The moral dilemma. Juicy. Delicious. Ideal for the stage. It is at the heart of Only Child, a new play from Leah Annetta. Divorced, uptight Veronika (Sarah Hallam) runs a wedding planning business. She lives with her mother Barbara (Michele Stayner) and her high achieving, 18-year-old daughter Anika (Alessandra Alessio). Anika, in her final year…
Ivan Sen prefers to call his latest film Goldstone a follow up to the acclaimed and award winning thriller Mystery Road rather than a sequel, in much the same way that They Call Me Mister Tibbs was not a sequel to the Oscar winning In The Heat Of The Night. However it’s not as compelling…
The Christmas Spectacular is the work of Silvers Circus. This top-notch circus show was my highlight of Santa’s Magical Kingdom, a colourful cavalcade of rides, games and interactive experiences, most inside the Big Top at Caulfield Racecourse. But the extraordinary prowess of the circus performers who feature in this production left my mouth agape. The…
– Hope Gap – Only in cinemas from 9 April 2020 We have 10 double in-season passes thanks to Transmission Films. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE Grace (Annette Bening) and Edward (Bill Nighy), married for 29 years, live in a small seaside town near a cove under the cliffs called Hope Gap. When…
Anyone afraid of snakes and creepy crawlies should probably look away now. In the vein of Arachnophobia and Eight Legged Freaks and their ilk comes yet another horror film featuring a nasty and lethal spider. Sting is the work of writer/director Kiah Roache-Turner, who specialises in low budget horror films like 2014’s Wyrmwood: Road of…
We’re among African Americans in a working-class suburb in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1950s. Although affable when it suits him, Troy Maxon (Bert Labonte) can be a hard man to stomach. A garbage collector, he has a “my way or the highway approach” and sometimes the choices he makes are decidedly ordinary. His upbringing was far from desirable….
From relatively humble beginnings in 1956, when only seven nations competed, the Eurovision Song Contest has grown into a juggernaut of entertainment. There’s a great sense of anticipation before each year’s fresh competition, as TV audiences burgeon. Some 160 million people from more than 150 countries were involved in voting for their favourite artist this…
Yet another superhero movie featuring a second-tier character from the Marvel stable. Or should that be a super-anti-hero, because Venom isn’t your usual superhero? We first met Venom in the Sam Raimi-helmed Spider-Man 3, when he was played by Topher Grace. And despite its origins with Spider-Man, Venom sits outside the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The…
Adapting work from screen to stage can be tricky, even more so when it is a beloved animated feature. Thankfully, the hit family-friendly Broadway musical Frozen rises to this challenge, with lavish production design, stunning costumes and impressive special effects to astound as much as entertain. The musical, adapted from the Disney film and Hans…
I’ve been a Jenn J. McLeod fan since her first book came out back in 2013 and later this year I’ll have the pleasure of meeting her in person at the Serenity Press retreat I’m co-hosting (and I’ll be interviewing her on stage at Stories on Stage). A Place to Remember is her fifth book…
