, by and about creative women. The Un-conference for Creative Women will run over three days from Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th of September. The full program line up features a range of inspirational women including Stanislava Pinchuk (Miso), Ann Friedman, Anna…
Celebrating 65 years of Parisian Glamour and inspired by the endless theme of femininity and sophistication, Australian audiences are currently experiencing the tantalising Parisian cultural phenomenon of Crazy Horse Paris for the first time ever as Forever Crazy is high kicking its way through Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Canberra. Featuring the best of acts from…
After dazzling audiences and critics alike at its recent world premiere, produced by the renowned Glyndebourne Festival Opera, in the UK, Neil Armfield‘s production of Australian composer Brett Dean‘s masterpiece Hamlet, conducted by Nicholas Carter, is set to make its Australian debut in March, with an exclusive season at the 2018 Adelaide Festival. Hailed as…
Start booking your tickets to Brisbane theatre folk, it’s going to be a stellar year for treading the boards in the Northern state! Launching the Queensland Theatre’s 2018 program earlier this week, Sam Strong presented an exciting, bright, fresh season that celebrates diversity and Australian stories. Contained in their programme for the new year are four world premieres,…
Fiona Horne is a witch but she could also be considered an “onion.” In her memoir, The Naked Witch she strips away the layers and gives readers a raw and honest account of her life. This enables readers to delve deeper and deeper into different layers and just when you think you have her all…
America in the mid-1980s. In the midst of the AIDS crisis and a conservative Reagan administration, New Yorkers grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell. This new staging of Tony Kushner’s multi-award winning two-part play, Angels In America is directed by Olivier and Tony award winning director Marianne Elliott, and stars…
The winners of the 2017 Art Music Awards were revealed overnight in Sydney, with 11 awards being doled out across a range of national and state categories. Celebrating the works of Australian composers, educators and performers, the Art Music Awards took place at the City Recital Hall for its seventh year. Liza Lim emerged as a double-winner,…
A decade since her last stage musical, Tina Arena will take on the role of Eva Peron in Evita at the Sydney Opera House in September next year. The much loved Australian star will join legendary Director Hal Prince, winner of 21 Tony Awards, in re-creating the original West End and Broadway production created by Tim Rice…
Since 1993, Yamato have performed in 53 countries around the world, reaching over 6 million people, making them the most prolific Japanese performing art group to tour internationally. Yamato are the epitome of the Japanese spirit and bring new life to the traditional Japanese taiko and wadaiko drums by paying respect to its rich history…
Six years ago, the world lost a musical soul that will forever leave an imprint on your heart. Amy Winehouse was a young singer-songwriter at the peak of her career when it all came tumbling down. Tragically, we lost her but her music truly does live on. Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait is a personal…
From little things big things grow. Paul Kelly could have sung this about Australia’s very own, Dame Nellie Melba. This famous soprano grew up with rather modest beginnings before she forged her own fabulous career. She eventually took the world by storm and become a renowned opera diva. The Hayes Theatre are playing host to…
Jonathan Harker has been sent to deepest, darkest Transylvania, to do business with the mysterious Count Dracula, who wishes to move to England. But the Count has goals far more sinister than merely purchasing property in Victorian London. Trapping Jonathan in his castle, he reveals himself to be a vampire, plotting to make England his…
As a well armed far-right movement in America raises its ugly head in Charlottesville, leaving one oppositional protester murdered, Pauline Hanson turns up to Parliament in a Burqa. As her terribly offensive action is passionately berated by George Brandis, of all people, fourteen people are murdered in Barcelona, mowed down by a car in one…
The Sydney Dance Company are currently touring Australia with double performance of two individual but complementary pieces; Wildebeest with choreography by Gabrielle Nankivell and Frame of Mind by Rafael Bonachela. I caught the production last week as it arrived in Adelaide. In the opening scene of Wildebeest, a lone figure slowly unravels and expands in a…
Originally an Australian theatre review site, StageMilk has now become one of the world’s largest acting websites. Its founders, WAAPA graduates Andrew Hearle and Luke McMahon have now added an online drama school to the site’s offering- one that is now attracting the attention of actors from all over the world. We caught up with…
Open House Melbourne is always a captivating event full of history, mystery and intrigue, and I was delighted to participate in this years exploration. On one weekend of the year an array of buildings around Melbourne open their doors to the public, who don their explorer hats and gain access to spaces that would usually…
If ever there was a play to see in your lifetime it has to be Edward Albee‘s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright creates work that errs on the edge of voyeurism and what reality actually is. Funnily, when people asked Albee what this famous classic was about, he often said it was about…
Melbourne Fringe Festival is back for its whopping 35th year allowing our creative culture to flourish within the margins of diversity. Fringe is not a weird place as some may think; it is a play and space that is accessible to everyone, providing opportunities to thousands of artists each year. The aim is to nurture artistic…
The Underbelly Arts Lab and Festival is returning for its 10th year, taking place at the National Art School in Darlinghurst from 7-8 October. A two week Lab period will host 116 artists from around Australia and showcase twenty one ambitious new projects from 25 September until 6 October. Ticket holders will be able to…
Trigger Warning: this post describes sexual violence. Siren is a work of fiction. But it’s also a story that feels disturbingly real. This book is by a Melbourne writer and academic named Rachel Matthew. It’s a searing look at a crime involving an underage schoolgirl and the reverberations this act has on the victim and…
It’s Bris-been another great year of arts, music and experiences in Brisbane but nothing compares to the Brisbane Festival. Sadly, there won’t be another public holiday for it (thanks anyway, Ekka Show) but it will give you 21 days of interactive features, theatrical performances, high-flying acrobatics and international music acts. But how do you choose…
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…
