Max your summer in Sydney

It’s part history, part drama – Belvoir St Theatre is taking Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of King Lear back to its roots. Named after one of the play’s original titles, The True History of the Life and Death of King Lear and his Three Daughters, reflects director Eamon Flack’s vision to portray more than the story of a king in power – rather, his succession (and the unravelling of it).  King Lear is on the edge of retirement. His plan is simple: pass the throne on to his three daughters who will each rule an equal portion of the kingdom. That is, until power and ego muddies the waters.  The highly anticipated Colin Friels (Into the Shimmering World) stars as King Lear, Alison Whyte (Death of a Salesman) as the Countess of Gloucester, Peter Carroll (Coriolanus) as Fool and they’re joined by an all-star 14-person ensemble. Watch The True History of the Life and Death of King Lear and his Three Daughters at Belvoir St Theatre from November 15 to January 4. Tickets start from $43 – you can book yours here.

If the idea of a European-style Christmas market really gets you going, then boy, do we have the marché for you. From Thursday, December 11 to Sunday, December 21, Le Jolly Market is back. Expect a whole lot of festive cheer around Circular Quay from Customs House to The Rocks. This free market brings together more than 120 stalls loaded with Aussie-made gifts, delicious treats and crafty creations. Think summer nights with fairy lights overhead, the harbour in front of you and the irresistible aroma of gourmet street food wafting through the air. The Wine and Dine Village is set to be a crowd favourite with wineries and distilleries popping up on Tallawoladah Lawn and First Fleet Park. Expect complimentary tastings, daily masterclasses and plenty of chances to meet the makers behind boutique drops like Petersons Family Wines, Cooks Lot and Ester Spirits. From bubbles to festive cocktails, it’s the perfect place to sip your way into the holiday season. And because no festive market is complete without great tunes, you can wander around to the sounds of smooth jazz and cheery Christmas tunes. Le Jolly Christmas Markets is all about Christmas magic. Stay up-to-date with all things jolly on their website. Joyeux Noël! Get in the festive spirit with these Christmas markets running all throughout the November and December.Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, straight to your inbox. RECOMMENDED:  These are the best markets in Sydney,...

If you've ever wondered what would happen if a kid's drawing of their wildest dream utopia suddenly came off the page and into real life, you're in luck, because that's pretty much what's happening right now beneath the Art Gallery of NSW.  Artist and professional disruptor Mike Hewson has taken over the weird subterranean world of The Tank with his one-of-a-kind new exhibition, Mike Hewson: The Key's Under the Mat, where for the first time ever, all the main lights in the normally pitch-dark Tank will be switched on, revealing a weird wonderland of interactive art pieces and play equipment that have to be seen to be believed. We're talking: A steam room with stained glass windows that you can actually sit in, a functioning sauna with bespoke church pews, five actual operating public barbeques that you can cook on, rushing water to play in (seriously, bring your swimmers), a working laundry,  and a free-to-use recording studio, plus a whole plethora of bright and delightful surprises that are all about getting community together, to do cool stuff, for free. Basically, break your imagination and delete all adult expectations. This is unlike anything we've ever seen.  Kids who aren't afraid of some risk are also one of Hewson's big targets with this show (although parents, rest easy, the floor is specially made out of recycled soft rubber that's rated for use in public playgrounds), with the space also home to a wild children's playground. Intrepid kidlets can test their...

The Art Gallery of New South Wales’ newest exhibition – Dangerously Modern: Australian Women Artists in Europe 1890-1940 – spotlights 50 trailblazing females who were among some of the first to draw attention to the fact that women can make some pretty bloody great art too.  The speedy rate of industrialisation in the 19th century meant a major shift in European society. Artists used it as a chance to reject traditional themes like religion, and instead focused on fresh ways to portray individuals (in a time where it felt like machines were going to rule the world). Meanwhile, women used it as their ticket to pull a seat up at the table. The focus of the exhibition is specifically on our very own Australian and New Zealander artists who made the journey to Europe to immerse themselves in the modernist movement. Gallery-goers can peruse works from historic names like Nora Heysen, Margaret Preston and Grace Cossington Smith, and also witness the work of some lesser-known but equally important creatives like CL Allport, Justine Kong Sing and Stella Marks. Featuring celebrated and rediscovered paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture and ceramics, the exhibition includes work by celebrated artists such as Nora Heysen, Margaret Preston and Grace Cossington Smith, alongside lesser-known but equally compelling figures such as CL Allport, Justine Kong Sing and Stella Marks. Dangerously Modern’s run in Sydney spans all the way to mid-February so a hot (art) girl summer awaits. You...

It’s hard to name a more iconic Australian live music venue than the Sydney Opera House. In fact, I dare you. And while the Concert Hall, Utzon Room and other architecturally stunning indoor spaces have their merits, a show on the Opera House forecourt – out in the air, with views across the harbour – is beyond special.Last year, the Sydney Opera House On The Steps series brought some of Australia’s most beloved musicians to the Opera House forecourt, with Crowded House, Troye Sivan, Missy Higgins and Tina Arena performing outside of the country’s most famous building, as well as global acts including Two Door Cinema Club, Declan McKenna and Glass Animals. For anyone lucky enough to attend, the On The Steps shows were a highlight of Sydney summer 2024 – gorgeous amber sunsets and joyful crowds gathered on the Mayan-temple-inspired steps to see their favourite artist perform in front of one of the world’s most beautiful city skylines. Now, the organisers have confirmed that On The Steps is coming back for 2025, with this year’s line-up looking better than ever.The first act confirmed to light up the steps for the 2025 summer season will be the iconic Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand, who will be performing a one-off show on Wednesday, December 3. Franz Ferdinand’s forecourt show will be the first time they’ve performed in Australia since 2018, when they brought their distinct breed of post-punk indie rock on a tour around the country. Next up, the hugely talented British...

In a city where culture is constantly evolving, the Powerhouse Museum has no problem keeping up. Spanning four sites – including Sydney Observatory, Powerhouse Castle Hill, the heritage-listed Powerhouse Ultimo site currently undergoing a $300-million transformation and a brand-new Powerhouse Parramatta location set to open in late 2026 – it’s officially the largest museum group in Australia. Now, Powerhouse Castle Hill is taking centre stage with its latest instalment Powerhouse Materials – a new series of exhibitions and events that showcase the Powerhouse Collection (home to more than half a million objects!) through the lens of a guest curator and a chosen material. Actor and activist, Chloe Hayden was the first to curate a colourful and quirky exhibition focused on textiles, and now Andy Griffiths is in the hot seat. The second iteration continues to embody imagination and eccentricity with Powerhouse Materials: Paper. Curated by best-selling children’s author Andy Griffiths (the mind behind the Just! and Treehouse series), this exhibition dives deep into the world of paper. From November 22 to March 8, this free exhibition features a quirky collection of paper objects from the Powerhouse Collection, ranging from the ordinary to extraordinary. Every visitor will receive a self-guided activity book packed with drawing and story prompts developed in collaboration with Griffiths – perfect for sparking young imaginations, and giving older ones a blast from the past. For...

As I’m on my way to Sydney's Capitol Theatre for the new Australian production of The Book of Mormon, my friend tells me it’s the very first musical a lot of people see. Created by South Park duo Trey Parker and Matt Stone (with Robert Lopez), the show’s reputation for extremely irreverent jabs at religion draws a non-traditional theatre crowd. What I now realise my friend didn’t mean was, “it’s often the first musical kids see”. When I say the musical is extremely irreverent, I mean it. The humour is crass, verging on grotesque (some things I wouldn’t dare repeat). So it’s probably questionable that I’ve brought along my 13-year-old son with me. That said, he loves it.  Some of the humour is classic teen boy (i.e. a regular exclamation from one of the Ugandan characters that he has “maggots in my scrotum”). Very South Park. My son laughs loudly with the rest of the audience – and when the jokes go too far, he cringes, glancing around with a “should I be laughing at this?” look. Although the shock value is high, it’s nice seeing a Gen Alpha-ite who’s been raised on Youtube and other screen-based entertainment bopping along in his seat to the song and dance of a stage show.    What’s the premise of The Book of Mormon? The Book of Mormon tells the story of two young Mormon missionaries sent to a small village in Uganda. Although the story centres on Mormonism, Parker and Stone have been known to refer to the show as an “atheist’s love letter to religion” – a wink and a jab...

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can spit out venom so lethal that there is no antidote. There are not many works which can produce such poisonous sparring and emotional violence with the same acclaim and excellence as Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winner’s work is a gruelling feat of art, which director Sarah Goodes tackles with a fresh ferocity and with all the classical nuance and complexity that comes with Albee’s work. What is the premise of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Martha (Kat Stewart) and George (David Whiteley) are a middle-aged couple who have spent their married life at New Carthage University where George works as an associate professor in the history department. The couple arrive home at two o’clock in the morning after attending a faculty party hosted by Martha’s father, who is also the University’s president. During what seems like a slight marital dispute after the party, Martha informs George that she has invited a younger couple who have recently joined the university to their house. As the argument begins to heat up, Nick (Harvey Zielinski) and Honey (Emily Goddard) arrive at the couple’s place just as Martha is cursing at George, foreshadowing the tumultuous night ahead.  The story uses the two couples’ relationships to explore ideas of truth and illusion. By using the privacy of a vicious domestic argument, the audience, like Nick and Honey, become a witness to a generally...

For generations, the dynamics between women have been sidelined in theatre. Few classic plays explore the complexities of womanhood, the fraught relationships between mother and daughter, or, more specifically, the intricate bonds between Asian grandmothers, their daughters and their granddaughters. In cultures shaped by large joint families, where matriarchal relationships (often behind closed doors) deeply influence a woman’s identity, these stories are particularly rich – and yet rarely represented on stage. As a South Asian Australian woman who coincidentally named her daughter after her grandmother, I feel a connection to Merlynn Tong’s experimental exploration of her matriarchal ancestors in her new play, Congratulations, Get Rich!, an international collaboration between La Boite Theatre, Singapore Repertory Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company. What's the premise of Congratulations, Get Rich! Congratulations, Get Rich! kicks off inside Mandy’s (Merlynn Tong) ailing karaoke joint, Money Money Karaoke, where she and her relentlessly upbeat, pun-loving boyfriend Xavier (Zac Boulton) are staring down a make-or-break night. It also happens to be the seventh day of Chinese New Year – Human Day – and Mandy’s 38th birthday. As an ominous storm rolls in and the pipes begin to groan, the couple is plunged into sudden darkness. Out of that blackout emerge two very unexpected visitors: Mandy’s long-dead mother (Seong Hui Xuan) and grandmother (Kimie Tsukakoshi), returning as...

The Art Gallery of New South Wales is one of our fave places to hang out year-round – and this December it welcomes a banging new exhibition from Melbourne-born artist Ron Mueck. Ron Mueck: Encounter is the artist’s largest exhibition ever in Australia, bringing together a stunning selection of his hyperreal human sculptures from around the globe.  The life-like and scaled up sculptures aim to challenge perceptions by offering a profound and observational look at the human experience. Grounded in realism, the captivating figures tenderly embody themes such as birth, death, alienation and togetherness.  After making his start in children’s television, Mueck trained under Jim Henson (The Muppets) in puppeteering and model making where he made a name for himself on major projects including Sesame Street and the film Labyrinth. Soon after he relocated to London to run his own animatronic studio, before finding his way to figurative sculptures in the late ‘90s and revitalising the medium.  Ron Mueck: Encounter runs daily from December 6 to April 12, 10am–5pm, and until 10pm on Wednesday nights, as part of the Sydney International Art Series, a government initiative that teams up with Destination NSW to bring the world’s most prolific artists exclusively to Sydney. Tickets are $35 for adults on weekdays, $37 on weekends and public holidays, with two-for-one Art After Hours deals on Wednesday evenings, or $45 flexi tickets (which are un-dated single entry tickets). You can book...