Arts

On Wednesday night, at West End’s Avid Reader, A Rock & Roll Writers Festival directors Leanne de Souza and Joe Woolley revealed the full program of events and speakers for the inaugural April event – and once you take a look at what’s in store, you’ll understand exactly why Sydney and Melbourne are so annoyed that little ol’…

“We are all more intelligent than we are capable, and awareness of the insanity of love has
never saved anyone from the disease.” – Alain de Botton Is love just an illusion? Philosopher, bestselling author and School of Life co-founder Alain de Botton returns to the Sydney Opera House on 9 July to explore what it…

Head On Photo Festival and Gayby Baby partner to present a stirring photo series entitled Gaybies: We Are Not a Hypothetical for this year’s Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival. The exhibition made up of nine portraits of children of LGBTQI parents launched last week on Thursday 18 February and will run through until…

Romeo And Juliet. The classic tale of forbidden love and the passion of youth, and the first programme by Peter Evans as the new Artistic Director of Bell Shakespeare. We searched for the light through yonder window and found Kelly Paterniti, the productions Juliet, to discuss tackling the world’s most famous leading role, pivotal moments…

I probably say this every time I review a production of the play, but Hamlet is my favourite Shakespeare play. I’ve seen the oft-performed revenge tragedy many times, both here in Australia and in the UK. I have, however, never seen a Hamlet quite like the one presented by The Tiger Lillies and Theatre Republique…

Scotch & Soda easily became one of my Adelaide Fringe highlights, a declaration I made within minutes of leaving The Panama Club and emerging out into the bright lights of this year’s Royal Croquet Club set up. A sold out show indicated that the Adelaide crowds were either returning to Scotch & Soda following a wildly…

Shimchong: Daughter Overboard! is the latest production by Motherboard Productions. Its story is both rooted in old Korean tales, and tales anew painted by the tumultuous state of Australian affairs. It begins in a far away land of another time where Shimchong, daughter of a blind man sacrifices herself by leaping overboard and sinking down…

Keith Agius has never quite seen a role like the one he is currently playing in The Whale. Not only due to his physical change he has to endure for the role of Charlie – a diminishing man whose health has turned for the worst – but because of the emotional challenges as well. Keith spoke to…

Following on from the ideas projected through the 2015 production Nufonia Must Fall, 1927 returns to the Adelaide Festival of Arts this year with a continued exploration of the relationship between man and machine with Golem. Where Nufonia detailed a love story, Golem takes the audience into darker, nightmarish territory in highlighting the dangerous dependency…

Barefaced Stories has become a much loved fixture of the Perth calendar; a monthly storytelling extravaganza that has grown exponentially since it’s launch back in 2010. Monday evening saw Barefaced put on the second of two Fringe World gala editions, hosted by Perth’s very own answer to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler – Andrea Gibbs…

Well Shane Adamczak has done it again. His latest production with Weeping Spoon Productions, The Ballad of Frank Allen has just opened at Perth’s Fringe World. A strange and comic tale about a man who lives in another man’s beard; The Ballad of Frank Allen is a wonderfully funny and utterly charming work that will…

Griffin Theatre Company proudly supports and presents all new Australian works, a fitting program for their stables-turned-theatre venue. “Australian” and “new” means that the work can often hit a little closer to home in terms of language, setting and relevance. In their latest production, Ladies Day, nothing is more fitting then describing it as hitting,…

Henry Lawson and Dame Mary Gilmore (nee Cameron) are famous Australian authors who appeared on Australia’s old paper $10 note. They’re also the subject of an intense period drama and romantic play called All My Love. It’s a story that asks a number of “What if?” style questions and hints at what could have been a great…

Oh, Sammy J & Randy. For many Adelaide Fringe Festival goers, it just simply isn’t a year in the Garden of Unearthly Delights without these two bringing an hour or so of their absurdly wicked comedy through to one of the tents erected throughout Rymill Park. Their latest show, Sammy J & Randyland, sees the…

The Last Time I Saw Richard sees two people navigate the complexities and ideas surrounding the idea of a ‘non-relationship’ in a series of hotel rooms over an extended period of time. Will this chemistry April and Richard share extend outside the confines of the temporary accommodation they keep finding themselves in? Are the insecurities…

Tim Draxl has been enchanting audiences both onscreen, for his roles in A Few Best Men, Swimming Upstream, A Place To Call Home and the new tele-movie, Molly – as well as on stage, with his one man shows, Freeway – The Chet Baker Journey and Cabaret, since the tender age of 16. Now at…

Becky Lucas has been as creative a person than any other creative person who creates for a living. If those creative things include tweeting away a storm, writing a comprehensive newsletter about life and ideas, or supporting every other creatively funny people on the planet, then she really is nailing it on many levels. She…

Did you know? Ludwig II of Bavaria was known as the Swan King or the Fairy Tale King? No? How about that Ludwig II was a massive fan of Wagner and decked out his palaces in homage to Wagner’s operas? Me neither. That was until I saw Ludwig – a one-man operetta – presented by…

Sky-hi & So-lo is the first one-man show from Viktor Griffioen, formerly of music theatre group The Sadists. It’s been 24 hours and quite frankly I’m still not entirely sure what to make of it. It’s chaotic, wilfully absurd – but utterly entertaining and hilarious (if you don’t mind your humour a bit dark and…

Inspired by events in and around Kings Cross at the end of the Second World War, Mayhem Kings Cross 1945 at the opulent Elizabeth Bay House was a celebration of the end of the war and a way to bid farewell to American GI’s returning home. A coloration between Sydney Living Museums and The Festivalists,…

Tom Stoppard’s plays are just so damn entertaining and clever. They always give off such a vibe of established sophistication that he easily fits into the most respected playwrights of history, but his writing remains relevant and modern. And when one gets to experience his plays in such a production as Sydney Theatre Company’s latest…

The idea of the interactive theatre experience is nothing new. From “whodunit” dinner parties to whatever it is people get up to at those Rocky Horror screenings, there’s always been a market for those of us who want to feel a part of the action. Even sitting front row at a comedy show brings out…

Luisa Miller is a lesser known earlier opera of Verdi, it’s name perhaps less extravagant then his La Traviata, Don Carlos or Aida, but in its musical telling are far more applicable characters and a genuinely beautiful yet tragic tale of love. This production by Opera Australia is a co-production with Opera de Lausanne of…

From writing some of our most beloved pieces of musical theatre, including Wicked, Pippin and Godspell, to some of our most treasured songs from the likes of Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Prince of Egypt, Stephen Schwartz has touched our music-filled hearts in one way or another. Currently in Australia for Defying…

Walking into The Peacock tent on the opening night of the Adelaide Fringe Festival season felt like a much needed escape from the chaos that was the rest of Gluttony and the Rundle St/East Tce intersection. I made a point of not looking up much information about LUMINOUS prior to the show tonight, though I…

Kiersten Fishburn, Director of the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, has today announced that Yardena Kurulkar from Mumbai, India has won the 64th Blake Art Prize for her work Kenosis. The Blake Art Prize is Australia’s longest standing and most prestigious art prize which encourages conversation about spirituality and religion through art. This year’s prize saw…

The art of dance combined with the science of mechanical engineering is set to dazzle Brisbane audiences when the Brisbane Powerhouse hosts the Australian premiere of Huang Yi & KUKA from Thursday 18th -Saturday 20 February 2016 as part of WTF16. Internationally acclaimed choreographer and dancer Huang Yi brings his childhood dream of dancing with…

Henry Lawson and Mary Gilmore are two famous, Australian writers. But what people may not realise is that the pair were also lovers and secretly betrothed. This information has only come to light in the couple’s surviving letters and in Gilmore’s memoirs and forms the basis of a new play titled, All My Love. It’s…

Tooth and Sinew in association with bAKEHOUSE Theatre present Year of the Family, written by Anthony Neilson. This production is an incredibly dark comedy that had me laughing at what could arguably be described as rather inappropriate circumstances. Highlighting how truly dysfunctional families can be, the play follows the relationships of half-sisters Fliss and Claire as…

While big-end productions like Cats rely on star power (even though the whole play is quite a boring production in itself), there are amazing little events who also conjure up those upcoming stars. But what is you had absolutely no idea on who was playing what was going to happen and only a smidgen of…