Some fun facts about The Barber of Seville that I didn’t know going in is that it is based on a novel and is actually the prequel for The Marriage of Figaro, despite Seville being the work of Rossini and Figaro of Mozart. Having of course seen Opera Australia’s The Marriage of Figaro last year…
Read More
The Fairfax-run Spectrum Now Festival has announced a bombastic line-up of music and arts-related events that’ll embrace Sydney in the early days of March. On the artistic side of things, Robert Bose will display his work Balloon Chain for the first time in Australia. The installation has found a home at both the Coachella and Burning…
Read More
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,…
Read More
Acclaimed Ghanaian artist El Anatsui’s first major exhibition in Australia has opened at Sydney’s Carriageworks as part of Sydney Festival, marking the first Schwartz Carriageworks project. Running until 6th March 2016, the exhibition showcases more than 30 works from Anatsui dating all the way back to the 1970s, bringing in a range on ceramics, drawings,…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
Sydney’s Carriageworks 2016 program is currently underway, presenting contemporary multi-arts performances. It is Carriageworks most ambitious program showcasing a diverse range of projects spanning visual arts, dance, performance, film, talks and music. With over 740 artists on show, we’ve done the hard work for you and scoured the program for acts not to miss. K-Pop Party…
Read More
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…
Read More
A premiere show for the Sydney Festival, In Between Two sees two Australian musicians, TZU’s Joelistics and Sietta’s James Mangohig, overlap their stories as mixed-race Asian Australians in Australia’s hip hop culture. Sharing family photos and tales from their heritage, the two share a basic commonality, however their histories couldn’t be more different. Joelistics happily…
Read More
The Lonely Circus production of Fall Fell Fallen has a twist. It’s not the lone tightroper, and it’s not the experimental music accompaniment. It’s Acrobat Sébastien Le Guen falling. A lot. He doesn’t hurt himself or anything. It’s not exactly for the epic fail crowd, though it does disarm with the same gravitational force. Thankfully,…
Read More
La Verità could only be described as a swift fall down a rabbit hole where reality is warped and nothing is as it seems. Surrealist tones are prevalent throughout this offbeat circus extravaganza which revolves around the discovery of one of Salvador Dali’s scrims that was found in a wooden box in a theatre after…
Read More
It’s truly incredible what one man can achieve with a touch of sequin, a lot of pizazz and a set of lungs that support such badass pipes for a whole two hours. Trevor Ashley is one of, if not, the best drag queen performer this divine country has ever had. And yes Dame Edna Everage…
Read More
The ever so colourful Trevor Ashley is at it again. The man seriously does not stop. Having just ended a two-year national tour with Les Miserables and directing the Hayes Theatre Co’s latest show Heathers, Ashley has now focused and channelled his energies into the leading woman in his life; Liza Minnelli. First off, we…
Read More
Two young men explore the Tasmanian wilderness in their youth. Francis, a young engineer and his friend Peter, a geologist, have bright futures ahead of them. But when they stumble upon a tribe of outcasts deep in the bush, they enjoy a moment of curious joy before despair. The tribe are a group of misfits,…
Read More
The Rabbits, written by John Marsden and illustrated by Shaun Tan, is an extraordinary piece of work. It takes important historical events and recreates its message in a haunting picture book- reaching children and adults alike. It does not shy away from what it needs to say. The adaption of this work into this opera…
Read More
In a time where our discussion is stilted, mediated and increasingly online, community engagement has formed a central aspect of contemporary theatre. The facilities to congregate and share stories are rare, particularly in outer urban areas or those where many cultures co-exist separately. While Reclaim Australia toots it’s white power horn, there’s a deeper issue…
Read More
The Fantasticks has become the longest running production of any kind in the history of American theatre, no small feat, and yet I hadn’t heard of it. So noticing we were getting a production here in the wonderful Hayes Theatre I went to listen on Spotify. I wound up a good deal confused- what is…
Read More
Gone are the days of the silent movies set in black and white where a comical gentleman enigmatically dances around the screen engaged in a slapstick routine. We now live in a world where sound, special effects, and computer graphics are what it takes to keep us enthralled. When I heard that The Pianist was coming…
Read More
Quirky circus performer Thomas Monckton is in Melbourne right now in partnership with Circo Aereo performing his solo show ‘The Pianist’. This contemporary physical theatre piece is set to wow audiences with its hysterical mime style of comedy, and physical feats. I recently chatted to the talented Mr Monckton about his attraction to clowning, working…
Read More
The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) will be hosting an exclusive Sydney exhibition as part of the 2016-2017 Sydney International Art Series, presenting the public with a major showcase of renowned Japanese contemporary artist Tatsuo Miyajima, a man known for his immersive, technology-driven sculptures and installations. This will be Miyajima’s first major solo exhibition…
Read More
When a story is told and retold and adapted in so many different ways you know there’s something special about it. This is of course the case with Puccini’s La Bohème, which has been adapted into popular modern musical RENT and used as inspiration for Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge just to name a few. In…
Read More
I have wanted to see Mozart’s The Magic Flute for so long. The “happy” opera, full of playfulness, colour and magic, a welcome change from my more recent (brilliant) but tragic La Bohemes and Don Carlos’. And boy was everyone correct! The Magic Flute is absolutely the happy opera. The first thing I noticed about…
Read More
Whether your faith is a God, the community or a Seers shopping catalogue sometimes we don’t ask the higher powers for something but he gives it to us anyway. Was there a riot demanding the 1988 cult classic Heathers be revamped into a musical? Probably not. But Off-Broadway is one of those whimsical places that…
Read More
Bright flashes beckoned us towards Melbourne’s Princess Theatre on Tuesday night as a myriad of celebrities sashayed along the red carpet. It was the opening night of Fiddler on the Roof and it seemed the entire city had come out to enjoy this long awaited spectacle. Long gowns brushed the floor, and champagne glasses clinked…
Read More
The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) have recently introduced another impressive Australian work to the MCA Collection, acquiring Square Cloud Compound (2010) by Sydney artist Mikala Dwyer, who also has gifted the museum with Spell for a Corner, a new multi-coloured wall painting. Mysterious and experimental with an imposing form, Square Cloud Compound is an…
Read More
Circus Oz has become an Australian institution in its 37 years of performing around the world. One of the world’s first ‘contemporary’ circus’ – presenting shows without animals in more artistic settings – the group is partly responsible for many of the current crop of art circus troupes we’re familiar with today. But Wait.. There’s…
Read More
As I entered the Arts Centre’s State Theatre with a hoard of people old and young, I could imagine a time long past where the magicians, illusionists, and freaks of the world held centre stage as they shocked and tantalised their audiences worldwide. A time without t.v or internet, where the prime form of entertainment…
Read More
On the 13th February at Sydney’s Theatre Royal, Leigh Sales will sit down with the one and only acclaimed composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz! There is no doubt that you would have heard some of Schwartz’s work, whether it be his Broadway hits including Godspell, Pippin and Wicked or his work on Disney movies such…
Read More
World renowned Mentalist Lior Suchard is heading to Australia this month for another national tour. Following sold out shows in 2015, Lior is back again to blow minds with his incredible techniques. I was lucky enough to chat with the Master Mentalist about his newfound fame, his world travels, and growing up with a strong…
Read More
