The Tokyo Ballet’s romantic, tragic and haunting Giselle is spectacular. It looks and sounds magnificent. It is the story of a charming and naïve peasant girl with a weak heart, who attracts the attention of a woodsman, Hilarian and a count in disguise, Albrecht. Giselle falls for the latter, but humiliated, the former vows revenge. That comes when…
Opera Australia’s Handa Opera Madama Butterfly sears with emotion. It is a splendid and spectacular offering, with surprises, against the backdrop of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. The story concerns a US navy lieutenant named Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton who takes advantage of a beguiling former Japanese geisha, Cio-Cio-San, in Nagasaki. While she – nicknamed…
Intelligent couple Stevie (Claudia Karvan) and Martin Gray (Nathan Page) have been happily married for 22 years. They have a 17-year-old gay son, Billy (Yazeed Daher) and all live a good life. Martin, who has just turned 50, has had, arguably, the finest week of his professional life. He has just been awarded the premiere prize for architecture,…
After a 19-year hiatus, the emotion charged, highly acclaimed production of Romeo and Juliet by choreographer John Cranko takes centre stage at Arts Centre Melbourne. It has power, passion and playfulness and introduces a new generation of The Australian Ballet Dancers. They are headlined by Callum Linnane and Sharni Spencer in the lead roles on opening night. In…
Othello has long been one of Shakespeare’s most controversial plays, but with its challenges comes great potential. That potential is realised in Queensland Theatre’s production, part of the 2022 Brisbane Festival program. It is an electric adaption that approaches the tragedy from a uniquely-Queensland perspective. Jimi Bani and Jason Klarwein inject Australian and Torres Strait Islander…
For the VFL/AFL club that has finished runner up more than any other, the continued pain of losing Grand Finals and wasted seasons (when the result was far worse) was piling up. From working class roots, Tony Shaw tried his hand as basketball, but lack of height saw him turn his energies to Aussie Rules. At least,…
It’s taken the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble until its 20th birthday year to finally mount a full production of arguably Shakespeare’s best-known play – Romeo & Juliet – and the outcome is most definitely worth the wait. Some would say that it’s hard to put a new twist on the oft-performed play, however the window dressing…
The question of the world’s ever-growing number of refugees is, indeed, one without an easy answer. So the heartfelt documentary Human Flow is welcome. And all the more so because it has the stamp of artist Ai Weiwei all over it. He travels across 23 countries plotting the plight of refugees because he sees the refugee…
There have been a few great films about heroic firefighters, and the best of them is, arguably, Ron Howard’s Backdraft. Others include Irwin Allen’s star-studded disaster movie The Towering Inferno and the 1968 Hellfighters, which starred John Wayne as fictitious version of the legendary Red Adair. And while Only the Brave is a moving homage…
Aftermath is the story of a tragic plane crash between two commercial airliners. As a result there are 271 lives lost. Among them the wife and pregnant daughter of the Russian foreman Roman (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Don’t expect staggering images of the accident with explosive footage and anxiously screaming passengers. The only image you’ll see of the…
