Arts

Everyone’s favourite splash hit musical is now in Sydney, singin’ and dancin’ on its way through its Australian tour. We caught up pre-show with Jack Chambers, who plays the blindingly bright ray of sunshine Cosmo Brown, to chat about the production, musical theatre, and jamming to 90s hits in your dressing room. You’ve been in…

World Press Photo 16 is now at the Brisbane Powerhouse from 29th July to 21st August. This travelling exhibition showcases the accumulation of journalistic and documentarian photography all around the globe. 2016 marks the 59th year of this travelling cache of insights. 82,951 images were submitted this year. Before we discuss the winner we must…

For fans of the cult comedy series Mr. Show, and the IFC series Comedy Bang! Bang!, the name Scott Aukerman is already a household name – even if they might not be able to spell it (Mott Skokerman? Hot Saucerman?). But what many may not realise is that Comedy Bang! Bang! started its life not…

In the small hours of the morning, film star Claudette Welles took her young son Ari, got into a rowboat and disappeared, leaving behind her lover, Swedish filmmaker Timou, and an unfinished film. Some years later, in the Irish countryside, linguistics academic Daniel Sullivan stumbles across her, and, abandoning his wife and children in the…

Following success in cities across the world, a herd of 40 life size fibreglass cows, decorated by emerging and established artists and fashion designers, will be grazing in Perth from November. The CowParade has been featured in nearly 80 cities across more than 30 countries, making it one of the largest and most successful public art…

Giuseppe Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra presents the tragic story of naval hero Boccanegra (George Petean) who experiences great loss when the mother of his child, Maria, dies. Her father, Jacopo Fiesco (Giacomo Prestia), resents him and insists the only way in which to achieve redemption in his eyes is to hand his granddaughter over to him….

This August, Queensland Poetry Festival will present their 20th event, with three days and four nights of poetry, spoken word, panels, film, performance, art installations, slam, comedy, and hip-hop. This year’s festival, Lost Language, Found, will have a particularly strong indigenous and first nation focus. Some ninety artists will be present for the festival, both…

In conjunction with the Museum of Old and New Art, Sydney’s Carriageworks will present Katthy Cavaliere: Loved later this year, a retrospective of the late artist’s body of work. Originally presented at MONA, curated by Cavaliere’s friend Daniel Mudie Cunningham, the exhibition provides an insight into the Italian born artist’s life. Cavaliere’s art was created…

Victoria’s Footscray Community Arts Centre will once again be presenting the West Writers Forum, now in its third year, with New York based award winning poet, writer and activist Mahogany L Browne headlining the weekend. West Writers Forum: Our Stories will focus on narrative and story, exploring what these terms mean to different communities, through an offering of…

On Monday the 25th of July, Sydney’s Lyric Theatre hosted The 16th Annual Helpmann Awards, Australia’s performing arts’ night of nights. The night boasts the successes of achievements in an array of artistic disciplines amongst the national arts scene. Hosted by a wealth of figureheads in the field including Chloe Dallimore, The Umbillical Brothers and…

Imagine the excitement of sitting down in a theatre ready to see one of the great classic musicals- but having absolutely no idea which it will be! The starting notes begin and the crowd slowly cheers as the first recognitions start to trickle through like a wave. This excitement of discovery is all a part…

More than just sharing a noun, The Rocky Horror Show and Little Shop of Horrors have been born from a similar desire to subvert the norms of the genres they exist in, balancing out the camp absurdity of the very concept of a musical with likeable-yet-exaggerated characters, hilarious dialogue, and a whole bunch of ridiculous…

Presented in partnership with Bondi’s Sculpture by the Sea, new Harbour foreshore park Barangaroo Reserve will play host to sculpture event Sculpture at Barangaroo this August. The free event will feature 12 outdoor artworks by 15 Australian artists, with six works specially commissioned for the exhibition. Exhibiting artists include, Sean Cordeiro and Claire Healy, Marley Dawson,…

Cosi fan tutte to me was like a girls movie night at the opera. My friend and I were full of wistful sighs over corsets, eye rolls over relationship silliness, swoons over dashing (yet infuriating) men, endless giggles and pensive frustrations over wondering who will end up with who. All in all- a great night…

In an Australian first, contemporary Italian artist Francesco Clemente will head up the second major international exhibition in the Schwartz Carriageworks series, opening on July 30th. The Schwartz Carriageworks series is a joint venture between art dealer Anna Schwartz and Carriageworks director Lisa Havilah, bringing major international artists to Australian audiences. First announced in 2015, the partnership earlier…

Sydney Theatre Company’s Resident Director Kip Williams will be diving back into the world of Shakespeare later this year, bringing what is  promised to be a bold new staging of the perennial favourite, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to the Sydney Opera House stage. This new production will feature ABC’s Cleverman star Rob Collins as Lysander;…

September will see Robert Forster, of iconic Australian band The Go-Betweens, in conversation with Triple J’s Zan Rowe as part of a special in-conversation event for The School of Life Sydney; the topic of discussion? Friendship. On September 7th, Forster and Rowe will be attempting to get to the bottom of what makes a good…

26 year old Torres Straight Islander Daniel O’Shane has won this year’s National Works on Paper Prize, for his piece Aib Ene Zogo ni Pat (Story of Aib and the sacred waterhole). Living and working in Cairns, O’Shane’s piece draws on his Torres Islands heritage. Of the traditional story behind the work, O’Shane says: “Meuram…

On July 29th, the 2016 World Press Photo Exhibition will return to the Brisbane Powerhouse for a month long stay. Showcasing some of the most powerful and politically charged images of the previous 12 months, the exhibition has been touring for the last 59 years. Running since the 1950s, this year’s contest drew entries from around…

One of my most despised elements of social media culture is the need for people to flaunt body image across Instagram with fifty-odd hashtags to accompany. The rise of ‘thinspo’ and ‘thinspiration’ in particular has grown from advocating clean living and a fitness-driving lifestyle into something more toxic in recent years and it’s this toxicity…

The Depot Theatre’s production of Christina in the Cupboard, by Paul Gilchrist, is bewildering at first, but eventually gets to a thought-provoking point which will have you pondering long into the night. The play, first performed at the Tap Gallery in 2013, is an exploration of one young woman’s retreat inwards as she struggles to…

Melbourne artist Louise Hearman has won the 2016 Archibald Prize with her work, Barry, a hyper-realistic portrait of iconic Australian entertainer Barry Humphries. The Archibald Prize is the preeminent portraiture prize in Australia, and is awarded to annually to the best portrait ‘of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted…

In Ira Glass’ own words, this was a melding of two mediums no one ever asked to see in the same show. A mashup (for want of a better term) of radio and interpretive dance, Three Acts, Two Dancers… could be the most pretentious thing you might ever see, but is far from it. The…

Michael Jackson tribute concert HIStory will have attendees questioning what they see in front of their eyes, as impersonator Dantanio is almost as good as the real thing. Over six years since Jackson untimely death, Dantanio emerged after a year-long search to become the world’s most-loved impersonator of the fallen king of pop. He originates…

Simple Infinity successfully combines three art forms to create an enchanting and genuine experience that encourages us to look again. We begin by engaging with the work of artist and designer David Hawkes, who has created both a large-scale installation and performance space. Taking its cue from the infinity sign, Hawkes invites the audience to…

The Sydney Fringe Comedy program is returning next month for it’s sixth year. The program presented by the producers of the Sydney Comedy Festival will run for a month, from the 30th August to the 30th September, and promises to showcase up-and-coming talent alongside some of the more established acts. With other 100 shows from…

Twenty years of travellers’ tales have gone into British comedian Bill Bailey‘s latest show, Larks In Transit, which will be touring Australia and New Zealand later this year. His 15 date tour will see him travel around Australia, sharing tales from two decades as a comedian, from politics, to philosophy, to a painful encounter with Paul…

Breaking attendance predictions made for every year up until 2019, the 2016 Brisbane Anywhere Festival has cemented itself as one of the most successful in the festival’s history – excellent news, just as cuts to arts funding are already causing damage to the industry’s small to medium sector groups. Productions this year took place at abandoned…

In August Sydneysiders will be treated to a very special production of My Fair Lady at the iconic, Sydney Opera House. But if audiences want to see two fair ladies then they have one very special opportunity; that is, to see Dame Julie Andrews and her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton live and in conversation. The…

Earlier this month, the line-up for the 2016 Brisbane Festival dropped, and this year’s theme is ‘Welcome to Youtopia‘. To celebrate the reveal, and to start getting you all super pumped for a jam-packed September, we’ve compiled a list of the ten shows you’d be mad to miss. We’ve left the countdown in the capable hands…