Treachery and subterfuge abound in the Australian premiere of a new production of Richard Wagner’s otherworldly romance Lohengrin. It is a big and bold work – a spectacle – headlined by arguably the world’s most in-demand tenor, Jonas Kaufmann, in a lead role he makes his own. We are introduced to the war-torn environment in which…
To Chiara is the brainchild of Jonas Carpignano and the third in his Calabrian trilogy. But you don’t need to have seen the other two to appreciate this latest instalment. We are in Gioia Tuara in Southern Italy with the Guerrasio clan. Chiara (Swamy Rotolo), 15, is the middle child of a close-knit family. Family…
Director John Madden is a bit of an enigma. The Englishman is of course best known as the director of Shakespeare in Love. He’s also done some fine work in films like Proof (2005), The Debt (2010) and Miss Sloane (2016). But he also has Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and Killshot on his resume. His new…
– How to Please a Woman – Only in cinemas from 2 June 2022 We have 5 double in-season passes thanks to Madman Films. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE Gina is not feeling fabulous. She has lost her job and feels stuck and frustrated in a passionless marriage. She has always…
Scintillating, fast paced, brilliantly choreographed Irish tap dancing. A strong, rhythmic, ear-pleasing score. Maestros on the fiddle and flute. Elegant and evocative costumes. Mesmersing magic. That is Celtic Illusion Reimagined. This dynamic, spicy and intoxicating hour and a half stage show (excluding interval) is celebrating the 10th anniversary of Celtic Illusion, the vision of creator, director,…
Melbourne’s Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever is a band that has the appearance of following an older music model. I believe with their third long player, Endless Rooms, that model continues to pay large dividends. Artist development is pretty much a thing of the past these days but even with the success of their 2018 debut,…
Emily St John Mandel came to prominence with her fourth book, the pandemic post-apocalypse Station Eleven. That book gained a second wind when the COVID pandemic hit, and was turned into an HBO series. Some of the craziness of that success, and of the pandemic itself, is captured in St John Mandel’s latest book Sea…
Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) is back with a breathtakingly beautiful film about childhood, loss and memory. Petite Maman (which translates to Little Mummy) focuses on an eight-year-old girl’s relationship with her mother. Nelly (Josephine Sanz) has just lost her grandmother. She and her mum Marion (Nina Meurisse) and father (Stéphanie Varupenne)…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 6 May 2022. Headful of Sugar follows New York-based trio Sunflower Bean navigating the agony and ecstasy of contemporary American life. “Tomorrow is not promised, no tour is promised, no popularity is promised, no health or money is promised,”…
If Shakespeare had the vision of Nostradamus, he may well have foreseen The Merry Wives of Windsor being set in a 1980s Australian backyard. Nonetheless, director Viktor Kalka has made the geographic transition and it is an interesting concept, to say the least. Inspired by “The Bard’s” intention to make the play contemporaneous, Kalka creates one…
