A prolific, iconic writer and feminist who lived life on her terms, Miles Franklin (14th October, 1879 – 19th September, 1954) is best known for her auspicious debut, My Brilliant Career. Her legacy lives on through her published works and with the announcement of the annual Miles Franklin Literary Award to a novel of literary…
Do tech bros, that is entrepreneurs in the tech industry, rule the modern world without taking personal accountability for their missteps? You need not think too hard to come up with names that roll off virtually everyone’s tongues. That is a concept explored in this horror sci-fi about such a man who sets about trying…
You know how siblings can be. When one gets to do something, the other just has to do it too. So when Joel Coen stepped out of the Coen Brothers cocoon in 2021 to direct the brooding, highly stylised The Tragedy of Macbeth, it was only a matter of time before younger brother Ethan Coen…
It seems fitting that, whether coincidentally or otherwise, the day after Queensland Theatre welcomed audiences back to previews of Kieran Hurley’s Mouthpiece, the company unveiled plans for the brave new world of theatre in 2021. The program, the first from Artistic Director Lee Lewis is certainly a season for our times, filled with love, laughter,…
Nicole Kidman is virtually unrecognisable for much of Destroyer. Her hair is dishevelled, and her face is blemished and hollow. Her eyes have no life in them and it’s difficult to make out what she’s saying. Talk about bleeding for your art. As a young detective, Erin Bell (Kidman) and her partner Chris (Sebastian Stan)…
Australian science fiction and thriller author Max Barry goes the full Heinlein in his latest book Providence. Providence is military science fiction with a take no prisoners attitude. It takes readers into an ongoing war with an alien race but also questions whether humanity is really up to the task. The book opens with humanity’s…
The Australian premiere of Johan Inger’s comic, romantic dance theatre piece I New Then, set to songs by Van Morrison, is superb. I was delighted to experience it for a second time in a few days when watching DanceX Part II. It opened the program, just as it had DanceX Part I. Inger, a Swedish choreographer, danced with…
Whit Stillman (The Last Days of Disco) directs his own adaptation of an unfinished Jane Austen novella, titled Lady Susan, in Love & Friendship; a period comedy about matchmaking and heartbreak. Set in the opulent drawing rooms of eighteenth-century English society, Love & Friendship focuses on the delicious scheming and manipulations of a beautiful widow,…
Colin Thiele’s cherished 1964 novel Storm Boy is part of Australian folklore. The poignant story is of 11-year-old Mike, the titular Storm Boy (Conor Lowe) – named after being seen wandering the Coorong dunes during a dangerous storm – and his gruff reclusive hermit father, ‘Hideaway’ Tom (John Batchelor). Their lives are altered when Storm…
The theatre makers have thrown the veritable kitchen sink at this one. Narrative, poetry, well-choreographed movements, puppetry, crowd interaction and breaking the fourth wall – it is all there. So much work has gone into the look and sound of the piece, and the result is spectacular. I refer to the set, props, costuming, make-up,…
