Arts
A dark dance
Choreographer Lucy Guerin’s The Dark Chorus is an abstract but sometimes disorienting work that leaves much to personal interpretation, writes reviewer Stephanie Glickman.
Kids’ books make great story
Children’s books sales are booming and one Melbourne bookseller is going along for the ride with a speciality bookstore
A mixed bag of amazing offerings
This integrated circus, dance and theatre concoction, showing until Sunday as part of the Melbourne Festival, highlights the narrative possibilities of circus skills within a larger dramatic framework, writes Stephanie Glickman
Less than saintly
Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour is a wild ride with this gang of grotesque, offensive but loveable characters whose appalling behaviour embodies all we loath about teenagers, and all that we hope to nurture, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
Snaps highlight women across racing industry
THINK thoroughbred racing is a man’s world? Think again. A Melbourne photographic exhibition showcases the roles many women play in the sport.
Downton Abbey star coming to Melbourne
A TOUCH of English elegance is being added to the Melbourne production of My Fair Lady,with a Downton Abbey star announced to play a role alongside lead Anna O’Byrne.
Melbourne’s best craft beer
ARE these Melbourne’s best small-batch brews and breweries? As we head into the weekend, here’s an ode to the craft beer capital of the country.
If the boot fits, wear it on stage
IT’S the role Callum Francis feels born to play, but there were some people he needed to ask before taking the lead in the Aussie production of Kinky Boots.
Hearty laughs from hapless guests
EVEN Fawlty Towers purists should find some hearty laughs in this stage adaptation of John Cleese and Connie Booth’s iconic 1970s BBC comedy series, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
Ice Cold
Switzerland is a sharp-witted and intelligent play and its highlight is Peirse’s audacious portrayal of Patricia Highsmith, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
Gumnut baby brilliance
The kooky critters from Australian author May Gibbs’s Snugglepot and Cuddlepie are brought to life in this school holiday production of the children’s classic, writes reviewer Stephanie Glickman.
A triumph in Havana
It’s a shame to see Our Man in Havana just once but opera fans would be mad to miss this production completely, writes reviewer Paul Selar.
A high bar
Circus features prominently in this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival and Casus Circus’s Restrung is a strong example of both the extreme skill and offbeat ethos of Australian-grown circus in an intimate stage environment, writes reviewer Stephanie Glickman.
Dance Dynamics
Chunky Move promotes emerging and established choreographers through the annual Next Move program and this year two duet collaborations share the Next Move bill, writes reviewer Stephanie Glickman.
Have adventure games replaced a good book?
THE success of games like Pokemon GO! proves a mixture of a great characters and a thrilling story will have an audience hooked. So have adventure games replaced the fantasy of reading a good book?
Yarra River novel makes a splash
A Huckleberry Finn-style novel about two boys and their adventures on the Yarra River has won a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award
A solid emotional punch
CONTEMPORARY ballets are a fixture of The Australian Ballet’s seasons but rarely one as complex and intricate as Nijinsky, writes reviewer Stephanie Glickman.
Girl, interrupted
SISTERS Grimm can make you laugh, cringe, cheer and whinge all during the one production, and their latest show Lilith: The Jungle Girl, is no exception, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
How you doin’?
First Date is a is a buoyant and zesty musical with plenty of laughs at the expense of the two first daters, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
How winning an Aria changes lives
OPERA singers will tell you there’s nothing quite like fronting 2000 people at Hamer Hall and singing your heart out in a Herald Sun Aria final.
Review: Bangarra OUR land people stories
The well-established indigenous dance company Bangarra continues to explore different ways to communicate cultural material to a wide public in its latest production OUR land people stories, writes reviewer Stephanie Glickman.
Bohemian rhapsody
IF YOU’VE ever sung along tunelessly to We Are The Champions or played air guitar to Bohemian Rhapsody, you’ll find plenty to love in Ben Elton and Queen’s musical, We Will Rock You, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
An engaging digital dance
Digital media and dance can be tentative bedfellows but Pixel is as close as it gets to a duet of the forms, writes reviewer Stephanie Glickman
Missed opportunity
Bertolt Brecht was one of the great playwrights of the 20th century but this production of his 1941 play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui fails to do justice to Brecht’s courageous, political satire, writes reviewer Kate Herbert
Social satire high on shock value
Eddie Perfect’s The Beast is a deeply flawed play that transgresses key dramatic and theatrical rules but, despite its faults, it is strangely entertaining and oddly transfixing in a ‘just-can’t-look-away’ way, writes reviewer Kate Herbert
A world tour of laughs
Toby Hulse’s stage adaptation of Jules Verne’s Around The World In 80 Days is a spirited and diverting two-hour romp, writes Kate Herbert.
What’s for dinner?
Disgraced is a challenging and confrontational play that will leave you with plenty to debate in the car on the way home, writes reviewer Kate Herbert
Not quite on fire
A mid ‘90s collaboration between musician Tim Finn and one of Australia’s most successful poets Dorothy Porter has spawned the music and lyrics for a series of impassioned songs in a new stage show, writes Kate Herbert.
