What a grand way to reintroduce the magnificent, newly renovated Ian Potter State Theatre to those who appreciate theatrical excellence. In short, hold a housewarming, with a cavalcade of top shelf entertainment to be savoured FOR FREE. That was the offering from Friday, 9th October through to Sunday, 11th October 2026 in seven, hour-long performances….
Locked up, with no place to go. After all, you are in a jail, with ocean all around (think Alcatraz). And yet a horrible infection is spreading. Inmates are dying. Still, at least moonshine is on the menu, even though the screws tell you it ain’t. Welcome to the immersive experience that is Alcotraz. As…
You have built a reputation as a bad boy, even though the moniker is untrue, but try as you do, you can’t break the tag until the truth finally outs. That, in a nutshell, is the plot of Cry-Baby: The Musical, which opened on Broadway in April 2008. Set in 1954, it is based on…
Inspired by fact, The Social Reckoning is one of my movies of the year. Based on the 2021 Facebook Files leak by whistleblower Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) and the reporting of Wall Street Journal investigative journalist Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), it is intoxicating. In fact, it is mighty scary and thrilling at the same…
Helen Garner’s semi-autobiographical 2008 novel about the hell of offering a spare room to a good friend with stage four cancer resonated strongly. It collected a series of gongs, including Victorian and Queensland Premiers’ Literary Awards and the Barbara Jefferis Award. And now, following five years of work, composer Dr Jane Hammond and librettist Theresa…
Her life story has hardly been straightforward but, dare I say, that is what makes it compelling. I speak of Iranian immigrant Sahra Davoudi, who arrived in Melbourne at age 25 and had to learn English. In fact, the first words she mastered were “sorry” and “hey, how you goin’?” She tells us about a…
What do you call a loving relationship that can’t readily be categorised? Rhomboid, according to the central character in Eric Jiang’s humorous and poignant play of that name. A dictionary definition of the term is also apt in terms of what unfolds, for it refers to a lopsided diamond. Filipino Xavier (Ken Paolo) and Caucasian…
It was a stunning night of song and ceremony that will long remain with me for its richness and redolence. I speak of First Peoples’ stories woven into Country. Gugu Dindi Gunyah. Many Rivers. One Home. marked the opening of the newly refurbished Ian Potter State Theatre at Arts Centre Melbourne. That includes fresh, acoustically…
Can artificial intelligence develop from an increasingly valuable tool for business and personal use to a destructive force that will wipe out the human race? Unfortunately, this question appears no longer to be purely in the realm of science fiction. It is increasingly being debated and speculated about. The doomsdayers are convinced the threat of…
Sex sells and so it is with the fourth of Colleen Hoover’s novels to be turned into a film. The most recent before Verity was Reminders of Him, before that Regretting You and, first up, It Ends With Us. Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway) is one of the best-selling authors on the planet, whose success is…
