The reach and influence of Vladimir Putin is breathtaking. In A Very Expensive Poison, writer Lucy Prebble details and explores the assassination of Russian Defector Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 and surmises that Mr Putin most probably authorised the hit. If it weren’t based on a real incident, A Very Expensive Poison may simply…
Godland was the centrepiece of the recent Scandinavian Film Festival, and now this slow moving but visually stunning Danish drama gains a cinematic release. The film is set in the frozen inhospitable wilds of Iceland in the 19th century. Lucas (Elliot Crossett Hove) is a young idealistic Lutheran priest who is sent to Iceland to…
The girls are out for a night on the tiles at a club, but not all is going according to plan. In fact, there is no shortage of sad and mad faces amidst the snorting and vomiting in the ladies’ toilets, where the action takes place. The four filthy cubicles are full. Tiff (Amelia Nemet) is inconsolable after…
Several years ago, I was fortunate to see Cirque du Soleil’s “O” at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, with performers excelling on, in and above a gigantic swimming pool. If they can create wonders in water (which they do), surely it is only a small step to freeze that life source and turn it into ice. I…
You only have to watch commercial TV one evening to know that Australians love their dogs. I think it’s also fair to say Australians don’t mind a bit of ribald comedy. So Josh Greenbaum’s new comedy Strays should find a willing audience. Greenbaum recently directed the well-received Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar…
An unexpected power play between an about to be anointed Prime Minister and a make-up artist readying her to take office is at the heart of Monument. Edith Aldridge (Sarah Sutherland) has been elected in a landslide to lead the nation. As the country’s youngest ever female PM, she is about assume the highest office in the…
– Everybody Loves Jeanne – Only in cinemas from 7 September 2023 We have 10 double in-season passes thanks to Vendetta Films. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE Everybody has always loved Jeanne. These days, however, she hates herself. At 37 years old, Jeanne (Blanche Gardin) was really determined to change the…
Martin Cruz Smith’s Russian detective Arkady Renko has been kicking around since 1981’s Gorky Park. Even in that book he was already a senior investigator. If Renko aged at the same rate as his reality that would make him pretty old by now. Luckily for readers, Renko follows the rules of most fictional detectives in…
The atmosphere of the era is set the moment one enters The Chapel at Chapel Off Chapel, which has been transformed into a den of iniquity. The band is playing and the mood is raucous and raunchy, with gamblers, showgirls and puritans mixing freely with the audience. Particular attention is paid to those seated at the two…
Now in her mid 80s, Caryl Churchill is regarded as one of the world’s greatest living playwrights. Her work is innovative … enigmatic, challenging and provocative, inevitably open to interpretation. Escaped Alone and What If If Only is the world-first pairing of two separate short plays by the acclaimed Brit. The former, which runs for 45 minutes,…
