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Jewellery can have significance beyond the aesthetic. It can say: this is who I am. It can say: this is my affiliation. A string of cultured pearls can signify the group that you belong to, or that you hope to belong to. Likewise for a studded black leather choker, or a low-slung double-thread of handmade
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To say that Hannah Gadsby’s Netflix comedy special Nanette leaves a last impression is to put it very, very lightly. I’ve watched this extraordinary show twice, on both occasions fighting back tears in its final minutes, struck by a range of emotions: shame, shock, consternation, compassion, something resembling hope for a brighter future. Taking the
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The hangover from seeing a really great piece of theatre, a work of the moment that speaks to the moment, can be particularly cruel. Saint Joan, at the Sydney Theatre Company, captured so powerfully the isolation and subjection of women. The Hypochondriac, which opened at the Darlinghurst Theatre on Wednesday, is a portrait of an
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Joan of Arc is so hot right now. Inappropriate pun intended. She’s just finished on Broadway, she was on the West End not that long ago, and is rarely absent the stage for long. There’ve been 40-odd films, the most recent just last year. She’s been inhabited by some of the greats: Plowright, Redgrave, Dench,
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When love gets you down, they say the best remedy is to get straight back out there. And so it is in The Merry Widow, choreographed for The Australian Ballet in 1975 by Ronald Hynd, and now revived in its season at the Arts Centre, Melbourne until June 16. Ludicrously rich French widow, Hanna Glawari, is
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The actor David Wenham’s feature film directorial debut, last year’s Ellipsis, is a love letter to Sydney in the form of a ‘night on the town’ story following two potential lovers, who spend an evening chatting and bonding. It is a classy and cultured affair, told in a wandering Richard Linklater or Woody Allen-esque style,
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I went to primary school with Sarah Blasko and we were in the same class in Year 6. When I got her to sign a copy of her first album on her first tour, I brought up the fact that we were in Mr MacCarthy’s class together. “I thought you looked familiar,” was her reply.
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Sometimes, you just get stopped. It’s not a freight train coming at you. It’s not a hurricane tearing towards you. It’s not the rush of traffic bearing down on you. It’s not a question you can’t answer. Sometimes, it’s the voice from a person you don’t know. They’re singing. You were doing one thing –
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Director Rachel Perkins’ six-part ABC TV series Mystery Road is the third instalment in the titular franchise, following two hardboiled movies from filmmaker Ivan Sen and star Aaron Pedersen – including the terrific, big thinking neo-noir/western Goldstone. Among Mystery Road’s many virtues is a gravitas-weeping performance from Pedersen as outback detective Jay Swan, the actor
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Fiona Blair reviews the return season of Resident Alien starring Paul Capsis as Quentin Crisp and directed by Gary Abrahams. The show was performed in Melbourne at 45downstairs and at the Brisbane Powerhouse earlier this month and will be presented at the Seymour Centre in Sydney June 13-16. *** Resident Alien, is a curious piece. Not least because of
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