Swinging Safari reunites writer and director Stephan Elliott with key personnel from his The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert (1994). They include producer Al Clark, production designer Colin Gibson, costume designer Lizzy Gardiner, editor Sue Blainey and composer Guy Gross. New to the team are hair and makeup designer Rick Findlater and cinematographer Brad Shield. It’s…
Well, here it is, a new Australian musical. It’s based on the film Muriel’s Wedding from 1994; an iconic, quirky, favourite of the nation. At its centre is a misfit, Muriel, who embarks on finding a life, an identity, away from the ‘closed’ world of her upbringing in Porpoise Spit, by hook or by crook…
In a solicitor’s rooms in Brisbane, baby-boomer siblings, Richard, Evonne and Kelly Whittaker are read their late father, Daniel’s will. Daniel has left his grieving children a substantial estate. Before they can collect their inheritance however, the three Whittakers are required to hand-deliver twelve letters to a list of apparent strangers. Each sibling has had…
Every night, I curl up in bed with my book of the moment and read until my eyes droop and I shut them ‘just for a moment’ … and then wake up with a jump. Lately my reading pile has been filled with books of or about fairy tales and folklore, with a few exceptions,…
The New Theatre is presenting a revival production of Jonathan Biggin’s 2012 comedy, Australia Day. It was first seen in the Drama Theatre for the Sydney Theatre Company in 2012. Australia Day is set in the local community hall in a country town called Coriole. Says, the director of this production, Louise Fischer, a girl…
A sea change turns into a tsunami of grief in Sixty Seconds by Jesse Blackadder. Here’s the blurb: The Brennans – parents, Finn and Bridget, and their sons, Jarrah and Toby – have made a sea change, from chilly Hobart to subtropical Murwillumbah. Feeling like foreigners in this land of sun and surf, they’re still…
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…
What Rhymes with Cars and Girls was the timeless first solo album by You Am I’s Tim Rogers. It tells of moving out and moving on, prompted by the ruin of Rogers’ own long-term relationship and relocation to Melbourne. And 18 years after its release, its songs still packs an emotional punch. Now it’s transformed…
Writer and director David Pulbrook (Last Dance) has a way to go before being compared to Alfred Hitchcock. The great director’s command of the genre is what Bad Blood seems to be going for, but it falls short. Carrie (Morgan Griffin) is in love with her new fiancé Vincent (Xavier Samuel), a handsome and successful young…
A decidedly offbeat love story between two troubled individuals, What If It Works? is a heap of fun. It’s the first feature film for writer, director and co-producer Romi Trower. Adrian (Luke Ford), an irrepressibly chirpy tech nerd, suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder … and how. He walks around wearing trousers that aren’t quite long enough…
