Based on the novel The Women in Black, by Madeline St John, Ladies in Black is that all too rare thing: an entirely new Australian musical. There is no mistaking the country in which this show is set – from the home-grown accents to the local suburbs referenced in the text, this is a musical…
Tomorrow the Sydney Festival officially kicks off – with some events, including the Meriton Festival Village in Hyde Park, launching today. Among the incredible three weeks of entertainment are a slew of totally free arts events and performances. Here are our picks of just a few of them… THE HAIR SALON The Hair Salon is…
The curators of The Hunger Games: The Exhibition has gone all out to ensure the odds are ever in their favour, creating a highly interactive, sensory feast for fans. Hosted in the sparkly new International Convention Centre Sydney, the exhibition is a tribute to The Hunger Games movies and books. Featuring numerous costumes and props…
Woodford is a wonderful festival away from the hustle of the city celebrations. There are no fireworks, no roughies, and a very different vibe where you can fill your head with amazing experiences outside of getting drunk and revelling away. One of those inimitable experiences is the visual art workshop programs happening at the festival….
Hakawati is a Sydney Festival show that allows you to be swept away to an Arabian night in Western Sydney. The show is a celebration of food and stories and is inspired by an Arabic tradition where storytelling is combined with breaking bread. This event will have its world premiere at the El- Phoenician restaurant…
Sport for Jove’s Summer Shakespeare Season is in its eighth year and is impressing audiences once again, this time with their double bill – Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra. Designed to be viewed back-to-back, with some of the actors reprising their roles in the second play, politics, intrigue and murder abound. Suzanne Pereira is…
Landing the plum role of Lisa in last year’s world premiere of Ladies in Black was a dream come true for Sarah Morrison, who received critical acclaim for her performance. Now, Morrison is set to reprise the role of the young, starry-eyed school-leaver when the show finally hits Sydney next month. I started by asking…
Nathan Maynard’s first play, The Season, is making its world premiere next January as part of the Sydney Festival, and the playwright couldn’t be more excited. The ‘season’ of the title refers to the annual mutton-bird harvesting that takes place on remote Big Dog Island, in Tasmania’s Bass Strait. Maynard is a descendant of the…
Artistic Director of Urban Theatre Projects, Rosie Dennis, is no stranger to delving into the heart of a community for her theatrical inspiration. In the company’s latest work, Home Country staged for the Sydney Festival, Dennis takes audiences on a journey (both figuratively and literally) through a multi-storey carpark in Blacktown. We were naturally intrigued……
Award-winning Canadian Indigenous performer and playwright, Cliff Cardinal, and Native Earth Performing Arts are bringing the critically-acclaimed one-man show, Huff, to Sydney this January. The piece follows Wind, a First Nation’s boy who escapes his own painful reality by sniffing solvent. Chatting to us from the theatre home of Canada’s VideoCabaret – where he is…
Yesterday we published part one of an interview with the director of the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Gordon Morrison. In that first half, we heard his vision for the gallery and what its place will be for future exhibitions stemming from the gallery’s recent exhibition of the touring Archibald Prize artworks. For those art lovers…
After a sold-out debut run, comedian Eric Andre will return to Australia and make his first trip to New Zealand with dates set for May 2017. Known for his off-kilter humour, Andre has presented his cult hit talk show The Eric Andre Show since 2012, co-hosting with Hannibal Buress and boasting guests such as Jack…
On January 15th, singer-songwriters Amanda Palmer and Missy Higgins will speak on motherhood, music, and artistry at a one-off event for the Melbourne branch of Alain de Botton‘s School of Life. Both Palmer and Higgins have built their musical careers on going against the grain, boasting creative streaks that, Palmer at least, worried might be…
In a Sydney exclusive, SIRO-A will bring their theatrical spectacular Techno Circus to Australia early next year, performing at The Concourse from 10th to 29th January 2017. Described as Japan’s answer to Blue Man Group, SIRO-A was formed in 2002 by six classmates from Sendai. Aiming to break the barriers of conventional theatre, the group…
Sydney’s iconic Carriageworks is set to open an enormous expansion in January 2017 following a recent partnership with UrbanGrowth NSW and the acquisition of The Clothing Store, a heritage part of the historic Railway Workshops network in North Eveleigh. Announced today, the arts destination will put out a public call for expressions of interest for…
Eric André may very well be one of the hottest comedians in the world right now. Sure, you’ve got his standout role in FXX’s Man Seeking Woman, but it’s his own The Eric André Show, for which he “plays” an incompetent and slightly deranged talk show host, that has really propelled the comic onto a…
The Archibald holds a special place in within the art history of Australia, and looking at the images through the history of the prize shows that portraiture has moved from the plain, white man to a fascinating array of subject and ideas on all sorts of mediums. Earlier this month the ‘Archies’ were displayed at…
Bernhard Schlink is a German lawyer and writer. His internationally best selling novel ‘The Reader’ became an Oscar winning film staring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. He lives in Berlin and New York and he takes us from Germany to Australia in his current novel The Woman on the Stairs. The nameless narrator of this book…
A special pop-up exhibition will hit Surry Hills this week to highlight the works of ocean photographer and social media influencer Mark Fitz (@_markfitz) and the possibilities of works shot exclusively on a smartphone (in this case the iPhone 7 Plus). The exhibition, which has been created by impact protection pros Tech21 has been designed…
Forming part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras celebrations, Trevor Ashley will bring his depiction of the life of Dame Shirley Bassey to the Sydney Opera House for a one off gala event in March 2017. Performer and drag artist Ashley will transform into Bassey for the evening, with a little help from…
Hannibal Buress came into Brisbane like a whirlwind. Giving a solid nearly 2 hour set and bringing a great troupe of supports The Tivoli reverberated with laughter last Monday. Even if you’ve missed Buress’s show, keep an eye out for more Al Jackson. The biology teacher turned comedian has a sharp tongue and jokes to…
Returning for its 13th year, and already boasting a lineup of some of the biggest names in Australian and international comedy, the Sydney Comedy Festival will run from April 24th until May 21st 2017. Home grown acts include Dave Hughes, Joel Creasey, Aunty Donna, Rove McManus, Susie Youssef, and Merrick Watts, while Jason Bryne, Daniel…
Starring Richard Roxburgh and Cate Blanchett, Andrew Upton‘s The Present is based on Anton Chekhov‘s first play, untitled and only discovered sixteen years after his death. After an acclaimed season in Sydney, the STC production will begin previews at Broadway’s Barrymore Theatre later this month. With Upton’s adaptation set post-Perestroika in the mid-1990s, friends gather…
Friends, music, food and wine: So Frenchy So Chic brings the simple pleasures together for one glorious summer’s day. You’re invited to a party and a picnic in the park celebrating life and culture, the frenchy way. This is the sixth year so frenchy has taken over the grounds of Werribee Park Mansion outside Melbourne…
Bare is, in my opinion, one of the most underappreciated musicals. Ever since I first heard it it has been a favourite but I always knew the chance of seeing it live was going to be small. So when I read The Depot Theatre in Sydney were producing it I was extremely excited. I had some trepidation though,…
Sitting at no less than 6,000 square metres, Australia’s largest contemporary gallery, The Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) in Brisbane’s South Bank, turns ten years old this month. To celebrate, the now iconic space has launched a massive, free exhibition dubbed GoMA Turns 10, which revisits some of the curator’s favourite artworks and artists who…
There may be relaxation, holidays and many other festivities on the mind of everyone during the month of December, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go out and enjoy the best the art world has to offer, here’s what we think is the best of the bunch this month! Opera Australia’s The Opera Gala &…
Performed by the Phillip Glass Ensemble, the score from 1983 cult masterpiece KOYAANISQATSI will accompany a screening of the film at a special event at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Hamer Hall next March. KOYAANISQATSI took five years to film. Free of narrative, the title comes from the Hopi language word for ‘life out of balance’. Using…
The Depot Theatre has announced its 2017 season, promising another exciting year of Australian firsts, new writing and innovative interpretations of much-loved classics. Based in the historic Addison Road Community Centre in Marrickville, in Sydney’s inner west, The Depot Theatre aims to give a home to independent theatre-makers and creatives. In 2017, the Depot will…
20 diverse productions make up Parramatta’s Riverside Theatres‘ 2017 program, featuring resident company National Theatre of Parramatta, as well as major companies from across Australia and international touring productions. “Every great city has a great theatre,” said Riverside Theatres Program Manager Michelle Kotevski. “As Parramatta grows to take its place as a global city, Riverside…
