Stephen A Russell

Whether you favour sculpture, painting, photography or textiles, there’s something for everyone spread across Australia’s biggest art exhibitions in 2025. Here are just a few of our favourites that have us booking flights in eager anticipation. A summer standout is the unveiling of Magritte at the Art Gallery of NSW, showcasing the biggest display from the influential surrealist painter ever seen in Australia. At the same time, the NGV International is playing host to the largest collection of Yayoi Kusama’s work Down Under, on display until April 2025. Our Arts Editors will keep adding to this list of must-see exhibitions across Australia as more are announced.  🖼️ The best art galleries to explore in Australia👀 All of Australia's best museums🎶 The biggest musical to see in Australia right now

With Hollywood still regaining its footing after a 2020s it’d probably describe as a personal low, the field has been open for streaming shows to monopolise the cultural conversation. And this year it’s been well-established thoroughbreads that have been dominating our social feeds (Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Bear, Industry, Bridgerton, Slow Horses), as well as some unexpected bolters (Baby Reindeer, Rivals, Fallout). And with a second run of Squid Game about to end the year with a big pile of bodies, the pressure to cram in eight or ten episodes’ worth of must-see TV is not relenting anytime soon. Our advice? Shake off the pressure to ‘see everything’ – it’s impossible, short of ripping a hole in the fabric of time – and find the shows that really hit your sweet spot. To help with this, we’ve taken a backwards glance over the best and most all-round enjoyable new binges, curating our definitive list of 2024 favourites. And as any fan of ace Aussie comedy Colin From Accounts will tell you: it’s not always about the number of Emmys on the shelf, as the sheer joy on screen that makes something worth your precious time. Here’s where to start. RECOMMENDED: 🎥 The 50 best movies of 2024🔥 The best TV and streaming shows of 2023📺 The 100 greatest ever TV shows you need to binge

It’s been a banner year for horror movies. In fact, it seems like all the buzziest films to come out so far aim to terrify. What’s truly great about the current horror bumper crop is that none of the standouts really resemble one another.  Cannes hit The Substance icked its way into the awards conversation on the back of Demi Moore’s staggeringly strong lead turn, Osgood Perkins’ hit Longlegs mixed ’90s serial killer procedurals with the Satanic panic of the previous decade, while I Saw the TV Glow was David Lynch directing Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Late Night with the Devil made found-footage fun again, while In a Violent Nature invented a new subgenre that people called ‘ambient slasher’. And that’s to name just a few. Below, you’ll find our best and scariest movies of 2024. 🎃 The 100 best horror films ever made 😱 The scariest movies based on a true story 🔥 The best films of 2024 (so far)

There’s never been a quiet year for theatre in Australia. From the bright lights of Broadway and West End to our very own stages in Australia, we’re lucky to play host to some of the world’s biggest and best musicals. We’re also a hotbed for homegrown gems, with fresh and experimental shows lighting up stages across the country every month.  From an Australian debut musical inspired by a much-loved fantasy show to the grand return of a British “mega-musical” starring cats, this year’s theatre line-up is shaping up to be one of the most exciting yet. Here are all the biggest musicals currently playing in Australia or headed Down Under in the next year or so. 🖼 The best Australian art galleries🔍 Australia's greatest museums 👀 The best art exhibitions to see in Australia right now

It started slowly but 2024 came through for us at the cinema – and, to a lesser extent, on streaming. Nothing quite matched the cultural behemoth that was Barbenheimer – much as noble marketing folk tried to turn Gladiator II and Wicked into something called ‘Glicked’ – but there were monster hits and critical raves aplenty. The huge success of Deadpool & Wolverine and Despicable Me 4 surprised almost no one, but who saw Inside Out 2 becoming the 11th biggest film of all time? And Moana 2 – once intended as a Disney+ series – smashing box office records like Maui on a rampage?Our list of the best films of 2024 offers the perfect chance to give flowers to the lesser-heralded cinematic offerings of the past 12 months too, like the superb A Different Man, brilliantly boisterous documentaries like Grand Theft Hamlet and Scala!!!, and the odd fun flops like The Fall Guy. Genre fans, meanwhile, got a mighty kick out of inventive new horrors like Longlegs and Late Night With the Devil, and any year with new offerings from Hirokazu Kore-eda, Alice Rohrwacher, Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrew Haigh, and Ryusuke Hamaguchi is not short on riches for the arthouse crowd either. Here are 50 gems to track down. NB We’ve included a few films that were released towards the end of 2023 for Oscar qualification purposes. RECOMMENDED: 📺 The best TV shows of 2024 (so far) you need to stream🔥 The best horror movies and shows of 2024🎥 The 100 greatest movies ever made

Zombies, puppies and fine feasts, oh my! Whether four-hour food documentaries are your jam or you prefer sick-making body horror, this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) program is stacked with tasty options. Here are ten top tips to help you string your schedule together. Consider yourself a cinephile? Check out the best cinemas in Melbourne.

Television used to be considered one of the lowest forms of entertainment. It was derided as ‘the idiot box’ and ‘the boob tube’. Edward R Murrow referred to it as ‘the opiate of the masses’, and the phrase ‘I don’t even own a TV’ was considered a major bragging right. And for a long time, it was hard to say that television’s poor reputation was undeserved.  A lot has changed. Television is now the dominant medium in basically all of entertainment, to the degree that the only thing separating movies and TV is the screen you’re watching on. Now, if you don’t own a television – or a laptop or a tablet or a phone – you’re basically left out of the cultural conversation completely. The shift in perception is widely credited to the arrival of The Sopranos, which completely reinvented the notion of what a TV show could do. But that doesn’t mean everything that came before is primordial slurry. While this list of the greatest TV shows ever is dominated by 21st century programs, there are many shows that deserve credit for laying the groundwork for this current golden age. Chiseling them down to a neat top 100 is difficult, so we elected to leave off talk shows, variety shows and sketch comedy, focusing on scripted, episodic dramas, comedies and miniseries.  So don’t touch that dial – these are the greatest TV shows of all-time. Recommended: 📺 The best TV and streaming shows of 2024 (so far)🔥 The 100 greatest movies of all-time🎬 The most bingeable series on Netflix

If you thought Australian cinema was all Croc Dundee and tourists being terrorised by Outback nutters, think again. Not only is God’s own country a vibrant force in world cinema – producing Hollywood directors and stars at an impressive lick – it boasts more than a few bona fide masterpieces of its own. George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is just another reminder of how great – and completely unique – Aussie movies can be, with their ancient landscapes, rich light and social commentary. What other country could produce a horror movie as singular and disturbing as Wake in Fright and a comedy as boisterous and brilliant a Muriel’s Wedding? It also has a unique claim on cinematic history: in 1906, Melbourne hosted the premiere of the world’s first feature film: Charles Tait’s The Story of the Kelly Gang starring Frank Mills as the infamous bushranger Ned Kelly. Just a 17-minute fragment remains, but it’s a reminder that Australia has embraced the medium since the beginning. And as this list shows, it does it in style.  This story contains the names and images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have died. RECOMMENDED: 📽️ The 50 best foreign-language films ever made.🇯🇵 The greatest Japanese movies of all time.🇰🇷 The best Korean films ever made.

When icy tendrils creep back into town, it can be a bit of adjustment for Melburnians and our visitors. Thank goodness for art, music, dance, theatre and more, the best antidote to the stay-at-home blues. Our magnificent winter festival, Rising, brings it all and then some, transforming the city's halls and laneways with joy in all its forms. It's the dream.  And you don't even need a dollar to your name. Free events include The Blak Infinite, a First Nations hub of creativity centred on Fed Square, and Communitas, a family-friendly dance party led by electro-duo Shouse in St Paul's cathedral over the road. The Capitol Theatre lights up with music doco marathon 24 Hour Rock Show, and the Birrarung thrums with The Rivers Sing, a joyous collaboration between Yorta Yorta/Yuin opera singer and composer Deborah Cheetham plus artists Byron J Scullin and Thomas Supple. Rising spreads out across Melbourne from June 1-16. Here are our top tips to check out in a program packed with magic.  Want more culture? Check out the best art and exhibitions happening in Melbourne right now.

Has movie music ever been better? With legends like John Williams and Howard Shore still at work, Hans Zimmer at the peaks of his powers, and the likes of Jonny Greenwood, AR Rahman, Mica Levi, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross knocking it out of the park, the modern film score is a Dolby Atmos-enhancing feast of modernist compositions, lush orchestral classicism and atmospheric soundscapes.What better time, then, to celebrate this art form within an art form – with a few iconic soundtracks thrown in – and pay tribute to the musicians who’ve given our favourite movies (and, to be fair, some stinkers) earworm-laden accompaniment? Of course, narrowing it all down to a mere 100 is tough. We’ve prioritised music written for the screen, but worthy contenders still missed out, including Dimitri Tiomkin’s era-defining score for It’s a Wonderful Life and Elton John’s hummable tunes for The Lion King.To help do the narrowing down, we’ve recruited iconic movie composers, directors and broadcasters like Philip Glass, Carter Burwell, Max Richter, Anne Dudley, AR Rahman, Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, Edgar Wright and Mark Kermode to pick their favourites. Happy listening!Recommended: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all time.🪩 The 50 best uses of songs in movies.💃 The greatest musical movies ever made.

There was a point, early in 2023, when comedian Claire Hooper was considering chucking in the chuckle-serving and finding a new gig. “It’s an odd thing to keep doing, stand-up comedy,” she says. “It really feels like a career where 20 years should be enough to get it out of your system.” It was the ever-supportive and sorely missed Cal Wilson, the beloved colleague, friend and mentor to so many who tragically passed away late last year, who convinced her to stay. “She was quite insistent that I shouldn’t,” Hooper says during a deeply generous chat about her first Melbourne International Comedy Festival without Wilson around. “I don’t know if that’s because she believed in me, or because she just wanted to have our pre-show hugs.”Hooper, like many of her colleagues, shares Wilson’s passionately held belief in sending the elevator down. On top of presenting her latest show, So Proud, and live podcast, I’m The Worst, Hooper has a hand in guiding five shows by emerging comedians Laurence Driscoll, Grace Zhang, Lauren Edwards, Nicolette Minster and Bron Lewis. Photograph: SuppliedClaire Hooper with Grace Zhang and Nicolette Minster Wilson unfailingly helped work up the material of emerging comedians and old hands alike. Hooper hopes to do so too, even if it means juggling multiple tech runs in one day, all in different venues, plus popping up in the opening night gala.  “It feels like a really important part of the industry, because I was helped a lot when I started out, so it f

Scratch beneath the surface of our shiny bright harbourside city and you'll soon realise that even the most gleaming facades hide deep, dark secrets that'll make you eep! *evil laugh* Whahahahahahaaaaa. Join us – if you dare – on an odyssey through the past. Here are eight of the most spooktacularly fascinating historic stories about Sydney. The horrors of the Sidney Slaughter House When Lachlan Macquarie began his term as Governor of NSW in 1810, one of his first goals was to develop a new hospital for Sydney. But the British government refused to fund major public works in the colony, so he struck a deal with rum merchants that allowed them to import 45,000 gallons of the spirit in exchange for them building the ‘Rum Hospital’ (now The Mint). Unfortunately, it became infamous for rudimentary blood-letting practices and gruesome experimental treatments. Overcrowded and with poor ventilation, dysentery was also rife. Hence, the ‘Sidney Slaughter House’ slur stuck. The bodies buried beneath Town Hall Station Established by Governor Arthur Phillip and the reverend Richard Johnson in 1792 and expanded by old mate Macquarie in 1812, the Old Sydney Cemetery used to be on the edge of town. These days, it’s right under our feet, every time you pull into Town Hall Station. Technically they exhumed and moved most the rotting residents when a new burial ground was set aside on Brickfield Hill, ­but bones were still popping up as late as 2007. The mass grave of the Dunbar Shipwreck Und

You know what may have knocked out the previous iteration of Asia TOPA (aka the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts), the vast multi-disciplinary festival combining theatre, music, dance and more from across the Asia-Pacific region. But as the ancient Chinese proverb from the Huainanzi puts it, “Bad luck often brings good luck.”  All good things come to those who wait, after all, and the 2025 program is absolutely stacked with astounding works of wonder. Radiating out across the city from the festival’s hub at Arts Centre Melbourne, the three-week celebration of cultural collaboration is spread across three key streams Nightlife kicks off an exciting new focus on connecting younger audiences to the arts through a big Brat summer vibe, including a dedicated dance party space at the Arts Centre dubbed Club 8 after the floor on which it’s located and its luckiness in Chinese numerology.  The go-off nights will be curated by a revolving roster, including a Kiki Ball curated by Kianna 007 Oricci and Mirasia. There’s a team-up between Taiwanese artist, DJ and techno star Betty Apple and out-there extraordinaire queen Betty Grumble, working on Gadigal land. Hip-hop stans can catch Filipino sister act Fateeha and Miss A with fellow Morobeats hero DJ Tha Wzard plus Thai rapper Réjizz. And First Nations-led festival Yirramboi will also host Aotearoa outfit the Katayanagi Twins and more, with visuals from Sapphic Flicks. NGV’s Friday night dance parties will sashay in line with As

Would-be detectives, can you solve this simple mystery? Which of British crime writer extraordinaire Agatha Christie’s 66 novels is her best seller?  If you’ve plumped for one featuring St Mary Mead’s most famous resident, Miss Marple, or her crime-fighting colleague, Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot, then you’re as busted as the many, many murderers they’ve flushed out of hiding.  In fact, it’s And Then There Were None (trust us, do not look up the original title), one of Christie’s handful of books featuring no recurring characters. That’s because there aren’t many left standing after a group of ten perfect strangers are summoned to a mysterious, storm-lashed island and promptly accused of murder most horrid.  As gripping a whodunnit as it’s possible to be, the tightly-plotted head-scratcher has long captivated readers the world over. Unsurprisingly, it’s been adapted oodles of times, including multiple films, radio and TV shows, including being spoofed on Family Guy.  Well, hold on to your alibis, because stage and screen luminary Robyn Nevin kicks off a new national tour of Christie’s play at Melbourne’s hallowed Comedy Theatre. Nevin has form, having previously steered Christie’s The Mousetrap, also produced by John Frost for Crossroads Live, to great success. And she has a spectacular cast on hand to bring the accused to (quite probably temporary) life.  Deadloch actor Mia Morrissey, who also depicted Mimi Marquez in Rent, is Vera Claythorne, a PE teacher at an all-girls s

Fall in love with life on a baking hot Greek island with the woman who has had enough of being unappreciated.  “Don’t say maybe, maybe,” sang Natalie Bassingthwaighte on the track ‘Voodoo Child’, back in her Rogue Traders-fronting days.  It may as well be the catchcry of frustrated housewife Shirley Valentine, who experiences a never-too-old awakening on an idyllic Greek island holiday in Willy Russell’s beloved one-woman play. It was adapted into a big-screen adventure for stage star Pauline Collins, who shared the limelight with Joanna Lumley and Tom Conti. Bassingthwaighte fronts this new staging at Melbourne’s grand old dame, the Athenaeum, as directed by theatrical wonderwoman Lee Lewis. She’s in good hands, with Lewis having run both Queensland Theatre and Sydney’s Griffin Theatre, where she helmed another smash hit solo show, Prima Facie. An empowering tale for the ages, Shirley Valentine introduces us to the Liverpudlian who was breaking the fourth wall way before Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag. Literally. She’s so bored out of her mind looking after her lazy husband that she monologues at the kitchen wallpaper while fixing him chips and eggs for dinner. So when her best mate wins a trip for two to Greece, she thinks, ‘What the hell?’ and makes a break for the sun by her side.  But how easy is it to go home to a monotonous bloke’s crushing mundanity when you’ve fallen head over heels for the Mediterranean lifestyle, all fresh food and delicious wines by the sea (and m

It takes a lot to keep a gloriously body-positive, anarchically queer feminist cabaret queen down. Tragically, a lot, in this instance, is a particularly heinous blast of pneumonia that ripped through the entire cast of outré creative company Fat Fruit. With the illness hitting Sarah Ward hardest, she’s had to temporarily pull out of F Christmas, the dashingly irreverent and indecently undressed seasonal hullaballoo she penned and planned to perform in. Powerhouse director Susie Dee (Runt) – who co-created the work with musical director Bec Matthews, Ward’s partner in life and stagecraft – announces the bin-able news next to a skip at the edge of the Malthouse’s Merlyn Theatre. Designer Romanie Harper has transformed the space into a slightly skew-whiff Santa’s grotto set ablaze by Monique Aucher’s blood-red lighting. Torn wrapping paper ribbons adorn a gigantic, stage-spanning garland that utterly dwarfs Dee. It takes her a couple of coughs – hopefully not lurgy-related – to grab everyone’s attention, announcing that the magnificent Milo Hartill will step in. The show must go on, and unfortunate theatrical mishaps have a funny way of working out way more than okay. Despite having less than a week to rehearse, Harthill, the glorious mind behind button-pushing solo show Black, Fat and F**gy, is glitter dust personified in a gold-sequinned dress. She brings an extra spicy tickle to her role as Geraldine, playing on the trope that any generic woman will do to host a dazzlingly w

Pardon a moment’s naval-gazing here, but beyond the sparkly Instagram pics from glittering opening nights, the freelance writing gig can be tough. Despite powering through with optimism and encouraging others to follow their passions, I almost gave it all up this week. Or at least I thought about it. But I won’t. I can’t.  This life chose me. Writing’s inextricably bound up in my identity. I don’t know what else I could do. Even as the stress of making ends meet drives me to distraction, I know this is the calling I’ll die (perhaps in penury) on the hill for.  All of which brings me to Sybylla Melvyn, listlessly ranging round the parched-yellow grass of her family’s failing dairy farm, Possum Gully. It’s 1899, and she is a headstrong young woman with grand ambitions of becoming a writer at a time when society has no other expectations of her than being married off to a wealthier man.  The hero of Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin’s beloved debut novel, My Brilliant Career, published in 1901, the 15-year-old is a remarkable figure, a frustrated feminist who hasn’t quite figured it all out yet, but is innately unlike most other girls she knows, including her younger sister Gertie and her harried mother. In truth, Sybylla most closely resembles her author, sharing obvious similarities with the woman whose name would one day lend itself to our most prestigious literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award, plus the Stella Prize for best writing by an Australian woman. Together, they d

When Tony, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Oscar-winning star of stage and screen Maggie Smith departed this mortal coil on September 27, the wave of social media adulation celebrating her life’s remarkable work was tear-jerking, rabble-rousing and chuckle-inducing in equal measure. In the mix was, of course, her withering wonder as Mother Superior, trained on Whoopi Goldberg’s lounge singer on the run and in disguise as a nun in 1992’s cinematic Sister Act.     Joseph Maher’s Bishop O’Hara reminds her of her duty, “You took a vow of hospitality for all in need,” as she tartly replies, with only the most meagre hint of regret, “I lied.”   One of the wittiest lines in the film, directed by Dirty Dancing helmer Emile Ardolino, receives a show-stealing twist in the goofily splendid musical. Helpmann Award-winning actor Genevieve Lemon scored one of the biggest laughs of the night when she stepped into Mother Superior’s habit on opening night of the Melbourne staging, held within the hallowed hall of the Regent Theatre, opposite Australian Idol alum Casey Donovan as irrepressible singer Deloris van Cartier.   They’re a mighty double act playing off each other with abundant charm in this musical version that’s been transplanted from Reno/San Francisco in the ‘90s to Philadelphia in the ‘70s, replacing the original soundtrack with a funkier soul train thanks to mellifluous music from EGOT-winner – Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony – Alan Menken, cheeky lyrics by Glenn Slater and a sassy book by Ch

Melinda Smith is one with Xena. In an after-show Q and A following a breathtaking performance of her new work, Conduit Bodies, disability inclusion activist, artist, poet, dancer and excelling all-round multi-hyphenate Smith tells the audience that she actively pushes back against negative connotations surrounding wheelchairs. She insists that Xena, so named after the warrior princess depicted by Lucy Lawless, is part of her body. It’s how Smith moves in this world, whether in it or not.  The beauty of this symbiotic relationship glimmers during a deeply emotive, illuminatingly abstract show wrought from a series of Smith’s formative memories. They are translated through the many mediums she seamlessly melds with a little help from assistive tech inventor Alon Ilsar, also on percussion. Conduit Bodies is a magnetic push-pull ballet between chaos and sublime, Zen-like calm.  Opening in near darkness, a moon-like circle softly glows in the centre of the stage, accompanied by the star-like glimmer of lights dancing on humming haptic vests worn by some audience members to feel the performance. Smith enters on one chair – not Xena – and moves towards Ilsar’s drum kit as if to join his performance, but, at first at least, it’s not to be. Retreating to an old typewriter, her mimed use of it erupts into a cavalcade of jumbled letters swirling on a rear curtain as a feeling of frustration thunders into view.  Both that backdrop and the moon-space are vibrantly alive canvases on which

“No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one.” So said iIll-fated president JFK, referring to the surreal image of Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức sitting cross-legged and perfectly calm as he was engulfed by flames. The Vietnamese monk was protesting against persecution of the Buddhist faith by the government of Catholic president Ngô Đình Diệm. Captured by award-winning photographer Malcolm Browne in 1963, the startling shot is as powerful now as it was then.   What cause would you be willing to die for? For the biblically named Corinthian, the fictional character holding up Naomi creator Patrick Livesey’s latest breathtaking Fringe solo show, I Hope This Means Something, the answer he winds himself up towards is the climate crisis. Arguably the greatest threat to the planet, tragically it’s one too many of us – and certainly our political leaders – find all too easy to ignore, whether through corrupt financial incentives or fearful paralysis. And yet Corinthian cannot turn away from this seemingly inexorable disaster he’s determined to head off, even if it consumes him. Raised by a single mum in the bird-flocked wetlands of the Coorong in South Australia, they tend a historical bluestone cottage in the sort of country town where everyone knows your name. There’s a touch of Tennessee Williams’ hothouse drama to Corinthian’s longing for her wavering attentions and baked cake failure-ignited depressions, amplified by M’ck McKeague’s flo

Ash Flanders loves the drama. So much so that the committed actor, writer, and proudly flouncing flaneur laboured for years in dinner theatre. Sticking fast to the cause ever since (except for that odd little blip in legal service admin), he’s a survivor, crafting a glittering career out of mining his loved ones’ misfortunes for hilariously melancholic shows. Works like End Of, addressing the ailing health of his muse, his beloved mother, and This is Living, riffing off his boyfriend’s cancer scare that played out during lockdown.  Both foolishly unsuspecting souls pop up in Flanders’ latest gem, meta-textually unmooring Melbourne Fringe show A Brief Episode. Funnily enough, it could see him splash into legal waters as murky as the crims whose garbled statements he used to jot down poorly. You see, Flanders is making a TV pilot about him, his mum and his hon (who did not sign NDAs). Or at least he might be. For confidentiality reasons, having signed away his life on the dotted line, he’s not supposed to say. So he’s keeping its existence (or not) as vague as a gay man fond of spilling the tea can (not very vague at all). Faced with the suddenly real(ish) promise of becoming a star in the making of his own life’s drama, all Flanders has to do is whip up 45 pages of a pilot in the steadfastly unfriendly screenwriting software tool Final Draft, whose ominous name heaps on even more pressure. Staring frantically at a blank screen, he decides he and his man must change the scenery

“When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?” Asks the first witch in the unforgettable opening line of William Shakespeare’s haunting and possibly haunted play, The Tragedy of Macbeth.  Well, the musical wunderkinds of Boorloo/Perth-based Crash Theatre Company have an irrepressibly harmonious answer: during the lead-up to a high school netball final played between the Dunsinane Hellhounds and the Birnam Owls. Transporting the macabre mayhem of the Bard’s most bewitching tale to a suburban Australian school is an uncanny stroke of supernaturally evil genius, cauldron bubbling Mean Girls and Six into a deliciously wicked mix. Those Weird Sisters – Georgia McGivern, Emily Semple and Gabriella Munro – now appear in the form of the Dagger Divas, or at least a phantasmagorical manifestation of said fictional girl power group. Looking suspiciously like Hellhounds team players Brooke Ross, Ashley Donalbain and Jess Malcolm, clothed in courtside attire of pink hooded cowls, they’re in the ear of wing defender Mac Beth. As played by Orla-Jean Poole with her scalp-pulling ponytail in check, she’s magnificently chaotic as a Sporty Spice figure gone horribly wrong. So determined is she to be team captain, she hardly needs the divas’ malevolent encouragement to stab anyone in the back (metaphorically speaking). Sure, nobody actually dies in this frenetically fun and supremely well-done pop musical spin that mainly unleashes riotous laughter rather than bloody murder

Australia is the punchline of a cruel joke in musical theatre god Stephen Sondheim’s razor-sharp dark fable, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.  An operatic story that’s almost entirely sung, it begins with a Greek chorus of down-and-out Victorians. Gossiping like fishwives on the blackened cobblestones of London’s tavern and brothel-lined Fleet Street, they catch us up to speed with a sorry tale of wicked ways and now-broken strays in opening number ‘The Ballad of Sweeney Todd’. We’re told that the marriage of barber Benjamin Barker and his beloved wife Lucy was torn asunder when the lasciviously corrupt Judge Turpin sets his sights on her. Tasking his servant Beadle Bamford with luring Lucy to a masquerade ball, Turpin then assaults her, with his monstrous action driving her to despair. But there’s one last one-two punch. Benjamin is transported to the colonies on trumped-up charges, while the judge scoops up their infant daughter Johanna as his ward. Transportation is precisely what this saucily gothic melodrama does in this gloriously grotesque production from Victorian Opera, helmed by artistic director Stuart Maunder. From the off, Philip Lethlean’s lighting design seizes our attention by the throat, as sickly blue-green beams dance like hellfire, piercing the fog and conjuring this rackety corner of a consumption-choked city from out of the darkness. As the lights reveal Roger Kirk’s jaw-dropping set, it’s all dirt-caked bricks, groaning wooden gangways an

Sisyphus had it easy. A grotesque tyrant, the king of Ephyra slaughtered guests in violation of the sacred right of hospitality, much like the treacherous Freys in Game of Thrones. His punishment, meted out by Zeus, was pretty lenient. All he has to do is roll a rock up a mountain over and over for the rest of eternity.  Dull and difficult work, sure, but Princess Iphigenia of Mycenae had it way worse.  Her crime? Being born to the warmonger King Agamemnon. Set on destroying Troy – all because Helen had agency over her own love life – his invasion fleet was stuck in want of wind all because he foolishly felled one of Artemis’ sacred deer. Here’s the thing: the goddess of the hunt (plus children and their birth) isn’t too keen on humans claiming her herd. The price for his trespass? Sacrificing his daughter. Yup, innocent Iphigenia – whose name means ‘strong-born’ – gets it for no discernible reason, all because of the world’s worst dad (he gets his dues later). The travesty of this ancient Greek myth underpins the much more mortal concerns of a young unemployed woman, Effie, in Welsh playwright Gary Owen’s Iphigenia in Splott. Debuting in 2015 during grinding Tory austerity, this Cardiff council estate-set drama is focused on her ‘fuck it’ determination to live life loud and large, despite a distinct lack of funds. It’s a theme that bites just as hard now we’re caught in the maw of a cost-of-living crisis. Returning to Red Stitch like Sisyphus’ boulder after an equally impres

Radiating from the glittering State Theatre and beaming out to cinema screens across the city, the Sydney Film Festival is the jewel in the crown of the city’s cinematic scene. This June, it will shine that little bit brighter, when the members of one of Australia’s most beloved bands rock up to Opening Night.  Director Paul Clarke traces the glorious highs and obligatory lows in Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line (screening on June 5, 9 & 14), kicking off eleven days of gold in the 71st SFF line-up – which features 97 films from 69 countries, including 28 world premieres. With so much to choose from, professional film fanatic Stephen A Russell has stepped in to narrow down your options with this nifty ten-deck.  Critic's picks: The best movies to see at SFF Photograph: Supplied/SFF | 'The Moogai' The Moogai Turning the true horror of the Stolen Generations into a monster movie, Cleverman co-creator Jon Bell has expanded his spooky short into a skin-crawling feature, which is up for SFF’s inaugural First Nations Award. Debuting at Sundance, it stars two total legends of Sydney’s creative community, Shari Sebbens and Meyne Wyatt, as married couple Sarah and Fergus, who’ve just had their second kid. When Sarah begins to have visions about bub being menaced by something terrifying, Fergus doesn’t believe her.  Screening on June 8 & 9. Book here. (FYI: You might also be interested in the talk First Nations Films: A Global Perspective on June 9.)  Photograph: Supplied/SFF | 'Kinds

For the uninitiated, the arrival of Bong Joon-ho’s deliriously twisted take on upstairs-downstairs rivalry, Parasite, was a revelation. Funny and terrifying in equal measure, it also works as a sharp social satire on a class war playing out within one very fancy home. A highlight of the 2019 Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA), it went on to gangbusters at the local box office and took over Hollywood too, securing no fewer than four Oscars, including Best Picture, adding to a haul that embraced both a Golden Globe and the Palme d’Or. But the truth is Korean cinema (and twisted TV shows like Squid Game) has been on fire for decades, with this legion of new fans joining an army of devotees. And what better way to get across the must-sees than by charging headlong into this year’s exciting KOFFIA line-up? The Melbourne showcase opens with the soaring historical epic The Night Owl, blending fact with fiction to conjure up a gripping crime thriller with a dash of Game of Thrones’ political intrigue. Filmmaker An Tae-jin spins a gripping yarn set in 17th-century Joseon, the last dynastic rule of Korea, positing what really caused the suspicious death of real-life Crown Prince Sohyeon (Kim Sung-cheol). Let’s just say he did not die of ‘malaria’, with The Night Owl having fun by creating a partially blind acupuncturist (Ryu Jun-yeol) who can see clearly after dark. Witnessing the truth, he must race against time to prove it as malevolent forces move against him.   If you prefe

Like a man living in his own personal Aaron Sorkin movie, Vin Diesel threw aside his teleprompter at last week’s CineCon in Las Vegas to deliver a spontaneous cri de coeur about the value of cinemas. His audience was America’s movie theatre owners, there to scope out what much-needed ‘product’ Hollywood has for them in the year ahead. ‘You guys don’t give a shit about the teleprompter,’ he grinned. Instead, Diesel waxed lyrical about his upcoming Fast X blockbuster and his pet subject: family. Cinemas were part of his Fast family, he said. They were the reason his megabucks franchise has been a success, and he knew what they’d been going through since the pandemic. ‘I look out and see soldiers on the front lines,’ he told them.  Five thousand miles away, his words would have been ringing painfully true. There, the acting CEO of England’s Tyneside Cinema, Simon Drysdale, has been emerging from the horrors of a redundancy round. Bankruptcy looms for Newcastle’s beloved cinema. A fundraiser has been launched in a bid to galvanise the locals. ‘We’ve got months to survive,’ Drysdale tells Time Out. ‘We’re 40 percent down on attendances from pre-pandemic and our costs are stratospheric. We were struggling pre-pandemic, but the situation is pretty dire now.’ Tyneside’s woes are a worryingly familiar story two years on from the pandemic. Edinburgh’s Filmhouse, Aberdeen’s Belmont Filmhouse, Los Angeles’ Cinerama Dome, and London’s multi-arts space Riverside Studios have all either gon

It’s been far too long since we sat in a dark movie theatre, losing popcorn to impossible crevices while smearing melted choc-tops liberally across our best out-of-the-house outfits. And we couldn’t be any happier for this gloriously cinematic mess. We're getting you ready to return to the movies by getting you up to scratch on the hottest new releases. Here are five of the biggest movies you can catch in Sydney’s cinemas right now. Recommended: The best cinemas in Sydney. No Time to Die OK, OK, we’re cheating a little because Daniel Craig’s final mission as Bond, James Bond doesn’t open until November 11, but tickets are already on sale and it’s all anyone is talking about already. Word to the wise, avoid the internet for the next few weeks if you don’t want any spoilers. But you can rest assured our reviewer LOVED 007’s swansong, hinting, “There are big, unprecedented storytelling decisions.” You can read the full review here Nitram The biggest Australian release of the year took home Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for star Caleb Landry-Jones. The controversial film is a powerful and remarkably sensitive reckoning with the days that led up to the Port Arthur massacre and that terrible day that led to a complete overhaul of Australian gun laws. Our reviewer said, “The film does not glorify his murderous act or even depict it. Nor does it name him. What it does, with bone-shuddering brilliance, is reinforce why those reforms were necessary.” You can read the full revi

Unlike some places overseas, including the US, there hasn’t been much of the carrot-reward approach to encouraging folks getting vaccinated in Australia, beyond the roadmap to unlocking. That changed dramatically over the weekend. A group of cashed-up philanthropists, including MYOB founder Craig Winkler, have tipped into a prize fund that’s been dubbed Million Dollar Vax. A lottery prize pot of $4.1 million is up for grabs for any Australian who has had at least one vaccination to date and has or will be double jabbed by December 13 and able to prove so with a vaccination certificate. Each day in October the pot will cough up $1,000 gift cards. But the main drawcard is a $1 million jackpot, to be drawn on November 5. Winkler says Million Dollar Vax, based on the American models, is more about rewarding folks who have already decided to get jabbed, rather than specifically encouraging them to do so. In a statement he clarified that: “That’s a decision you should make in consultation with a health professional. The promotion simply seeks to reward people who decide to be vaccinated now rather than waiting, so that we can reduce the community impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.” He also noted that the faster we get above 80 per cent vaccination rates across the nation, the sooner we can help states to unlock safely and all get back to some sort of normality in our lives. If you have already been double jabbed or are keen to do so, you can sign up for the lottery here. Want to save

If you’re stupendously excited about the avalanche of massive main stage shows opening this summer, including not one but two dramatic big hitters from Sydney Theatre Company (STC) before the end of the year in Julius Caesar and Death of a Salesman, then you’re going to LOVE this news. The illustrious company has signed a ‘first look’ deal with super-producers Michael Cassel Group (MCG). What that means in practice is that MCG will have first dibs on transferring or remounting any show that STC creates with a view to touring it interstate or internationally. It’s the first time an agreement of this nature has been struck by a theatre company in Australia. And it’s already up and running. The current lockdown may have postponed a planned encore run of artistic director Kip Williams’ Oscar Wilde adaptation The Picture of Dorian Gray, the one-woman show starring an astounding Eryn Jean Norvill as all 26 characters, but MCG have snapped it up. That ensures audiences all over the country and overseas stand at chance at seeing it for themselves in the very near future. Reviewer Maxim Boon said of the star, “Norvill produces some of the most virtuosic theatre I have ever witnessed, on stage or screen,” and of Williams, “he has deftly explored an intersection between the cinematic and theatrical, creating productions on the bleeding edge of stagecraft that bridge the liminal space between these two modes of storytelling.” Speaking of the newly inked deal, Williams said, “I am so thri

In exciting news for creative minds warming up for Sydney’s upcoming cultural unlock, Brand X have teamed up with City of Sydney to run a beautiful looking creative studio opening early next year.  The City of Sydney Creatives Studios will include two large, double-height rehearsal spaces with sprung timber floors for performance artists, five soundproof recording studios for musos, production and editing suites for video whizzes, art studios and an honest to goodness apartment for artist in residence sojourns too. There will also be a café downstairs, and loads of offices, storage space and dressing rooms too. Creatives can register their interest here.  “It has long been a priority to increase centrally located, affordable space for our artists and creatives,” lord mayor Clover Moore says. “This five-storey venue will accommodate creatives in the heart of the city, and help the sector’s recovery from the devastating effects of the pandemic. The spaces are designed for a variety of artistic disciplines and artists at different stages in their careers, and to encourage collaboration within our talented creative community.” Brand X director James Winter is psyched too. “We are energised at the prospect of delivering new, accessible opportunities for emerging and established artists to enable practice-based experimentation, creative development and production of new work.” Want to know more about arts venues reopening? Read the plan here.     

Sydneysiders who have been fully vaccinated will be able to return to cinemas, theatres and live music venues, art galleries, museums and more once the state hits the 70 per cent double dose target. Once this key vaccination level is reached, NSW's lockdown will begin to lift from October 11. However, those who choose to remain unvaccinated will have to wait a little longer to re-join the city’s cultural life. Anyone deliberately dodging the jab without a medical excemption will not be allowed to enter any arts venue until December 1, when it’s expected NSW will have more than 90 per cent double dosed in the community at large. Even after that date, it will be up to individual venues if they are comfortable welcoming unvaccinated patrons. It’s incredible news for the arts community, with the majority of venues completely out of action for many, many months over the last year and a half, unlike hospo venues which have at least managed to struggle on with takeaway options. It means that the major shows that hedged their bets by announcing reopening dates and putting tickets on sale have been vindicated, including Broadway smashes Hamilton, Come From Away and Jagged Little Pill. The BridgeClimb has also announced that they are raring to get folks stomping all over the world-famous harbour edifice once more. Expect many more cultural events to unlock the doors in the coming weeks. There will still be 75 per cent capacity limits on entertainment venues and masks will be mandatory

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has been clear that NSW is preparing to reopen once the target of 70 per cent double vaccinated has been met, but there has been no official date put on that milestone. We’ll get there when we get there. That hasn’t stopped several of Sydney’s major attractions and hotels from declaring they are ready to roll in late October, with many predicting we’ll meet the official target on or around October 18. The big shows and destinations hedging their bets on this date include hit musical Come From Away, which is waiting in the wings at the Capitol Theatre and has started selling tickets from October 20. It's also the first major arts production in Australia to not only require theatregoers be fully vaccinated, but also its cast and crew. Producer Rodney Rigby said they were outing their faith in NSW residents getting double jabbed, allowing live performances to reboot. “Across the world, vaccination is proving to be an effective way of getting fans safely back into the theatre and we cannot wait to welcome audiences back soon.” The world-famous BridgeClimb across Sydney's iconic Coathanger has announced October 22 as the date it hopes to begin re-harnessing brave souls after the best views of the city. They’re hoping to coax back climbers by offering post-climb drinks vouchers for the Glenmore for the first 200 customers to book in. “It’s time for Sydneysiders to celebrate,” BridgeClimb CEO David Hammon said. “This is going to be a summer like no other f

The producers of Tony and Olivier award-winning musical Come From Away have announced the show will reopen to live audiences on October 20, assuming the roadmap to lifting lockdown once 70 per cent of adults over 16 are fully vaccinated remains on track. According to the NSW government’s roadmap as it stands, they’ll be able to welcome audiences back to the Capitol Theatre at 75 per cent capacity, with tickets already on sale now, through to November 28. However, the NSW government has not officially confirmed the date from which businesses can reopen, only that this date will be the first Monday after the 70 per cent vaccination target is reached. Rodney Rigby of Newtheatricals produces the show – set in the aftermath of 9/11 when flights from across the US were diverted to a tiny Canadian community – in collaboration with Junkyard Dog Productions. In a sign of the times, they have mandated that all audience members must be able to prove they are fully vaccinated in order to enter the Capitol. He said they wanted to lead by example. “Across the world, vaccination is proving to be an effective way of getting fans safely back into the theatre and we cannot wait to welcome audiences back soon.” The policy of all cast and crew being required to be vaccinated has been widely embraced on Broadway in New York and in London’s West End, and gives us an idea of how theatres are likely to work once they reopen. Previously, casts have protected themselves from possible infection by livi

As Sydney gears up to unlock, three of Australia’s biggest live music tour promoters stand ready to unleash an avalanche of major stars returning to our harbourside city’s coolest venues. Massive names like Lorde, Snoop Dogg, Alanis Morissette, the Backstreet, the DMAs and the Kid Laroi. The thing is, though, if you want to be back in the presumably socially distant mosh when that happens, you’re gonna need to get double vaccinated. Frontier Touring, Live Nation and TEG has banded together to help the push for Australia to get jabbed, get back out there and get in amongst stadium rock one again. Favouring the carrot, rather than the stick, approach, they’ve launched a cool competition dubbed Vaxstage Pass. Open to all Aussie residents aged 18-plus, head over the Vaxstage Pass site to sign up. You’ll have to be fully vaxxed and able to prove so via the Medicare COVID-19 Digital Certificate, by the time the comp closes on November 30, and then share, in under 25 words, which live gig you’re most looking forward to. And the prize is pretty outstanding. Five winners will get double passes to each gig hosted by Frontier Touring, Live Nation or TEG for the whole of next year. Wowzas. Get jabbed, get in, get on it. Love live music? Stream a global gig featuring Kylie, Delta Goodrem, Jennifer Lopez, Lizzo, Billie Eilish and more.

Way back in 1998, a trippy dystopian movie about humanity being stuck unawares in an online world (no, not in an endless Zoom meeting) was shot almost entirely in Sydney’s Fox Studios. That film was The Matrix, and it would set the world on fire when it was released the following year. It pitted Keanu Reeves’ newly red-pill awoken saviour, computer hacker Neo, against malevolent machines personified by sharp-suited local hero and on-screen villain, Hugo Weaving, as the nihilistic Mr Smith. While two big screen sequels dropped in 2003 – The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions – they never quite lived up to the hype, although the spectacular fight sequences boosted by slow-motion ‘bullet time’ ensured the trilogy’s place in the pantheon of sci-fi excellence. So let’s just say the first trailer drop for the long-awaited fourth installment, The Matrix Resurrections, just blew up the internet. So what did we learn? Well, as with most teaser trailers, not a whole lot. But questions, we have a few… Neo is back? Look, this is hardly revelatory, given we’ve known about Reeves’s involvement since the fourth live-action film was announced, but is this the flying, bullet-dodging, leather trenchcoat-clad demigod we know and love? In the trailer, we see Reeves as Thomas Anderson (his name in the ‘real’ world) in therapy with Neil Patrick Harris. But just to be clear, Neo very definitely died in a heroic sacrifice for all of humanity at the end of Revolutions. Or did he? The whole pr