Arts

The Sydney Comedy Festival has been around for thirteen years and has amazingly grown from a festival with humble beginnings, into a force that itself has grown to a major arts festival in Australia. Director of the festival for all that time, Jorge Menindis details the history while making some last minute plans prior to…

What is the price of a heart? The very source of love and life is taken from one to give to another as flippantly as trading a piece of artwork… sold to the highest bidder. Except, in this case, it was stolen goods, traded by deceit. England, a masterfully crafted play by British playwright, Tim…

One day, while waiting for her roommate’s new IKEA sofa to arrive, Helen Moran receives the news that her adopted brother has committed suicide. She orders a black turtleneck to wear to the funeral, leaves a message for her boss, and books a one-way flight back to Milwaukee. But her adoptive parents are surprised to…

Immortalised in Rudyard Kipling’s Kim as master spy and gem trader Lurgan Sahib, Alexander Malcolm Jacob lived a life every bit as exciting as anything any author could have imagined. Now, John Zubrzycki, a former Delhi-based foreign correspondent, has pulled together extensive research to tell the story of The Mysterious Mr Jacob, bringing Nineteenth Century…

The Concert Hall was adorned with garlands of flowers last night as the Sydney Opera House presented the Academy of St Martin in the Fields led by Joshua Bell. A picturesque premise to an evening of truly beautiful music. This is the renowned orchestra’s first tour to Australia, and there’s definitely something special about listening to them live. One…

Not too often can you honestly say that a smaller independent production of a musical is undeniably better than a full-scale Broadway production, but Big Fish at the Hayes Theatre has surely got to be one of those times. The signature intimate theatre and the sincerity of the performances gives this musical the biggest of…

The great wave off Kanagawa – It is perhaps the best known and most recognisable piece of Japanese art. It has adorned walls, notebooks and computer desktops the world over, and now Australian art enthusiasts get to witness it, alongside other works by its creator, in the flesh at Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria this July….

Hannah Gadsby has taken out the 2017 Barry Award for Best Show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Gadsby won with her show Nanette – a self described swan song. The award was announced during the traditional late-night ceremony at The Festival Club, and saw Gadsby edging out fellow nominees Damien Power, Anne Edmonds, Tom…

From the 1st May until the 15th June, the Art Series Hotel Group are inviting guests to sleepover, strike a pose and find themselves the subject of a life drawn masterpiece. This is all part of the hotel group’s ‘No Robe Package’ which asks guests to reveal the “real” them for a group of artists…

Charlie Falkner wants to talk about sex. Specifically, the kind of sex tech-savvy, self-obsessed Millennials are having (or not having). His latest play, Sex Object, produced by JackRabbit Theatre Company and showing at The Depot Theatre, is a fast-paced, uber-real, laugh-a-minute look at what makes people tick in the modern age. And it is furiously…

Kinky Boots stalked onto the stage last night for its Sydney Opening Night and we loved every sparkling moment! If you’re not quite convinced you need to see this dazzling musical yet, here are our five reasons why you really ought to strap on your heels and get to it- The absolute party that Kinky…

Set among the beautiful surrounds of Robertson Park in Watsons Bay, Sydney, Shakespeare By The Bay presents The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. In partnership with Bard on the Beach, Watsons Bay Hotel and the Woollahra Council, Romeo and Juliet plays out against an ocean backdrop, with the water lapping gently against the dock as…

Clementine Ford’s latest book Fight Like A Girl packs punches in the best possible way. The feminist commentator has penned a volume that is like a personal polemic; one that is not dissimilar to the work of Lindy West, Caitlin Moran, Tara Moss et al. Fight Like A Girl then, is another important and welcome addition to the ongoing…

Aled Jones was recently in Australia promoting his brand new duet album One Voice- a unique concept, as the album is a collection of songs with Aled dueting with his none other than his younger self! We caught up with Aled in Sydney to talk about the album, the chance discovery of these youthful recordings…

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival has brought together a wide array of comedians and performers for another year, bringing a stack of world class shows through to the city until April 23rd. The comedy festival in Melbourne has also proven hugely fruitful for Aussie comedians marking their mark as emerging talent – one such talent…

Sydney is about to enjoy a new production of John Patrick Shanley’s multi award-winning drama Doubt: A Parable, with a limited season due to kick off at the Old Fitz Theatre in Woolloomooloo from 10th May until 3rd June. Originally staged off-Broadway, the play transferred to Broadway in 2005 and sustained 550 performances over almost…

There’s potential for the material in Alice Fraser’s Empire tone the basis of many inspirational talking engagements (she’s actually done a TED talk, so maybe she’s already there), but a show that gives us depth and meaning weren’t so much funny but reflective. Fraser doesn’t shy away from the tricky and the thoughtful. Starting on…

There’s nothing quite like enjoying a late night comedy show on a weeknight and strolling the streets of Melbourne with fellow comedy goers. 3 Course Comedy enticed me by their title first and foremost, mostly because I’m a foodie and I love a good degustation. Plus, why not support up and coming comedians! Each night the line-up changes…

Heading to the bottom of The Victoria Hotel is a somewhat weird experience. You’re in this dark room, with all kinds of spookiness looking to burst out of you. But really all that bursts out is delightful Becky Lucas with a charm and wit that lights up the room. Lucas captures people’s attention for her…

There’s a brashness with Nick Cody. He seems like the friendliest person that you could meet your friend’s BBQ and just chat to about all manner of things. But at the other end, he seems like someone who could evaporate you with a flick of his pointy finger if you piss him off. This was…

SEX! Now that I’ve got your attention – imagine a darkened room, an empty stage, when suddenly a 27-year-old, self-described as the love child of Kurt Cobain and the Paddle Pop Lion, demonstrates his conception and birth using various props and an amply-placed curtain. The man is Grant Busé and it’s the intro into his…

Back by popular demand, Hidden Sydney – The Glittering Mile will return 25 May – 18 June 2017 as part of Vivid Sydney’s Kings Cross program. Hidden Sydney – an immersive cabaret experience celebrating Kings Cross in the 50s, 60s and 70s at the Nevada-the former Sydney brothel which boasted the biggest bed in the world….

Guy Montgomery has this interestingly crescendo-like style of stand-up in Let’s All Get In A Room Together. It’s certainly a set full of happiness and goofiness, free from any political doom and gloom that many other comedy shows are focusing on this festival, but he can certainly be set to go on a really good story which rises to…

It was just like any other Sunday evening as I sat in the audience of the Palms theatre at Melbourne’s Crown Casino. However, on this particular evening, two men were about to walk onstage, throw off their cloaks, and perform for a paying audience the ‘ancient art of genital origami.’ For those a bit slow…

Talk is a play that feels like Frontline version 2.0. It’s a satirical look at the modern state of journalism, a place that has seen many experienced reporters lose their jobs while amateurs and citizen journalists have risen up. This Sydney Theatre Company production is a searing indictment on the current media climate as it…

With a characteristically flamboyant style, Rhys Nicholson could be the best-dressed-in-show for the whole of the comedy festival. He has a theatrical sensibility to him, and subsequently can be the most melodramatic-in-show for the damn festival as well. As a result, Nicholson doesn’t keep a slow pace through his hour dubbed I’m Fine. Which is…

DeAnne Smith loves to poke fun. She pokes fun subtly. She pokes fun with as much full-on intensity too and there’s a bit of intriguing wit in there as well while we are at it. The title of her show, Post-Joke Era is a simple phrase which kind of encapsulates what is all shitty with society….

What happens when two masters of the unconscious meet at opposing ends of their careers? It’s an idea explored thoroughly by Hysteria, in which a near-death Sigmund Freud accepts a visit from a flashy young painter named Salvador Dali. In tribute to the genius of both men, Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s Hysteria is complex, thought-provoking and…

At the sudden reverberation of a thud-like sound, the State Theatre was pitch black. And so began Matthew Bourne‘s incomparable adaptation of Lord of the Flies. For those who have never read the book, seen the play or the movie, then this theatre experience will leave you feeling triumphant and proud, for what you will witness is…

White Rabbit Red Rabbit describes itself as “a lively, global sensation that no-one is allowed to talk about”. There are no rehearsals, no director, a different actor each night, and a script that waits in a sealed envelope on the stage. Iranian writer Nassim Soleimanpour has created a most intriguing theatrical experience, and it’s currently…