There have been many film versions of Shakespeare’s bloodiest and most cinematic play, from Orson Welles’ idiosyncratic 1948 version through to Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood in 1961, which reinvented the play as a samurai drama. More recently Australian director Geoffrey Wright (Romper Stomper) gave us a more contemporary take on the play, setting the…
One of the most remarkable interactive theatrical experiences I have had, FOOD is about the palate, gluttony, sleight of hand and so much more. As you enter the theatre, you are confronted by a huge square table, around which 30 people are seated on three sides. Further tiered theatrical seating is also available. Suffice to say,…
Ben Elton is back to bring us Three Summers, an ensemble comedy that embraces the diversity of modern Australia. At a summer music festival – “Westival” – the feisty lead singer of an Irish folk band (Rebecca Breeds) meets a folk-music-hating Theremin player (Robert Sheehan) and sparks literally fly. Characters surrounding this awkward romance include a…
American playwright Kiki Zapata’s 25 and F***ed gets a world premiere at Melbourne’s Owl & Cat Theatre. This is a comedic drama about three art-school graduates struggling with their daily lives. Layabout Zach (Saxon Evans) is a 25-year-old man-child with mental health issues. He has just returned home after several months abroad and can only scowl at his two…
At some point do you ever feel like you are too old for a genre of music? I have had those thoughts over the years about emo but always remind myself how I will still turn up the stereo for Sunny Day Real Estate, American Football and The Promise Ring. Flash forward to present day…
The action-thriller Mile 22 follows an elite paramilitary team led by the methodical Jimmy Silva (Mark Wahlberg). Silva is direct all-business, incapable of separating himself from his work. His lieutenant is Lauren Cohan (Alice Kerr), and she’s almost as capable. But, unlike Silva, she must contend with distractions from the outside world. Foremost among them…
Scintillating and sensational. Riverdance is back and how! It has been more than a decade since this Irish originated troupe last visited Australia (they toured five times between 1997 and 2012) and this is their 25th anniversary show. First coming together for a seven-minute performance at the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin in 1984, the following year…
Folk/pop singer Feist first came to international attention with the breakthrough success of her songs “1234” and “I Feel It All,” from the breakthrough album, 2007’s The Reminder. Although it was her third solo album, she was nominated for a Grammy as Best New Artist, and in her native country Canada she won Juno Awards…
The slack rock from Wimps is a take back to simpler times when talking about your wretched living quarters, being the older and wiser one at a party or the temperature in the basement was the “it” thing. Those unassuming topics are what drives Suitcase and its quick undertone of punk that is smart, funny…
Caribbean novelist Kevin Jared Hosein’s third novel Hungry Ghosts is set in Trinidad “sometime in the 1940s”. It follows a disparate group of connected characters who are united only in tragedy, as inter-generational traumas, illicit desire and class divides come into play. The book opens with four boys making a blood oath. Two of these,…
