Life throws up real challenges for the 17-year-old daughter of a split home in the UK who aspires to run her own florist business. The one person play by Emma Dennis Edwards, inspired by the true story of Tottenham community leader Gina Moffatt, is unflinching. It doesn’t hold back. In patterned jeans and striking green…
Polish author Kaja Malanowska wrote her third novel Fog (translated by Bill Johnson) as an experiment in attracting a broader readership through the crime genre. Her previous two novels, the autobiographical Drobne szaleństwa dnia codziennego (Small Madnesses of Everyday Life) in 2010, and Patrz na mnie, Klaro! (Look at Me, Klara!) in 2012 were literary…
What a privilege it was to be in the audience at the Regent Theatre to celebrate all that is grand in opera, at Opera Australia’s 70th Anniversary Gala. Indeed, it was a very special occasion, introduced by Opera Australia’s CEO, Alex Budd and hosted by ABC Classics’ Mairi Nicolson, resplendent in green. Her love affair…
Imran Mahmood’s second book, I Know What I Saw, is a crime thriller with much more on its mind than crime. The main character, Xander Shute has been homeless and living on the streets of London for thirty years. And the narrative is as much about the trauma that pushed him into that life and…
Bridesmaids pretty much set the standard for the R-rated raunchy “girls misbehaving” comedy, and we have seen a lot of these female-centric versions of The Hangover. But subsequent films in this subgenre, like the recent Rough Night, Bad Sisters and even Sex And The City 2, have continually lowered the bar. And now we get…
I really enjoyed Nicky Pellegrino’s The Food of Love Cookery School so I was excited to receive her newest novel, One Summer in Venice. The blurb ticks a few boxes for me – food and Italy, for starters. Have a read: ‘This isn’t a mid-life crisis OK? For a start I’m not old enough yet…
Many of us will remember the television science program hosted by Professor Julius Sumner Miller in which he always famously asked “Why is it so?” This question is an underlying theme in Once in Royal David’s City. Playwright Michael Gow uses his central character Will Drummond (Francisco Lopez) to search for the meaning of life;…
In Escape Room: Tournament of Champions six people are trapped with death awaiting them unless they find a way out. All of them have played this game before … and survived. Now they’re unwillingly thrust back into the same environment. A couple – Zoey Davis (Taylor Russell) and Ben Miller (Logan Miller) – are familiar…
Unsound is an Australian feature film directed by Ian Watson (Doctor Doctor, Janet King). When gigging guitarist, Noah (Reece Noi, Game of Thrones), quits the band of a 90s pop icon Moniqua (Christina Anu), he returns to his mother’s home in Sydney, Australia. Noah soon finds himself swept up in the life of a young,…
How unexpectedly and thrillingly different – a bold and unique theatrical offering from the UK, which makes its international debut at the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Think WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) crossed with Norse mythology in a story that melds passion and pain with humour and bravado. Mythos: Ragnarok features professional wrestlers – gigantic men and fearsome…
