Books Editor. An admirer of songs and reader of books. Simon has a PhD in English and Comparative Literature. All errant apostrophes are his own.
dLux MediaArts invites you to join them for the third installment of IS THIS ART? a celebration of seventeen of Australia’s most innovative and experimental emerging media artists on a night not to be missed. Taking over Marrickville’s Create or Die Warehouse space on Thursday, March 10, dLux will be showcasing the unexpected as part of The Sydney…
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“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…
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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…
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Ubisoft® and Scholastic have announced a collaboration on a new young adult book series, Last Descendants, based on the hit video game franchise Assassin’s Creed®. Written for readers ages 12 and up by award-winning author Matthew J. Kirby, the first book in the “Last Descendants” series will launch simultaneously in September 2016 in the United…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Arizona’s Calexico will be heading down to Australia again next month to play a number of dates around the country, including a night at Sydney’s Spectrum Now Festival. I caught up with frontman and guitarist Joey Burns ahead of the tour to discuss the recent record, Edge of the Sun and the impending tour amongst a handful of other topics –…
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Arizona’s Calexico will be heading down to Australia again next month to play a number of dates around the country, including a night at Sydney’s Spectrum Now Festival. I caught up with frontman and guitarist Joey Burns ahead of the tour to discuss the recent record, Edge of the Sun and the impending tour amongst…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Perth’s celebrators of the spoken word and music Ships in the Night are heading to the Fringe World festival in Perth for two nights of words and music – and it’s all taking place inside a yurt. Conceived in collaboration with The Blue Room Theatre Summer Nights program and writer SJ Finch, Ships in the…
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Ahead of the official program launch in mid-March, the Melbourne International Jazz Festival have let slip a few early details, announcing the headline artists for the opening and closing night of this year’s instalment of the festival. The Melbourne International Jazz Festival will present jazz wunderkind Esperanza Spalding in her Australian debut, opening the 2016 Festival with her groundbreaking new…
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What are labels? They’re the words we use to define ourselves, to define others; and how we are ourselves defined. They are the words that make us categorised, grouped and understood. Of course context is key. These labels can often be quite innocuous, even positive. But there are also those times when they can be…
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“To sleep perchance to dream,” said Hamlet. Well not if you’re a “guest” at the Dream Motel, a sleep clinic that forms the backdrop of Ian Sinclair and Renee Newman’s latest work Sleeping Beauty a contemporary re-telling of the classic fairy tale. Sinclair and Newman have stripped back the whimsy, removed all traces of cute…
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Carriageworks and Sydney Writers’ Festival are partnering to present a Sydney Writers’ Festival Carriageworks Edition with two talks by internationally renowned authors: Simon Winchester, for his only Sydney appearance to discuss his new biography Pacific Ocean, and Andrew O’Hagan author of The Illuminations, which was long-listed for the 2015 Man Booker Prize. The public will have a chance to join bestselling author Simon…
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From the bizarre mind of Fringe favourite Shane Adamczak (Trampoline, Zack Adams, 3-time Canadian Just For Laughs award nominee and producer of the Award-winning ★★★★★ Fringe hits This Is Not A Love Song and Vicious Circles) comes a brand new comedy about how even the smallest people can do big things. When a scientific accident causes a…
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Opening at the Black Eye Gallery in March, as part of Sydney Art Month, BDSM features 16 engaging and intimate portraits of very different BDSM practitioners. Through these portraits, fine art and advertising photographer Simon Bernhardt attempts to dispel the stereotypes that surround BDSM (bondage, discipline, dominance, submission and sadomasochism) and tell the story of…
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The world famous Cirque du Soleil is coming to Australia in February to conduct auditions; on the search for something “completely different”. And for the first time ever, the company has decided to extend their reach with a nationwide Auditions Roadshow on the hunt for Australia’s most unique performing talent. Do you have a weird but wonderful routine,…
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It horrified London, petrified Sydney and now this haunting thriller is coming for you. Seen by over half a million people worldwide, Ghost Stories is a truly terrifying theatrical experience that will make you laugh and scream in equal measures. Not for the faint hearted (seriously, read the disclaimer), Ghost Stories will tour Geelong, Adelaide,…
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A whole host of local and international authors, writers and public thinkers will be decamping to Adelaide at the end of February for the 31st instalment of the Adelaide Writers’ Week; a week long celebration as part of the Adelaide Festival. The event will feature over 90 writers in conversation, across six days from the…
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Following a sold-out, critically acclaimed engagement in Sydney, Australia last August, The Present, Andrew Upton’s new adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s first play, Platonov, will be presented on Broadway for a limited engagement in the early Winter of 2016. The Present, directed by John Crowley, will see Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh make their Broadway debuts,…
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Melbourne Opera, following a highly successful debut tour of China, have returned to Melbourne to stage their first opera of 2016; the rarely performed The Abduction from Seraglio. So rarely performed, this is Melbourne’s first professional staging of the work in over twenty years. When the glamorous Konstanze and her English PA Blonde have been kidnapped, Belmonte…
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Inspired by a quote from renowned sleep scientist Allan Rechtschaffen: “If sleep and dreaming does not serve some vital function, it is the biggest mistake evolution ever made,” Perth performance makers Ian Sinclair and Dr. Renee Newman have reimagined Sleeping Beauty for a contemporary audience. Sleeping Beauty follows Tahlia (Renee Newman), haunted by reoccurring nightmares…
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Fresh from touring the UK, the maestro of feel-good comedy returns to Australia next month. Stephen’s show The Laughter Master will bring hilarious tales and stories of finding laughter in this crazy world we inhabit. Is it all just doom and gloom in the headlines? Establishing himself as a household name in Australia over the last…
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Art Month Sydney 2016, headed for the first by time by Artistic Director Barry Keldoulis, have announced their full program presented from 1st until 20th March. In addition to the popular Collectors’ Space and Art At Night events, this year will feature Green Eyed Monster Eating its Own Tail, a new exhibition curated specifically for…
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A Rock & Roll Writers Festival is a curated, weekend long literary festival devoted to exploring and celebrating the creative spark between writing and music. The festival is to be held on the 2nd and 3rd of April at The Brightside, 27 Warner Street, Fortitude Valley. The fearless program is designed for fans and lovers of music…
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Early 2016 will see Illinois singer-songwriter William Fitzsimmons make his first trip to Australian shores for a handful of intimate solo performances across the country; including for the Perth International Arts Festival. Well known for his confessional songwriting Fitzsimmons, has drawn comparisons to the likes of Iron and Wine and Sufjan Stevens – whilst his…
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