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Postcard from Minneapolis and New York City Blackout Improv; Mixed Blood Theatre, Prescient Harbingers; Aleshea Harris, What to Send Up When It Goes Down; Jeremy O. Harris, Slave Play Since I started visiting the US regularly one of my biggest lessons has come from encountering racial politics (and identity politics generally) in a much more
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Another year, another bumper crop of tunes. But while some years display a discernable shift in musical trends or production styles, 2018 was a year of fragmentation. Great albums were peppered out throughout the year across a broad spectrum of genres. Drake, George Ezra, Calvin Harris and Ariana Grande were among the familiar names to
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All those end of year pronouncements about what a year it’s been, what’s been the biggest issues and who has been the noisiest newsmakers, plus the usual lists from arts and cultural sites about best films and books – it has a tiredness to it in 2018, don’t you think? The best novel lists used
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How dumb is a rock? The time has come for an answer. We simply cannot have the US President, Donald Trump, hurling it about with gay abandon into public discourse, without an answer. In the latest incident, Trump described Rex Tillerson (above left), who for barely more than a year was his secretary of state,
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Early in the platform game Celeste, you accidentally break a mirror and release a shadow version of yourself. “I can’t tell you what a relief it is to finally get out of your head,” this shadow double says. “We need a hobby, but this…you are many things, darling, but you are not a mountain climber. Be
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Christmas and new year are times to reflect and take stock, so let’s consider what is plaguing the modern world, with the top plague-producers, America. Despite his ranting and twittering about making business great again, the most notable venture Trump-the-Crook has spawned is a vast industry of research, thinking, and hyperventilating about why roughly one in
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Charity: not so sweet when you’re an artist who spends a fair whack of your working year fielding requests from fundraisers to donate work. Even the most generous artist can be forgiven for greeting yet another charity auction pitch with the enthusiasm typically reserved for door-to-door doom merchants or solar-panel telemarketers. That’s something painter Mary
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Hannah Gadsby excoriated Picasso in her viral Netflix Nanette show: as a misogynist and child abuser (P was 46 when he got with 17-y-o Marie-Therese Walter) his work is disqualified from being celebrated; “genius” is no excuse. A male and institutional blind eye is turned for his (and their) benefit. The excellent Hermitage show at the
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From opera to musical theatre and drama classic and contemporary, I’m genre agnostic when it comes to picking the best theatrical experiences of 2018. The standout Sydney stage shows spoke to the moment in distinctive ways, from #metoo to race relations, mental health, environmentalism … and the pitfalls of bricking yourself into a pyramid. In
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Playwright Joanna Murray-Smith pays tribute to the gift of an actor. The actor is her uncle John Bluthal who died on November 15 north of Sydney, aged 89. Bluthal was born in Poland, raised and educated in Australia and worked as an actor for stage and screen for seven decades, mostly in London. His career included lead roles in West
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