The prolific director is bringing jumbotron Shakespeare to the Adelaide Festival
Ivo van Hove: It’s only theatre
During the Broadway production of The Crucible in 2016, as the audience settled back into their seats for the second act, a wolf appeared in the theatre. It moved purposefully...
The Australian musical export that’s making history
Inside the Hot Dub Time Machine
In September 2011, a Sydney DJ named Tom Loud premiered a dance party, for little more than a hundred people, in Marrickville’s Factory Theatre. The only lights in the room were...
Victoria Lee takes on the Victoria’s Secret runway
Straight outta Narrandera
Victoria Lee has done a lot of cavorting in her underwear lately.
“Oh yeah,” she says. “I just walk around in my underwear, getting comfortable. I actually went to my agency...
Michael Gracey makes his directorial debut with the Hugh Jackman–starring ‘The Greatest Showman’
The ringmaster steps into the spotlight
Ordinarily, the leap from filming television commercials to directing a big-budget, star-studded, original Hollywood musical would be a daunting one. For Los Angeles–based...
Beautiful on the outside … the tragedy of Bennelong Point
This is not an opera house
When the actor John Malkovich appeared in The Giacomo Variations, a chamber-opera bio-play of Giacomo Casanova, at the Sydney Opera House in 2011, he wasn’t exactly seduced by the...
Stephin Merritt brings his ‘50 Song Memoir’ to the Melbourne Festival
Magnetic opus
There aren’t too many rock stars for whom dressing in brown is a trademark. Yet Stephin Merritt’s unvarying sartorial commitment to the colour has been inspiring. In 2008, French...
Meet the team behind the Macquarie Dictionary
Word wranglers
On a recent Monday, in a corner of Pan Macmillan Australia’s offices in Sydney, the Macquarie Dictionary editorial team was mulling over a new word: schapelle –verb (i). to carry...
Video artist Heath Franco is making a name as a provocateur
Shocking art
A few years ago, Australian video artist Heath Franco made a work designed to be displayed in the toilet. The video, installed on the back of the cubicle door, starred Franco...
Nick Schlieper illuminates a Shakespearean tragedy
Lighting the king
The State Opera of South Australia 2004 production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen began with almost three minutes of utter darkness. The pesky glow of seat markers and air-...
In Sydney, Animal Logic is building a Lego animation empire
Digital bricklayers
On display in the office of Zareh Nalbandian, the CEO of Sydney animation studio Animal Logic, is a handsome chalkboard from a French monastery. When he purchased the chalkboard...
The chimes they are a-changing at the Sydney Opera House
A little foyer music
One piece of music has been heard at the Sydney Opera House more than any other. It is played sometimes dozens of times a day and more than 1000 times a year. The entire...
