Perth’s FRINGE WORLD Festival has released it’s annual Festival Impact Report, which covers the significant and positive social, cultural, and business impacts the yearly event has on both the city and the state as a whole. 713 events were spread across 159 venues, featuring 3,381 artists, both local and international. It is recognised as the third…
Read MoreAs part of a joint venture between the Australian Greens party and Perth theatre group The Cutting Room Floor, WA Senator Scott Ludlam is taking over a home in suburbia, for a night of theatre from some of the city’s best and brightest upcoming artists. In Home Open: An Evening of Green, The Cutting Room…
Read MoreSmack dab in the middle of Perth’s busy West End – sitting just 300m from the Murray and Hay Street shopping malls – is the Ibis Perth‘s 192 room hotel. Though only listed as a three star establishment, it seems unfair to throw it in the same category that many seedy motels around the country…
Read MoreOne of Perth’s unmissable food events is back as Taste of Perth will take place from April 29th to May 1st. Over these short three days, some of Perth’s greatest restauranteurs, of such places as Bib and Tucker, Bistro Guillaume and Manuke Woodfire Kitchen, will create 3-4 signature dishes in ‘taste’ sized portions starting from…
Read MorePhoto by Jon Green The Cockatoos is the latest work from writer and director Andrew Hale of Happy Dagger Theatre. Adapted from Nobel Prize winning author Patrick White’s short story The Cockatoos follows the goings on a suburban street in Australia; where under the surface of respectability there are plenty of secrets and dark goings…
Read MoreBenjamin & Me is the latest work from writer, director, performer and purveyor of the ukulele, Mark Storen. It’s also the debut show for his new production company Whiskey + Boots. Benjamin & Me is quite simply a feat of storytelling and imagination. A show that is quirky, a little bit silly, but packed full…
Read More‘The Beautiful Game’ is a well worn cliché that is off trotted out when talking about football. It seems to be the best you need to not only have tactical know how; but also have some fleet and fancy footwork and an array of tricks to outwit the opposing team’s defenders – I’m thinking your…
Read MoreAfter a couple of regional shows down in Western Australia’s South West, The Rubens national tour, in support of their new record Hoops, hit Perth over the weekend for a sold out show at the Astor Theatre. Joining the group on tour and kicking off the evening’s proceedings were Central Coast folk duo Winterbourne. I’ve…
Read MorePerth Concert Hall, normally home to the likes of Schubert and Beethoven, was transformed into Perth’s largest and grandest folk club on Tuesday night for the return of hometown favourites The Waifs as they continued the West Coast leg of their national tour in support of new record Beautiful You. There was wolf whistling, mass…
Read MoreBetween Solar Systems is the latest work from emerging Perth theatre group Second Chance Theatre. Written and directed by Scott McArdle the play centres on the actions of Vincent, the sole survivor of Earth’s cataclysmic sea level rise, or is he? I’m going to try and get through this review without giving away too many…
Read MoreAhead of the launch of his latest play Between Solar Systems, we caught up with writer and director Scott McArdle to find out a little bit more about the new play from his company Second Chance Theatre; and we couldn’t resist asking Scott for his favourite Science Fiction films or shows whilst we were at…
Read MoreSunday evening saw Joshua Radin kick off his Australian tour with an intimate gig at Perth’s Rosemount Hotel. It might have been a Sunday night and it might have been father’s day but that didn’t stop a sizeable crowd come out for Radin’s first ever gig in Perth; “the chillest place on earth” apparently. Opening…
Read MoreLatitudes is the new play from emerging Perth theatre group The Lost Boys, and marks the debut theatrical work from acclaimed screenwriter, film maker and musician Mark Walsh. Directed by Mikala Westall it is a work suffused with ideas of memory and of forgetting. An at times clever, meditative and mesmerising piece Latitudes has ensured…
Read MoreRefugees, asylum seekers and broader immigration have long dominated headlines and political slogans from all parties within Australia, and more recently abroad in Europe and the UK. For many people it is a polarising issue, for Perth theatre group The Last Great Hunt it provided the starting point for new work All That Glitters. A…
Read MoreOf all of Shakespeare’s works, Hamlet is perhaps his most oft-performed and perhaps most recognised (of the tragedies at least). Indeed as I write this review; a version of the play with Benedict Cumberbatch playing the titular anti-hero is in previews and dominating news headlines back in the UK and beyond. Hamlet is also my…
Read MoreKitty Daisy & Lewis captured by Carl Dziunka. Perth, being the most isolated capital city tends to find itself playing host to a lot touring bands playing their final shows of any given tour; especially if they’re in the country for Splendour. This can generally lead to some pretty interesting shows, in some cases the…
Read MoreSongbird, presented as part of NAIDOC week, is the sophomore production from local theatre group Imprint Productions, and the final production in the current season at Perth’s Blue Room Theatre. Written by Shakara Walley, directed by Ian Wilkes and featuring live music, Songbird tells the story, of three young indigenous people and their fracturing relationships….
Read MoreFracture, the penultimate work in the current season at Perth’s Blue Room Theatre, is the first work from emerging playwright and WAAPA student Lucy Clements. Directed by the ubiquitous Joe Lui, Fracture examines the aftermath of familial trauma and the isolation that can result from grief. It’s been roughly twenty-four hours since I stepped out…
Read MoreHe’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy! Or rather more accurately in this case, he’s a neurotic actor, with just the right sized nose and a slight drinking problem; tasked by the Ancient Israeli equivalent of Don Draper, with spreading the word of this new fangled religion – Christianity. If you haven’t already…
Read MoreFresh from his crowd pleasing appearance on ABC’s Q&A, American philosopher and activist Cornel West appeared at The Astor Theatre in Perth for the first of a series of lectures around Australia, speaking primarily about race relations and the forced closures of aboriginal communities. Over the course of his career West has been a regular…
Read MoreThe Epic is the brainchild of performance poets and storytellers Finn O’Branagáin and Scott Sandwich. It is a gathering of myths, stories and legends from across the globe brought together and woven into an evening of exaggeration, hyperbole and humour. It’s not a play; both Finn and “Scott” are quick to point out from the…
Read MorePhoto Credit: Jon Green The Song Was Wrong is the third production in Perth Theatre Company’s 2015 season and sees Artistic Director Melissa Cantwell take on both writing and directorial duties. The Song Was Wrong, the story of a love-struck Australian musician Christian and his French muse Cecile, is an utterly beautifully pensive and poetic…
Read MoreUnder this Sun is the debut work from Perth’s latest budding theatre company, The Emergence Co. Directed by Warwick Doddrell, Under This Sun follows the escapades of three young twenty somethings as they, each for their own reasons (some more misguided than others), make their way into the unforgiving landscape of the Australian outback. I…
Read MoreAhead of its Opening Night we caught up with Warwick Doddrell, director and producer of Under This Sun to discover a little bit more about what audiences can expect from the play, the initial inspiration behind the work and just what directing for the first time is like! Under This Sun is the first production…
Read MoreOnce We Were Kings is the latest work from Perth theatre company Third Culture Kids. Written by Dure Khan and directed by Mustafa Al Mahdi, Once We Were Kings explores what it means to be young, “queer” and Muslim and navigating the cultural minefield of contemporary Australia. Even after a couple of days, I’m still…
Read MoreThe Confidence Man is the most recent production in Perth Theatre Company’s current season. It also happens to be a theatre piece unlike any other I have seen, a remarkable technological incursion into the traditional world of theatre. Armed with a mobile and some headphones, the audience are let loose into the world of Pete,…
Read MoreArmour, presented by 610 Productions, is the latest work from writer and director Tom Jeffcote and the second production in the current season at The Blue Room Theatre. The premise was a promising one; four men go into the wilderness and talk about their feelings. Unfortunately, Armour failed to live up to this early promise,…
Read MoreWritten by Chris Issacs, Old Love is the latest play from Perth’s theatrical super-group The Last Great Hunt. Fans of the emerging collectives work so far will not be disappointed; Old Love is full of humour, wit and captivating characters, from the sophisticated and sultry older woman Florence (Nicola Bartlett) to the younger vitriolic foot-in-mouth…
Read MoreFrom the Rubble is the first work in the latest theatrical season for Perth Theatre Company. Based on the work of West Australian journalist Sophie McNeill, From The Rubble, is an unflinching and timely examination of the impact of war, conflict and extremism on innocent lives, both young and old. From The Rubble, as I…
Read MoreSaturday night the inaugural MoveMe Improvisation Festival officially kicked off in front of an attentive and appreciative audience with a double bill of Beast #3 and No-One Will Tell Us at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA). The first of the evenings performances was the world premiere of Beast #3 the latest work from…
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