The European co-production Corage is an unconventional biopic looking at the (largely fictional) last year in the life of Empress Elizabeth of Austria (Vicky Krieps). Elizabeth is married to Emperor Franz Joseph (Florian Teichtmeister), but she feels like she is merely an appendage. Given no real power, her duties are considered merely ceremonial. It is…
Even though this is a work of fiction (termed “an act of female imagination”), the starting point for Women Talking was a recent real-life event in Bolivia. Between 2005 and 2009, more than 100 girls and women in a remote Mennonite colony discovered they had been raped in their sleep. A group of men from…
Yo La Tengo have been faithfully plugging along for nearly 40 years, with a new release every few years offering their assessment of what was going on in the world around us. For instance, in 2020 as the pandemic was kicking all of our asses, the trio re-assembled in their practice space following social distancing…
The play starts with a heartfelt warning from one of the characters that only tragedy puts you on the map. A plea to save ourselves as it is too late for her rings out. Hence begins the tale of an unremarkable mining town in Tasmania beset by evil. It is called Bluewater and after a chequered history it…
Anne Buist continues to put the psychology, and particularly the psychology of women and mothers, in the centre with what may be the final entry in her Natalie King series Locked Ward. King debuted in Medea’s Curse and two further books followed – Dangerous to Know and This I Would Kill For. In each of…
The cringeworthy and unfunny comedy The Honeymoon is an Italian/British co-production and it’s received some of the worst reviews of the year. Adam (Pico Alexander) has been best friends with Bav (Asim Chaudhry) since they were children and they called themselves “the inseparables.” But as a teenager Adam moved to America with his family for…
Tessa Ensler (Sheridan Harbridge) is a successful barrister. She knows the tricks of the trade and defends her clients – many alleged sexual offenders – vehemently. She relishes the game … circling witnesses until she is ready to pounce, having lulled them into a false sense of security. She is good … very good. Those who know her,…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 10 February 2023. Barefoot On Diamond Road is the third album from Dutch singer/songwriter Amber Arcades (a.k.a Annelotte de Graaf). A record of engaging maturity, filled with slow motion builds and epic lifts that elevate it to dizzying heights….
Showmanship, humour, pathos, anger, overt messaging and song are part of this well-meaning but noticeably stretched offering. At its core is a gay man, Cole (Stephen Loftus), now comfortable in his own skin, although it wasn’t always that way. He talks about his school years and coming out to his parents. And then, after Cole references a mentor…
A fly-on-the-wall expose of the world of talk-back radio is the basis of Melanie Tait’s outstanding new play A Broadcast Coup. It is set almost entirely in the studios of Australia’s largest public broadcaster (conspicuously nameless). The play provides the impression of a workplace which runs by default and is dominated by individuals whose egos…
