When the 2023 Oscars roll around, will Cate Blanchett end up with another shiny trophy for her mantle? Thanks to her performance in Tár, that's a firm possibility. The Australian actor already has two Academy Awards from seven nominations, winning for The Aviator and Blue Jasmine — and her latest portrayal has been earning the same kind of buzz, and already scored her the Best Actress award at this year's Venice Film Festival. No one should think about movies and performances solely in terms of accolades, of course. Still, it's hard not to picture statuettes glistening when Blanchett's work comes up because she's usually truly that phenomenal. Sydney audiences have to wait until 2023 for Tár to hit the big screen here, and to make our own minds up about her current efforts — unless you head to a special sneak-peek Q&A session with the actor herself in attendance this month, that is. On Sunday, November 13 at the glorious Hayden Orpheum — with doors opening at 2.45pm, the film playing from 3.30pm and the Q&A starting at 6.15pm — Blanchett will attend a screening of Tár, and answer all of your questions afterwards. The session is being held in conjunction with the Sydney Film Festival and Universal Pictures, complete with a red carpet and, clearly, a huge dose of star power. Expect tickets to get snapped up quickly — they cost $50, which includes a glass of sparkling upon arrival. As for the film itself, it hails from writer/producer/director Todd Field, marking his first since 2006's Little Children. Blanchett plays Lydia Tár, a conductor of a major German orchestra, with the movie starting at the height of her career. From there, it charts the chaos that ensues when her seemingly perfect life, complete with an impending book launch and a live performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony, starts to crumble.
Both you and your four-legged friend can get in the Christmas spirit at this festive photo op. Popping up from Tuesday, November 24 till Wednesday, December 16 at Broadway Shopping Centre — so you can get your Christmas presents and cards sorted in one hit — Melting Moments is an Aussie twist on your usual Santa photos. Instead of being surrounded by trees, elves or reindeer, this Santa is surrounded by melting ice creams. The photoshoot is open to adults, kids and pets, too, which is a bonus if you're both a fur-parent and normal parent. And it's open from 5.30–8pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays — perfect for after-work (and after-doggo daycare) visits. Exactly how much the shoot costs depends on how many photos you want, with $23.95 the starting price (for two four-by-six photos) and $49.95 the most expensive, with the latter including everything from a calendar to Christmas cards and a magnet to bookmarks. Melting Moments with Santa is open for bookings from 5.30–8pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
It's a decades-old inner-west tradition: watching the Newtown Jets' home footy game from up on the hill at Henson Park, that is. But things have been dialled up a few notches over the years with the introduction of The Beer, Footy & Food Festival. After a two-year pandemic-related hiatus — and then multiple weather-related postponements — the beloved festival finally returned in 2022. And, the Jets and The Music and Booze Co even backed it up this year, introducing Welcome Day in collaboration with Heaps Gay, a day of footy, cocktails, food and music where everyone is welcome. The Beer, Footy & Food Festival is still returning, however, on Saturday, July 22. A good time for footy lovers, foodies and everyone in between, the event is set to dish up a huge afternoon of family-friendly fun. As well as the match-up between the beloved Newtown Jets and the Sea Eagles, you can expect a celebration of another Inner West triumph: craft beer. Keep that thirst in check with drops from 34 different brewers, including Grifter, Philter, Wayward, Curly Lewis, Freshwater Brewing Co, Batch, Yulli's Brews, Young Henrys, Hawke's, Frenchies, Better Beer and a heap more. The festival always serves up a top-notch selection of food vendors as well, with Inner West favourites like Baba's Place, Pepito's and Happy As Larry all appearing in the past. Plus, this year Heaps Normal and The Great Club are putting on a music-filled after-party in Marrickville. Sydney bands Mac the Knife, Jet City Sports Club and Mannequin Radio will all be performing at The Great Club, located just a few hundred metres from Henson Park. If you're heading down, make sure you pack your footy so you can take part in the post-match kick-around on the hallowed turf of Henson Park. Images: Tom Wilkinson.
With all the time we're staring at our laptop screens and flicking through the TV, I think we can safely conclude that we live in a data driven age. One artist who has been continuously pushing the limits when it comes to questioning our existence in this 'whelm' of information has been Ryoji Ikeda. After the audio-visual assault of his last Carriageworks show, test pattern [no. 5], Ikeda makes his grand return to Australian shores with his new head-spinning work, superposition. superposition is an all-encompassing performance stretching across the barriers of sound, language, physical phenomena, mathematics and human behaviour. Inspired by the mechanics of quantum theory, Ikeda breaks down reality into electronic data. Glitched-samples of bleeps spliced with footage of real-time content feeds are displayed in synchronisation over a wall of video screens, while live performers feature as the 'operator' of the installation. If test pattern [no. 5] was anything to go by, Ikeda's superposition will be just as hypnotic: a telling reminder of technology's evolution to become a ubiquitous part of our lives. Image: Ryoji Ikeda, superposition (Kazuo Fukunaga, courtesy the artist and Kyoto Experiment). https://youtube.com/watch?v=0ivkmVDg4D0
It's worrying the way we deride films aimed at an older audiences as simply being a Best Exotic Marigold Hotel facsimile designed to snare seniors, given how we largely ignore the fact that the majority of mainstream cinema over the past 30 years has been made for 12-year-old boys. Philomena, with its poster depicting a smiling Judi Dench alongside a stoic Steve Coogan, will no doubt be dismissively lumped in with this crowd. It is, however, a million miles away from the likes of Best Exotic (which, for the record, was actually rather good). Based on a true story, Philomena follows ex-political spin doctor Martin Sixsmith (Coogan), who, in an attempt to revive his journalism career, chases the "human interest story" of Philomena (Dench) an elderly woman searching for her long-lost son. In flashbacks, we see the younger Philomena (Sophie Kennedy Clark) as she becomes pregnant out of wedlock, and is forcibly kept in servitude by nuns, who then sell her son to a wealthy couple. As the pair investigates, the truth behind the forced adoption becomes all the more shocking. Coogan, who not only portrays Sixsmith but also co-wrote the screenplay, strikes a perfect tone with such sensitive material. The revelations are powerful and honest without being gut-wrenching; the comedy is welcome and consistent without being inappropriate. It's a remarkable juggling act, directed beautifully by Stephen Frears, who atones for recent disasters Lay the Favorite and Tamara Drewe. Coogan's sardonic Northern charm makes Sixsmith a compelling lead, and his relationship with Dench's Philomena is wonderfully developed. It's Dench who is the real standout here. At this point in her career, she could easily get away with sleepwalking through roles, relying on her undeniable presence to carry her performances. But as in 2006's Notes on a Scandal, she creates a character unrecognisable from her previous roles. Philomena is pleasant, vague, forceful and compellingly well-rounded. Dench's energy and attention to detail elevates this film to something even more remarkable. The depiction of the Catholic structure both past and present is one of the most fascinating elements of Philomena. It's caused controversy, with many accusing the film of being anti-Catholic. To make such an accusation, however, fundamentally misses the point, and excuses the crimes committed in the name of the church. The film does not shy away from Philomena's piety or Sixsmith's atheism, and argues strongly in favour of both. Sixsmith is deeply compassionate without religion, whilst Philomena embodies the ideals of Christianity that the Church and its representatives so often and so demonstrably forget. Disinterested in a sanitised "I'm okay, you're okay" message, the film manages to extol the best elements of both atheism and Christianity whilst unrelentingly and unapologetically shining a light on the darker side of organised religion. It is truly impressive stuff. Be not fooled by the marketing materials, which make the film look like an aged-up version of The Trip with Judi Dench in place of Rob Brydon. (Although, thinking about it, that would be brilliant.) Philomena is a terrifically made, entertaining work that stands head and shoulders above many of the films being forced upon us this Christmas. See it. https://youtube.com/watch?v=rD8f9kn7D2U
When Ana Lily Amirpour made her spectacular feature filmmaking debut in 2014, and made one of the best movies of that year in the process, she did so with a flick with a killer title: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. That moniker also summed up the picture's plot perfectly, even if the Persian-language horror western vampire film couldn't be easily categorised. Take note of that seven-word name, and that genre-bending approach. When Amirpour next made wrote and directed The Bad Batch, the 2016 dystopian cannibal romance started with a woman meandering solo, albeit in the Texan desert in daylight, and also heartily embraced a throw-it-all-in philosophy. Now arrives her third stint behind the lens, the hyper-saturated, gleefully sleazy, New Orleans-set blend of superheroes, scams and strippers that is Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon — which, yes, features a female protagonist (Jeon Jong-seo, Burning) strolling unescorted again, back under the cover of darkness this time. Mona initially walks out of a home instead of towards one, however. And Amirpour isn't really repeating herself; rather, she has a penchant for stories about the exploited fighting back. Here, Mona has been stuck in an institution for "mentally insane adolescents" for at least a decade — longer than its receptionist (Rosha Washington, Interview with the Vampire) can remember — and breaks out during the titular lunar event after gruesomely tussling with an uncaring nurse (Lauren Bowles, How to Get Away with Murder). The Big Easy's nocturnal chaos then awaits, and Bourbon Street's specifically, as does instantly intrigued drug dealer Fuzz (Ed Skrein, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) and a determined but decent cop (Craig Robinson, Killing It). With opportunistic pole-dancer Bonnie Belle (Kate Hudson, Music), Mona thinks she finds an ally. With her new pal's kind-hearted latchkey kid Charlie (Evan Whitten, Words on Bathroom Walls), she finds a genuine friend as well. Amirpour's movies sport a kinetic feel that's as natural to them as breathing is to watching audiences. Her love of movement shines through as brightly as moonlight, too — and Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon is another glowing example. Directed with style and boldness to spare, this is a garish, on-the-go, howling-at-the-sky kind of southern Gothic horror flick, purposefully and strikingly so. Slinking along with it is inescapable, whether Mona is unleashing her supernatural skills, navigating the French Quarter's hustle-and-bustle nighttime vibe, or wholesomely dreaming of a safer future. First, though, Mona has to break out of the bayou-adjacent facility she's been forced to call home, which happens in a grim, revenge-seeking, attention-grabbing fashion. The aforementioned nurse usually spits insults the straightjacketed, catatonic Korean detainee's way, including while clipping her toenails. Then the inmate snaps back into focus — maybe the moon that's stirred her? — and uses her gifts to wreak havoc. Without touching the nurse, or anyone else she imposes her will upon throughout the movie, Mona can take control of their bodies. There's no flesh-swapping (another spin on Freaky Friday, this isn't); here, via voodoo-esque physical manipulation, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon's main figure waves her hands or nods her head, then whoever's in her gaze does as she directs. That's a skill that comes in handy once she's out on her lonesome, meandering the city barefoot with threats lurking. It's also a talent that Bonnie observes during a fast-food store car park catfight, with Mona saving her bacon. Deciding that those telekinetic capabilities can be put to cunning, canny and profitable use — look out, strip-club patrons — Bonnie is swiftly offering up her companionship, and her home, although the metal-loving Charlie warns their new houseguest to be wary. Even if obvious nods to Alice in Wonderland weren't baked into the production design, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon would play like a fairy tale (a sweaty, seedy, go-where-the-night-takes-you fairy tale, but a type of fairy tale nonetheless). Its namesake wanders through an otherworldly realm, gets caught in perilous situations, learns lessons and benefits from something akin to magic — aka those just-awakened powers — to mosey forward. Thanks to the movie's moral code, she only deploys her paranormal prowess on folks who deserve it, or uses it to save herself, when the decision to bust out the mind control is hers alone. At its core, the film can be that straightforward. That said, it also stems from a director with a history with deceptive simplicity. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night was about exactly what its title describes, after all, and yet it was also filled with oh-so-much more. Starting with easy-to-spot scaffolding, then building a glisteningly distinctive, eagerly detailed flick that couldn't have been crafted by anyone else: that's one of Amirpour's own super skills. Plenty of that pivotal talent comes through visually here, with gloriously atmospheric and neon-soaked help from Hereditary and Midsommar cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski. Indeed, anyone who thinks that style can't also be substance, can't sweep viewers into a film's mood and can't anchor everyone watching in a character's headspace, should be motivated to rethink their position. Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon's manic dance through New Orleans after dark is that immersive — and that means something. As thrust across the screen with scuzzy yet giddy flair, and set to a mesmerising soundtrack as well, this spirited picture proves as keen as can be to skip along with people, survivors all of them, that society usually casts aside. Speaking of casts: Jeon's magnetic performance is worth erecting an entire movie around, so Amirpour has. Quietly spoken but infinitely expressive in every look and move — and brimming with mystique — the film's lead is hypnotic; understanding why Charlie and Fuzz are so drawn to Mona isn't hard for a second. Young Whitten helps give Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon its sweetness, and a loveable odd-couple buddy-flick centre. Robinson is unsurprisingly effective and engaging as a cop with compassion, and also part of an immensely amusing chase scene. And opposite almost anyone other than Jeon, the mesh singlet-wearing Hudson would steal the show, revelling in getting trashy but remaining savvy. She takes a dauntless swing and it pays off; so does Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon on both counts.
Spending time with your loved ones is what Christmas is all about, but the annual occasion also encompasses many other elements. Enjoying a few festive drinks, exchanging gifts and eating your way through a feast are all on the list, as are marvelling at festive ornaments and peering up at a tree. And when it comes to both food and decorations, plenty of folks take both areas very seriously. Every time that December 25 rolls around, are you obsessed with having (and devouring) the perfect dessert? Are you the type of person who goes much further than simply decking the halls with boughs of holly (and tinsel, lights and other trimmings)? If so, then you might want to add Black Star Pastry's new cherry Christmas tree cake to your must-have list. From the folks that gave the world that famed, super-Instagrammable strawberry watermelon cake, it's a 35-centimetre dessert that resembles a snow-dusted Christmas tree, is obviously edible, and will also look rather striking sitting in the middle of your table as part of your festive spread. Available in both Sydney and Melbourne — at Black Star Pastry's Newtown, Rosebery, Moore Park and St Kilda stores — the cake is covered in white chocolate and vanilla mousse, and adorned with edible decorations. So, it definitely looks the part. Inside, you'll find many a treat, starting with a base of puffed rice, candied orange and milk chocolate crunch base. From there, it's layered with lemon and yoghurt sponge, citrus marmalade, praline crunch, cherry compote made with cherry wine, tea jelly and cherry mousse. The cake serves 10–15 people — or fewer if you're keen on giving yourself one or more hefty slices. It'll set you back $150, and there are only a limited number available, so getting in quick is recommended. To get your hands on one, you'll need to place your order online, then pick it up in the two days immediately before Christmas. [caption id="attachment_793973" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Chloe Dann[/caption] Black Star Pastry's cherry Christmas tree cake is available to order online until 4pm on Tuesday, December 22, to pick up on either Wednesday, December 23 or Thursday, December 24. Images: Chloe Dann.
This techno-call to arms comes from self-professed dorks “doing strange things with electricity”. There's something appealing about Dorkbot's epigram, especially when we consider the predictable behaviour electricity is made to perform: it is generated at power stations, sent through the grid, directed into our homes, and used without much thought or reflection. Like most things that satisfy our needs with the least amount of effort, electricity is often forgotten as the skeleton inside almost all of our movement, communication and entertainment. Dorkbot, an eclectic group of organisms working as artists, electricians, engineers, software developers and hermits, comes together to stage various experiments and applications of electricity that are not as established or readily accepted as a flick-of-the-switch. So, if you're wondering how else you might utilise your computer, or what secret potential a desk lamp might have, Dorkbot welcomes you to join the circuit at this group exhibition curated by Dorkbot Sydney 'Overlord' Pia van Gelder, featuring work by Warren Armstrong, Tega Brain, Samuel Bruce, Melissa Hunt, Lukasz Karluk and Gavin Smith.
It is a testament to Chippendale's final stage of gentrification that the old working class suburb is not only home to several ARIs and commercial galleries, but now houses a big shiny contemporary art institute, The White Rabbit Collection. One of several new private foundations that are opening up across the country, the purpose-built site houses the extensive and evolving collection of contemporary Chinese art belonging to billionaire Judith Neilson and her family. With digital media, hyperrealism, miniature worlds made of dust, strobe lighting, photo documentation of menstruation, and an abundance of bright, high-gloss finishes on oversized sculptural works of bronze, fibreglass and porcelain, the collective mood is one of irreverence and exuberance. It was not so long ago that the world started to take notice of the new generation of artists who had grown up in China with comparative peace and prosperity, as well as urban landscapes saturated with commodities and advertising. It has now become cliche to speak of 'China's New Cultural Revolution', but it is clear that art thrives in times of change, and these artists are capturing the energy and ambivalence of their rapidly transforming society. Embracing individualism and breaking away from the old-world values of generations past, many of these artists also evoke a quiet melancholy for lost tradition. The collection suggests that Chinese artists today often dip into their rich history and employ traditional craftsmanship or reference ancient mythology and aesthetic values. But The White Rabbit is all about the now, and the future. All the works in the collection were created after 2000, and they confirm we're going to be seeing a lot more from Chinese artists in the years ahead. Image: He Jia, Apple In Love (detail), 2006, acrylic on canvas, 200x320cm
If money is truly no object for you, then look no further than New Year's Eve at Quay. Dinner at this award-winning harbourside restaurant generally goes for $290, so it's no surprise New Year Eve's on the doorstep of the Harbour Bridge isn't cheap. A reservation will set you back $2000 or the price of a 1999 Nissan Pulsar. Included in the price is an unforgettable view of the fireworks, champagne and canapés on arrival, plus a seven-course menu from Executive Chef Peter Gilmore with paired wines by Head Sommelier Shanteh Wong. Maybe $2000 a head feels a bit excessive to you. If so, you can head up to Quay's level four Green Room, where you'll be treated to a five-course meal from Gilmore, as well as the complimentary champagne and harbourside views. The Green Room's $1400 price tag still makes it one of the year's pricer New Year's affairs, but if you're looking to splurge after the year that has been, this might just be what you're looking for. Images: Nikki To
If good things come to those who wait, then three-storey beachfront haunt Manly Greenhouse must be destined for greatness. The hotly anticipated venue has launched, months after its original April opening date, and a whole four years since the site last saw customers as the former Shore Club Hotel. The venue's opening in two stages, with the ground-floor Greenhouse and the Rooftop first up. Next month will then see the launch of the middle level, which will be home to a sit-down restaurant named The Grill. In its entirety, the multi-faceted waterfront destination has space for a whopping 400, boasting a foliage-heavy coastal-style fit-out by award-winning studio Luchetti Krelle. Expect a super lush setting befitting the name, including some pretty special collaborative efforts from illustrator Beci Orpin and the greenery experts at The Plant Room. Downstairs, The Greenhouse is your go-to for casual eats at any time of day. The menu's got a modern Italian bent, starring pizzas done in the woodfire ovem, and pasta dishes like pappardelle with slow-cooked brisket. Other bites might include the likes of crab bruschetta, a bone-in grass-fed Riverina sirloin, and mushroom and provolone arancini served with garlic aioli. The cocktail lineup's another nod to Italy, starring classics like the negroni, an Aperol spritz and the Cafe Frizzante, a blend of sparkling water, cold brew, vermouth and Campari. A sprawling selection of Aussie wines sits alongside a few key Italian varietals, and two Hope Brewhouse collaborations headline a crafty list of beers. One level up, The Grill's food offering will be guided by the kitchen's charcoal grill, matched with a largely natural wine lineup curated by Lo-Fi Wines co-founder James Audas. And the icing on this cake is the rooftop, where panoramic ocean views and a healthy dose of greenery prove a breezy backdrop for signature cocktails, toasted sandwiches and an edit of bar snacks from the menu downstairs. Looks like the Steyne has some competition. The first stage of Manly Greenhouse is now open at 36-38 South Steyne, Manly. The ground floor will open from 11.30am daily, while the rooftop will be open from 3pm. We'll let you know when The Grill has an opening date. Updated: October 2, 2018.
Surry Hills was a very different place in 1985. The grime was starting to wash away and a shiny new cosmopolitan suburb was taking shape. A young Brett Whiteley purchased a humble warehouse just off Crown Street and converted it into a studio, where he lived and worked until his death in 1992. Two decades on, the Brett Whiteley Studio continues to be a much-loved part of Sydney’s art scene. Alongside exhibitions that showcase the artist’s best work, the preservation of his studio and living area provides fascinating insights into his personal and professional life. In celebration of Whiteley’s long legacy, a major open day will be held on Saturday, February 21. The event will feature a handful of talks, including Wendy Whiteley in conversation with Wayne Tunnicliffe, head curator at the Art Gallery of NSW. Publisher and writer Lou Klepac will discuss the importance of drawing in Whiteley’s practice, and artist Ben Quilty will speak about the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship (of which he is a former winner).
Capitalism has had a bit of a bad rap lately. Its current problem goes something like this: capitalism means growth, and for economies to grow people must buy things, and for people to buy things they have to need things. If they don’t need things, someone has to convince them they do. Paying for these new desires costs money, and if there’s no money someone has to supply credit. And when regular schmos have easy access to credit, along comes a housing bust and two global financial crises: when governments act strangely socialist, and start buying banks. Up until that point it was semi-sensible to argue that capitalism was a meritorious system where gains and losses alike are borne by those taking the risks. Fair’s fair. Nowadays the argument is slightly more nuanced: individuals can lose, but banks can’t. Even before the days of such curious economic shenanigans, Arthur Miller saw the capitalist dream for what it was; a dream. The notion that taking a risk, working hard and thinking positively will lead to great success, otherwise known as the American Dream, turns out to be a great way of making poor people hate themselves for failing to lift themselves up out of their station in life. Willie Loman is one such poor man, who tries his hardest to believe but is unable to reconcile himself to his fate. He has worked hard, worked honestly, been loyal to the company and yet he can’t pay his bills. Death of a Salesman is not losing relevance any time soon. Australia may be weathering the economic storm better than other developed countries, but the feeling of being let down by the system is still present. It makes sense then to set the tale in contemporary Australia, as Simon Stone has done in this excellent production at the Belvoir St Upstairs. The only shortcoming of this approach is that the actors sometimes struggle to make Miller’s wonderful American vernacular flow in their native Australian accents and references to American time and place are out of joint. It’s a bit of a having and eating of cake situation, but is preferable to a complete Aussie rewrite. The strength of this production is its simplicity. The design team including Ralph Myers (set), Stefen Gregory (sound) and Alice Babidge (costume) have exercised restraint so that the actors can tell the story clearly. And tell it they do. The performances are consistently engaging, with Patrick Brammall giving us a particularly tender and broken Biff. Colin Friels has outdone himself in this production - he’s brittle, humorous and horrifyingly mortal. Pip Miller’s warm, no-nonsense characterisation of Willie’s neighbour Charley serves to highlight the stubborn pride and delusion that are Willie’s downfall. There’s a strong sense of ensemble in the cast, with some fabulous transitions between present and past. A masterpiece like Death of a Salesman can withstand all sorts of treatment, and thankfully this production is sensible enough to let it stand on its own. Death of a Salesman's Belvoir season, running until August 19, has sold out. The show will return for an encore season from October 23 to November 3 at the Theatre Royal on King Street, Sydney. Tickets are now on sale here.
The School for Wives tells the story of Arnolde (John Adam), an egoist who buys a four-year-old girl and has her brought up in a sheltered convent in the hope of breeding a perfectly submissive wife. It turns out she has her own mind (or hormones) and falls for another man (Meyne Wyatt). Director Lee Lewis has set her slapstick version of Molière's 1662 comedy in the 1920s. It has been translated by Justin Fleming and has been touring many corners of Australia since June this year. The adaptation is an entertaining piece of frippery. Harriet Dyer playing Agnes stands out as a comic champion, and supporting characters Alan (Andrew Johnston) and Georgette (Alexandra Aldrich), the house help, are also a tight comic duo. Adam's performance as Arnolde is really the powerhouse of the show, driving the story with indefatigable energy and commitment. Mark Jones, providing an eclectic mix of music to accompany the shenanigans, shows off some impressive skills and gives a generous performance. Designer Marg Horwell has come up with a scrappy, unfinished, and dysfunctional set, presumably as a joke. The joke goes a bit far though and the result is simply a ridiculous set, where a piece of enormous scaffolding which is used only twice takes up half the stage. The moveable white panels similarly clutter the space and block audience views for no reason. Bell Shakespeare's thing is to bring Shakespeare and other classics to as many Australians as possible. It's a noble and worthy mission. The only problem with that project, in this particular instance, is that Lewis and Fleming seem to have taken accessibility to mean simple. There is no need to explain away everything for the audience, no matter who they are. Excellent theatre can also be completely baffling. Watching this show is similar to abiding that uncle at Christmas lunch explaining each of his manifold terrible jokes. Lee Lewis has likened Molière to Ricky Gervais elsewhere, and the cringe level in The School for Wives is certainly high. I have a hunch though, that part of the cringe in this production is the good old cultural cringe we Australians are so friendly with when it comes to classics. The translation into Australian vernacular reads as shy rather than sharp. That said, there’s nothing wrong with a piece of pure entertainment, and let's face it, the dance finale is fabulous. Tireless winking and nudging aside, it's an amusing night at the Opera House.
One of my fondest theatre memories in Sydney is of Allsopp & Henderson’s The Jinglists at the Old Fitz in winter with a laksa, beer, and show deal they had going on back then. It was hilarious and sad and an absolute bargain. Its creators, Warwick Allsopp and Tamlyn Henderson, have come up with another pearler in Pork Stiletto, but sadly there's no more laksa. The Old Fitz is the best pub in Sydney and houses some of the city's best theatre, but the new food is not up to scratch. This doesn't have much to do with the show of course, but if Sydney is going to maintain a healthy independent theatre culture, it needs places like the Old Fitz to provide a whole evening, not just a show. This requires laksa. Or some other excellent food. To the play. Sex is a funny topic generally, but what's really funny is sex with trees, toasters, and crustaceans. Pork Stiletto follows postgraduate psychologist Emma (Louisa Mignone) and her colleague Damon (Tamlyn Henderson) as they conduct unauthorised field research on the topic of paraphilia — the broad term for sexual practices that deviate from the garden variety. I wondered if some of the terms were made up, like Gary Larson's fictional 'anatidaephobia' (the fear that somewhere, somehow a duck is watching you) or Wallace and Gromit's 'anoraknophobia'. It turns out that autonepiophilia is a bona fide fetish, and Briallen Clarke makes an alarmingly good transition from adult lady to adult baby. Warwick Allsopp's characterisation of a gentleman mechanophile is heartbreaking when he sees that his beloved toaster responds more to visitor Damon than him. Before you get too disturbed, I should point out that the show is hilarious and there’s a whodunnit plot running alongside the tutorial in paraphilia. The design elements also contribute to a rollicking night in the theatre, with some pretty saucy sound design from James Collins and scary thriller lighting from Jack Preston.
Wrecking by Dan Giovannoni is a local tale about local woes. Sydney is a city of two worlds, where the seedy and gentrified live side by side in many parts. Woolloomooloo, the setting of Wrecking, is home to a wealthy elite seeking proximity to the harbour as well as the homeless taking shelter at Talbot Place, a stone's throw from one of Sydney's best theatres, the Old Fitz. This new work from Giovannoni is inspired by a true event. In 2003 a group of men dressed in long black coats attacked a number of homeless people at Talbot Place. Giovannoni has distilled this horrific moment into the story of five characters' lives leading up to the event. Wealthy couple Alana (Kimberley Hews) and Miles (Matt Hopkins) exist in parallel to the street kid duo of Lexie (Amanda McGregor) and Ned (Paul Blenheim). Bodyguard Van (Peter Maple) bridges both worlds. Ned has an obsession with the ocean, and in between prostituting himself and passing out on the pavement, he goes swimming in the harbour. The ocean acts as a leveller in this story — the wealthy may own the houses, but Ned can still go swimming. Indeed, his moments of freedom all revolve around water. A sequence in which he stands in the rain, face upturned is a moving moment from Blenheim. He dreams of sharks and leaves fish at the end of the street, much to property developer Alana's consternation. Some of Giovannoni's characters are slightly simple; in particular, Alana is a bit of a cartoon version of a rich harpy, lacking a single redeeming feature. Miles is also the epitome of a melancholy uptight dentist. On the other hand, pregnant Lexie is a more believable character and McGregor brings her to life with full force. Gin Savage's direction is clean and simple, leaving the actors to themselves and Owen Phillips's sparse set assists. Nate Edmondson's sound design is powerful and used sparingly to great effect. One has only to walk along Cathedral and Bourke Streets, past the homeless of Woolloomooloo, down to the harbour full of speedboats to see that this city is a contradiction. Kudos to production company Fat Boy Dancing for bringing this to light. Even if the play makes too neat a distinction between the devious rich and the pious poor, it's a hefty story that has this bleeding-heart theatregoer looking for a worthy charity.
The Sea Project by Elise Hearst is part of Griffin's independent season, and the latest from director Paige Rattray's theatre company, Arthur (Dirtyland, Cut Snake). In this fable about migration, Eva (Meredith Penman) washes up on an Australian shore with an Eastern European accent and a trail of seaborne debris providing clues to her past. She is taken in by laconic carpenter, Bob, an archetypal Aussie bloke played with restraint and gravity by Iain Sinclair. When former lover and stage partner Maciek (played by the charismatic Justin Cotta) arrives on the scene, Eva is forced to remember submerged aspects of her past. The setting of time and place is intriguing. Hearst notes in the program that this timeless narrative of displacement is "just another boat story". Setting it in present-day Australia necessarily evokes current boat people, who are more likely to be from the Middle East than Eastern Europe. This is not a problem of fidelity so much as a contrast that provokes the uncomfortable question: how would we behave as a country if today's asylum seekers were European? The Griffin stage is a bit of a shrunken head of a theatre, and it's exciting to see how each new production solves the tiny size and kooky angles. In this production, designer David Fleischer's striking solution is to deck the stage with a dark, reflective material, which suggests a depth at once evocative of the sea and the darkness of Eva’s story. The impression of vastness is redolent of Richard Wilson's 1987 installation work, 20:50, involving a room half flooded with black sump oil. The dark, reflective surface enhances the story's undulations between reality, memory and fantasy. Hearst's writing is enigmatic. In a similar manner to Caryl Churchill, she manages to hide more of the story than she reveals, leaving empty spaces of narrative to the audience to solve. However, the character of Samuel, a happy young surfer type, is twee and his function in the play, other than finding Eva's washed-up possessions, is unclear. Travis Cardona playing him also seems a bit unsure as to what he's doing there. In contrast, Penman's performance as Eva is straight-up electrifying as she surges between the need to know her identity, and the opposing imperative to deny it in order to get by, embodied by Mephisto incarnate Maciek and steadfast Bob respectively. The piece holds fast to its fairytale structure, with any moments of happiness or reprieve serving only as stops on the way to, or from, some kind of horror, with the closing scene planting the seed of a lie. This is cryptic and satisfying theatre. Concrete Playground has two double passes to The Sea Project to give away. To be in the running, make sure you're subscribed to the mailing list then email hello@concreteplayground.com.au with your name and address. Photo by John Feely.
Don’t Take your Love to Town is one of the simplest shows of the year, and one of the most powerful. Leah Purcell and Eamon Flack have adapted Ruby Langford-Ginibi’s book by the same title into a one woman show, with guitar accompaniment, written by Nardi Simpson. They have whittled the book down to a kind of poetry interwoven with music. Purcell guides us through the difficult and colourful life of Ruby: a smart, funny Aboriginal woman who gave up the chance of going to teachers college in order to support her family. The story that follows is one of determination, tragedy and good humour. She describes her life at one point as the no-man’s land between mainstream white culture and traditional Aboriginal life. The audience sighed collectively when she explained how she gave up working with Charles Perkins at the Aboriginal Progress Association because her then partner told her she should be at home looking after the children. She was clearly an admirable woman and Purcell dignifies her life with humour, charm and gravity. Purcell has a beautiful singing voice and the soulful, old-time duets between her and Simpson give the play a sense of time as it travels through the decades up to 2011. Seeing theatre planed down to its most basic form is incredibly gratifying. It’s a bold undertaking on the part of Purcell, as she commands the space at downstairs Belvoir with nothing more than a little basic lighting, a guitar and a few paintings she places on the walls. I like German-inspired hipster theatre as much as the next person, but no amount of fluorescence, nudity and chinos can beat a moving story told candidly. Much like Steve Rodgers’ Food, that was also at downstairs Belvoir, this show opts for warmth and generosity over intellectual cool. On the evening that I saw the show, Purcell and Simpson were met with a standing ovation. The performance wasn’t schmick, it wasn’t perfect – there were a few times she forgot a line and had to be prompted and at one point she told a gentleman on his phone that it was “really annoying”, but the standing ovation was fitting – this is moving, honest theatre at its rawest. Photo of Nardi Simpson & Leah Purcell by Brett Boardman.
Looking to book your next getaway with that special someone? Don't look past Vaucluse, where Nielsen Park's Steele Point Cottage has reopened to the public. Set within Sydney Harbour National Park, the waterfront property offers a rare mix of sweeping harbour views combined with a true bushland getaway — all without leaving Sydney. Built in 1880 as a gunners' barracks and located on a headland that overlooks Sydney Harbour, the historic cottage has been recently restored. The refurbished one-bedroom has timber floors and furniture, white linens and pale yellow hues. There's a master bedroom with four-poster bed and a gold-trimmed bathroom with a freestanding ceramic bathtub — plus, separate kitchen, lounge and sun rooms. Outside, there's an expansive private terrace with a barbecue and dining table that overlooks the harbour. [caption id="attachment_712179" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Gareth Pickford[/caption] Once you're ready to leave your comfy surrounds, there's plenty of coast and bushland to explore, all within walking distance. Start with a harbourside walk along the Hermitage Foreshore Track — a 1.5 kilometre trail along the harbour foreshore which offers views of Shark Island, the Harbour Bridge and the grounds of the heritage-listed Strickland House. Then, once you're ready for a dip, head to Shark Beach, which is only 100 metres from the cottage. If you're keen for a meal out of the house, Nielsen Park offers plenty of private picnic spots to choose from, along with The Nielsen cafe, which overlooks Shark Beach. Bookings for Steele Point Cottage are now available via the National Parks website. Prices range from $380–580 per night. Images: Gareth Pickford and John Spencer.
Newly hatched Newtown bar Tandem lives up to its moniker in a multitude of ways, but, mainly, it speaks to the coming together of community that really makes a neighbourhood bar your local. "I was inspired by the level of togetherness I felt during my time working in bars in Copenhagen," explains owner Peter Lynn. "Something about riding your bike to a friendly café and having someone remember your order is both wholesome and satisfying." To that effect, the intimate Scandi-influenced cocktail bar boasts four distinct spaces, designed to feel cosy no matter how many people they're holding. There's the main bar, a comfy lounge dubbed the 'living room', an outdoor courtyard complete with fairy lights and an roomy upstairs 'loft'. Its vibe is comparable with that of Corridor, which sits just a few doors down on King Street. The thoughtful approach and community vibe extends its reach to the drinks offering, which shines a spotlight on passionate local businesses and producers. An environmentally conscious cocktail lineup features sips like the Lightly Buzzed, blending Adelaide Hills sparkling wine, Sydney's own Poor Toms Gin and eco-friendly sorbet from Gelato Blue down the street. Most of the bar's perishable ingredients get a second life, thanks to some clever upcycling in cocktails like the Thrift Shop Fizz, crafted with Scandinavian spirit Aquavit, lemon, tonic and a foam made of recycled rosemary and orange garnishes. Overall, it's a drinks list designed to inspire a sense of adventure and break you out of the ol' comfort zone. You'll find beers from female-led Two Birds Brewing on tap, an all Aussie selection of wines, and drink specials favouring the obscure over the tried-and-true. And things are sure to get extra interesting with the rotating Tandem Bike Crash cocktail, featuring some of the staff's favourite liquid experiments — head in now to try a questionable concoction of Monkey Shoulder Scotch and Mountain Dew reduction. Tandem is now open Wednesday to Sunday at 127 King Street, Newtown. Images: Newtown Photography.
The Sydney opera scene is dynamic, with our world-famous Opera House considered the home of opera, but it's not the only place to catch an epic opera in the city. No, some of the most impressive and enchanting performances happen across the water at Mrs Macquaries Point. And it's there that next month you'll find Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, an outdoor waterfront performance with room for additional extravagance. For the company's next title, it's bringing back a classic show that dates back to the early 20th century, Madama Butterfly. The story is that of Cio-Cio-San, a Geisha living in Japan who falls for a visiting American named Pinkerton. The two have a whirlwind romance that flies to great heights — but crashes and burns as quickly as its takeoff. It's described as an intimate ode to unrequited love, where devotion is met with disregard and disappointment. All this plays out on a stunning waterfront set, where costume changes, musical numbers and other delights of stagecraft add a new level to an already impressive production. To elevate one of Australia's most memorable outdoor events into a memorable outdoor evening, you can make use of pop-up bars and eateries that will be dotted along the shoreline of Mrs Macquaries Point and the Fleet Steps. There you can find exclusive and themed menus, VIP dining and a drink selection worthy of the opera. Illuminated by the lights of the harbour, the stage and a final dazzling fireworks display, it will make for a spectacular experience. Madama Butterfly comes to Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour on Friday, March 24 and plays nightly, 7.30-10.30pm until Sunday, April 23. For more information and to book tickets, visit the website.
On the outskirts of Paris, an epic electronic legend is working harder, better, faster and allegedly on a solo album. One half of Daft Punk, Guy-Manuel Homem-Christo, has been reported by French magazine Tsugi as working on his own solo release — and apparently Charlotte Gainsbourg's on board. Dates are in the dark at present, with the album actually yet to be announced. Tsugi have reported the presence of guests on the album, taking the liberty to confirm the appearance of fellow French legend Charlotte Gainsbourg. Yep. Formidable. The absence of Daft Punk co-captain Thomas Bangalter is a pretty Big Deal, but the pair have their own solo ventures from time to time — Guy-Man produced Kavinsky and Sébastien Tellier's albums and Waves compilations out on his own Crydamoure label. The first new material since last year's Grammy-blitzing album Random Access Memories, the album whisperings come with crossed fingers of an Australian return. We're all too aware this is absolute blue sky, but we'll keep shining up our helmets anywho. Via Tsugi and Your EDM.
The pitching of the Spiegeltent at the Entertainment Quarter at Moore Park is the best thing that’s ever happened to the place. In between the cinemas and nondescript restaurants, the little tent with its creaky wooden floorboards and velvet drapery is a bohemian haven filled with roaming carnies. Spiegelworld's EMPIRE premiered in New York in 2012 in Times Square, and it's certainly an all-American circus, beginning with Miss A in a Bubble (Lucia Carbines) clad in stars and stripes doing illicit contortions within a treacherously split Perspex dome. If, like me, your nerves are about as steely as a feather duster, you'll be squirming with joyful terror from the start. Odd-pair hosts Fanny (Anne Goldmann) and Oscar (Jonathan Taylor) interrupt the string of terrifying acts with gauche antics that are mostly shocking and sometimes funny. They haul a lovely man up on stage and do things to him. If you have a meek, amiable face, either sit up the back or change it — unless, of course, you think you'll enjoy salacious entreaties from a pair of strangers in front of other strangers. The pair squabble throughout and reach their artistic pinnacle in an episode involving an unholy exchange of masticated banana. A trio of Gorilla Girls (Kateryna Rudenko, Alona Stekolnikova and Alina Reutska) transport acrobatics to the strip club, making Olympic rhythmic gymnasts look like a bunch of squares. A pair of rollerblading daredevils, Polka Dot Woman and Blue Tarpoleon (Mariia Beseimbetova and Denis Petaov) proves that it is in fact possible for a man to roller-skate at lightning speed in a small circle whilst a woman swings from him by the neck without anyone dying. Who knew? Accompanying the action on stage is the voluptuous Miss Purple (Casey Jamerson), who belts out pop ballad after pop ballad, all attended by her trusty Brooklyn hipster on guitar, Moondog (John Shannon). Her rendition of Leonard Cohen’s First we Take Manhattan is great. Empire is running until February 11 in Sydney before making its way down to Melbourne's Crown Rooftop. Book a ticket and brace yourself.
Enron is an epic play that covers an epic true story — the rise and fall of American energy giant Enron Corporation, which went bankrupt in 2001. British playwright Lucy Prebble has turned the tale into a comedy, but a pretty depressing one. The judiciously placed direct-to-audience narrations purport that Enron was not an aberration but the birth of modern business. The play is anti-capitalist, but in a soothing way. Aside from a few angry outbursts, it tells the story as a history lesson. This production at the New Theatre, directed by Louise Fischer, is generally entertaining, with the portrayal of the Lehman Brothers as sycophantic twins by Gareth Cruikshank and David Todd stealing the show. They embody one side of the confidence cycle that allowed Enron to succeed for as long as it did. Cassandra Lee-Heschl playing Claudia gives a poised explanation of this phenomenon, using the analogy of an aeroplane that will only fly if all the passengers believe it will. As soon as one person has a doubt, it will crash. Heschl is a strong performer with a good Southern accent and the rare ability to wear an insanely short skirt with dignity. Prebble uses a number of symbolic devices to explain the confusing world of finance. Chief financial officer Andy Fastow (Nick Curnow) describes the smaller companies created to consume Enron's debt as Raptors, which are played as masked, winged creatures by Lisa Fletcher, Jorjia Gillis and Paige Leacey. Their deterioration from debt-hungry to chronically ill is a clear, humorous hook for the audience to hold on to as things get complicated. Sound designer Mehran Mortezaei and costume designer Virág Dózsa haven’t quite managed to bring back the glorious '90s in full force, but watching Peter Flett dance to La Bouche's 'Sweet Dreams' during a set change was very wonderful. Enron's demise is satisfying to watch, as its story is one of just retribution. But this is not the message Prebble would have us walk away with. In the final sequence, the cast stands as a chorus and explains that as long as businesses are savvy to regulatory loop holes and ensure that they are too big to fail, they won't. It’s an entertaining depiction of an unwieldy and gloomy topic.
Kit Brookman’s Small and Tired is a gentle consideration of the Oresteia. Orestes (Luke Mullins) returns home for the funeral of his father, Agamemnon, to find his sister Electra (Susan Prior) has moved to the suburbs and his mother Clytemnestra (Sandy Gore) is cold as ever. In a current day Australian suburb, the blows of the ancient tragedy are meted out softly. In both his writing and direction, Brookman renders the epic quotidian, which makes the whole palaver all the more ruinous. Instead of grand gestures, fidelities and obligations simply erode between characters. Just as the play reaches a particularly suffocating moment, Orestes describes to Clytemnestra how as a child he had imagined breaking out into the sky flying in a train — the tension here between desire and reality is almost unbearable. Brookman’s script uses the train as metaphor for the long, chugging thing that is life and the cadence of his script echoes that of a train. Brookman’s words patter downwards, just as footsteps have worn paths in Mel Page's set of dried out lawn. Tom Hogan's sound design is irritatingly soft, which only enhances the sense that these people exist in a vacuum, where fate was decided long ago and everyone is indeed small and tired. Lighting designer Verity Hampson and set designer Page have captured the airlessness of an Australian summer, but here there are no big blue skies, only a low, dark horizon and a feeling of claustrophobia that Orestes very understandably tries to escape. Electra's histrionic crisis midway through the piece initially seems to be an unprepared dramatic climax until we realise that this is but one moment in a long line of disappointments. Gore playing Clytemnestra delivers a devastating glance of casual disdain towards her daughter in this scene. Gore has an amazing face — her performance is upright and brazen. Mullins' performance as Orestes is exquisite, and he and Conroy achieve a moving, humorous depiction of love. The only odd note is Electra’s hapless Aussie husband, Jim (Paul Gleeson), a keen gardener and hopeless bore. The character provides some comic relief and makes Electra more believable as a stir-crazy suburban housewife, but for the most part he sits outside the narrative. Brookman and the rest of the team have created something delicate and true to life. Small and Tired is one long exhalation that will leave you gasping for air, in a good, cathartic kind of way.
Dance Better at Parties is a play about loneliness, intimacy and tango. As the piece is directed by Chunky Move's Gideon Obarzanek, I expected an experiment in form; a contrast between dance and drama. But Dance Better at Parties is simply a play with lots of dancing in it. Its premise is plain — middle-aged dad Dave (Steve Rodgers) has signed up for his free introductory dance class, at an unspecified suburban studio with dance instructor Rachel (Elizabeth Nabben). After some hesitation and effective salesmanship from Rachel, he signs up for his 12-week course, "tailored" to his dance needs, which is to dance better at parties. Despite his simple request, he becomes pretty adept at flamenco and busts out some fierce Latin jazz. Obarzanek devised the piece with his two actors, and it is disarmingly uncomplicated. We're invited in to the fairly banal world of a dance studio, where we enjoy the pair's flirtations and spats in a homely, comfortable setting. Designer Renee Mulder's unadorned set evokes suburban isolation but also a feeling of privacy. Lighting designer Benjamin Cisterne has opted to leave the house lights on at the start of the show, which makes it feel more like hanging out in a rehearsal room than going to a play. The entire piece feels a bit like watching a rehearsal process. There is merit in this sort of simplicity, but it would seem to lend itself more to dance, where gesture and words can float around in the abstract. This is not a dance piece though; it is a drama with a 'real-life' narrative and the simplicity reads as incompleteness. The story also has a number of red herrings in it, such as Rachel's seemingly ominous request for Dave's bank details and a moment in the dark where Rachel appears to be terrified of him. Devising a piece is surely as much about editing as adding and the show would benefit from the omission of these deviations. The picture of an uncoordinated, lonely man dancing is powerful enough. Steve Rodgers would be captivating reading the proverbial phone book and he certainly makes the show; in fact, its success as a piece of entertainment relies on him. He is a natural clown and has a capacity for pathos that is remarkable. The closing sequence in which he artlessly stares at us in a moment of dejection is acting at its finest. His performance is a joy to watch, but directorially the piece is slightly weak.
The transfixing terrain of Mads Mikkelsen's face has been cast against formidably frosty and inhospitable climes before, weathering mirroring weathering. Sporting a piercing and determined glint in his eye, the Danish acting great has previously surveyed the Scandinavian landscape, too, seeing possibility where others spot peril. It was true in Arctic, in Valhalla Rising and now in The Promised Land: there's no stare as mesmerisingly resolute as his. When Ludvig Kahlen, Mikkelsen's latest character, insists that he can do what no one else has done — to begin with: settling the heath on the heather-covered Jutland moorland and building a colony for the king, a feat considered virtually impossible in the mid-18th century — doubting him isn't a possibility for anyone in the movie's audience. The BAFTA-nominated Another Round star has danced in historical drama territory for his countryman director Nikolaj Arcel in the past as well, with the pair reteaming after 2012's Oscar-nominated A Royal Affair. A different king sits on the throne in this film, Frederick V instead of Christian VII; however, the regal shadow remains inescapable. This time, Mikkelsen and Arcel tell not of a doctor influencing a monarch and a country, but of a soldier aligning his quest for a better future with a sovereign's wish, and learning what it means to chase a dream only to realise that you need something less tangible. Kahlen's attempt to farm land considered barren is equally a battle against entitlement and arrogance thanks to his clash with Frederik de Schinkel (Simon Bennebjerg, Borgen), a cruel local magistrate who contends that the king's land is his own — and feels far enough away from Copenhagen for there not to be any consequences for his claim. A survivalist story, an underdog tale, an eat-the-rich narrative, a fierce repudiation of ill-earned senses of superiority, a journey of discovery: they all fertilise this potent Nordic picture, as do all of the hallmarks of a western. Jutland provides the plains. Kahlen and de Schinkel tussle over their conquering — one with what's best for the community in mind, the other only seeking their own power and glory. Based on Ida Jessen's 2020 book The Captain and Ann Barbara, The Promised Land isn't so simplistic as to make Kahlen the portrait of selflessness. Indeed, this isn't a naive film for a second. Instead, even with renown also on the line for its protagonist, it spies the vast chasm between the illegitimate son of a landowner and a servant who toiled in the military for 25 years to receive the title of captain and is now willing to keep scrapping to secure his lot in life, and the born-to-money and -means pomposity lorded over everyone in reach by someone that knows nothing of hard work, struggle and duty, and only of selfishly getting their own way. (Bastarden aka The Bastard is the movie's original Danish-language moniker.) The year is 1755 when Kahlen petitions Frederick V for the right to make what he can of the moors, a request only granted by the royal underlings because they think that the task is unattainable but it'll appease the king that an effort is being made. On the land itself, doubt also reigns supreme. Only the resident clergyman (Gustav Lindh, The Northman) shows any faith in Kahlen's mission. Finding workers to assist is also virtually impossible due to de Schinkel, who has the county cloaked in fear and its peasants indentured on his own turf. It's illegal for anyone to take on those who have fled the tyrant, but in the married Johannes (Morten Hee Andersen, Carmen Curlers) and Ann Barbara (Amanda Collin, Raised by Wolves), Kahlen takes a chance anyway. While it's also forbidden to enlist the Romani people, who first send the young Anmai Mus (debutant Melina Hagberg) to get pilfering on Kahlen's patch, that's another gambit soon made. Arcel has much to dig through in Anders Thomas Jensen's latest screenplay to star Mikkelsen — see also: Flickering Lights, Adam's Apples, After the Wedding, The Salvation, Men & Chicken and Riders of Justice — especially as de Schinkel keeps throwing his weight around as egotistical manchildren do, and as the ways in which exploitation, classism and racism shape the societal status quo push to the fore. With Kahlen, including as he gets caught between his new nemesis and the latter's Norwegian cousin Edel Helene (Kristine Kujath Thorp, Sick of Myself), the filmmaker makes a crucial storytelling choice, though: rarely peering far away from either Mikkelsen or the Danish scenery. Westerns fix their eyes on faces and frontiers because they're each sights that can unfurl an entire history in a mere look; in this feature's majestic imagery, which spans sweeping vistas and soulful close-ups alike, nothing says more than intently scrutinising its star and his surroundings. As classical as The Promised Land feels in an old-school, they-don't-often-make-them-like-this-anymore fashion — and with the route there proving more of a surprise than the destination as well — there's a slipperiness to Mikkelsen's involvement, too, thanks to a career spent playing everything from Bond antagonists and Hannibal Lecter to The Hunt's persecuted teacher. Even in a film with a clear villain that isn't his character, he isn't in the business of painting solely in black and white. In fact, nor should he when Kahlen can be stubborn, stern, beyond stoic, and quick to cast others aside in the name of settling the hearth and taking potato farming nearly as seriously as in The Martian at almost any cost. Absolutely nothing is formulaic about the feeling and complexity that Mikkelsen brings to a role, including this, one of his best performances — and again and again, he gives the screen the epitome of what a layered and complicated portrayal should be. With Collin and scene-stealing first-timer Hagberg especially, The Promised Land's lead has excellent on-screen company. In smaller but no less pivotal parts, each conveys perseverance and strength to match Kahlen's, as tinted with the added weight of being women, peasants and Romani in a time and place with no care for any of the above. This film's main trio, its makeshift family, inhabit an existence where little sprouts for those beyond the one percent that isn't tended to fastidiously, furiously and like their very being depended upon it. Among its many highlights, stepping reflecting the present bears plenty of fruit for this grand and gripping picture.
Joining the mish-mash of psychedelic vintage and art books that is Surry Hills on the first Saturday of the month, and the furniture and jewellery delights of Rozelle, and the deeply incredible things you can buy to eat at the Orange Grove Markets — smart money plays Sonoma, fruit and veg bargains and the green olives stuffed with almonds — and the sporadic record fair that happens near the Broadway shops, new(ish) kid on the market roster is the Young Australian Designers Market, a second and third Saturdays of the month affair at Paddington Town Hall. More markets! Yes! This one's 'thing' is fairly evident from its name: it is a market, at which young Australians sell things that they've designed; things that you can wear, or at least carry. It's a fashion and accessories for boys and girls kind of a deal, predominantly new stuff but with some curated vintage and a growing focus on things for those even younger than these young designers, so you can distract yourself by looking at teeny-tiny baby clothes and wonder exactly where the ethical line lies in dressing a child, because you probably shouldn't put them in costumes all the time, right, but, on the other hand, babies in costumes! Anyhow, it is official that I know about fashion because the shirt that I am wearing right now used to belong to a friend of mine who used to be a model and now hangs out in New York doing art and being amazing, so I bring to be bear upon this topic of a fashion market my weighty fashion opinion that you have a good chance of getting fashionable fashion bargains at this particular fashion market.
Ever wondered if Fernando Frisoni would be awkward shooting you for the Urban Style section if you were wearing something from his eponymous label? Found a design manifesto truly unironically enlightening? Broken down and cried in Incu or Pretty Dog? Justified why someone might pay $100 for a cotton tank with reeeeally well-shaped arm-holes? Admitted to any of the above? This sale will make you feel better. It's also handy for those who don't necessarily have borderline social dysfunctions on the topic of outfits but do like to wear things that are awesome. Life After Fashion present four days of up to 70 percent off excellent and innovative local designers, with sample pieces and things from previous collections up for grabs. They're the kind of clothes that'll stand up well to being in a gallery: basics that have magical powers of making you look totally relaxed but a shape you never realised you were, design statements encoded in critical theory, and seams and fabrics that come out of a magic technology future. Labels showing include sQ, Chronicles of Never, sixpack, myPetsQuare, Mogil and illionaire.
It's funny, you might think the crossover between people who love geek stuff and people who love art stuff would be small, but not so. GRAPHIC Festival at the Sydney Opera House has been proving the crude stereotypers of the world wrong for four years now with its melange of comics, animation, illustration, music, multimedia and storytelling. Not only does the festival pull audiences, it puts on some of the most new and daring events in the country, which in past years have included Gotye's live animated album preview for Making Mirrors and Elefant Traks' Dr Seuss-inspired concert. The headliners are here in abundance in 2013, and they're mainly drawn (ha) from the world of comics. The man most credited with introducing comics as a 'serious' medium and Pulitzer Prize winner for Holocaust-themed Maus, Art Spiegelman, will present a hybrid of slides, talk and music in a performance specially commissioned for the festival. The event, called WORDLESS!, will see Spiegelman share his own history while expounding on the depth comics are capable of. Same room, same day: Grant Morrison — legendary writer of such titles as Batman: Arkham Asylum, The Invisibles, New X-Men and All-Star Superman — will be in conversation with Gerard Way (former My Chemical Romance frontman, now award-winning comic artist). Morrison's not the only Arkham Asylum alumnus either; there's idiosyncratic artist Dave McKean. Best known for his collaborations with Neil Gaiman, he also designed the beasts in two of the Harry Potter films and created more than 150 album covers. And he makes music — six songs of which appear with three stories and a stack of images and film in 9 Lives, his Australian premiere performance during GRAPHIC. Also in the mix are Seth Green (Oz! Scott Evil!) and Matt Senreich of Robot Chicken; Wolverine and Swamp Thing co-creator Len Wein leading a workshop; The Incredibly Short Film Festival (it's GIFs, of course); The Cinematic Orchestra in full flight; and the Radio with Pictures team-up of homegrown artists and storytellers. They don't say it on their promo material, but what you should understand is that GRAPHIC is like arty Comic-Con, and you don't need to be an uber-fan to feel part of the party. There are few events quite like it in the world. Tickets for the festival are on sale on Friday, August 2, at 9am from the Sydney Opera House website.
Spice Temple's coveted mud crabs are back — but only until the end of June. If you've been dreaming of this share-focused special's return or simply have been seeking out a mud crab dish to get in on the hype, here's your chance. Due to popular demand, the top-shelf in-season crustacean has made its way back onto the menu for a limited time, and is prepared to order for $99. Until Sunday, June 30, you'll be able to order a hefty mud crab that's steamed, then tossed in a flavour-packed mixture sure to warm up bellies and accompanied by your choice of XO, ginger and shallot, or black bean and salted chilli sauces. With chef Andy Evans at the helm, the venue's ethos remains at the forefront of its menu, with only the best mud crabs selected and dished up. Image credit: Jason Loucas.
The Powerhouse Museum has plenty of weird and wonderful on offer during daylight hours. But things get even more adventurous with MAASive Lates, a monthly after-hours series featuring circus acts, extreme sideshows, go-go dancing, body art, catering by Black Star Pastry and more. The first event, titled 'Circus Follies', is happening on January 15. It's promising a circus extravaganza, set within the Powerhouse's Circus Factory exhibition. There'll be left-of-field circus performances from Phantasia, fire shows by Circaholics Anonymous, live music and a one hundred-year-old carousel that you can actually ride. And if you've been contemplating getting in touch with your inner circus, your participation is welcomed with opportunities to make articulated circus characters and dress up in provided costumes. The second MAASive Late, scheduled for February 26, and dubbed 'Queer Bigtop', is all about embracing Mardi Gras — with a circus-inspired approach. Heading up proceedings will be Sydney's legendary drag queen Prada Clutch, acting as ringmistress, while the soundtrack will be delivered by DJ Kitty Glitter, official DJ for the 2015 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival. By way of visual feast, there'll be outrageous tricks and extraordinary treats from Belladonna Brabazon and go-go dancing from the Go-Gettes. You're invited to get in on the action, with a drop-in go-go class running all night, and a game of drag queen bingo hosted by Conchita Grande. The third in the series, set for March 26 and named 'Undressed', heads away from the circus theme and towards, well, underwear. It'll be hosted within the Museum’s new exhibition, Undressed: 350 Years of Underwear in Fashion. Expect pole dancing, burlesque performances, live body art and a showcase from local lingerie designers. And, if you're keen to get creative, you'll be able to join the Museum’s lace experts for hands-on lace-making workshops. "In 2014, we presented a hugely successful Late Night at the Museum as part of the Sydney Design Festival, attended by over 600 people and attracting new audiences to the Museum whose interests were piqued at the after-hours antics on offer. In 2015, we're looking forward to making late nights part of our regular program," said Janson Hews, partnerships and festivals manager at the Museum of Arts and Applied Sciences. "MAASive Lates are specifically programmed with 18-35 year olds in mind, and we're thrilled to be partnering with some of Australia's finest live performers who will help bring our exhibitions to life after dark." MAASive Lates will be happening between 6pm and 9pm on January 15, February 26 and March 26 at Powerhouse Museum, 500 Harris Street, Ultimo. Tickets are $30 at door and $25 online. Combine Circus Follies and Queer Bigtop for $40.
It's no secret that the film industry isn't the most inclusive, accessible or safe space for women, one of the matters that the #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns have been addressing over the past six months. It's also a subject that Frances McDormand highlighted in her rousing best actress acceptance speech at this year's Oscars, when she had the whole world scrambling to look up two words: inclusion rider. The industry's gender imbalance not only encompasses the treatment of women involved in filmmaking in front of and behind the lens, however, but also the field of film criticism. Take Rotten Tomatoes, for example. If it's your go-to review aggregator, then you've probably noticed that the bulk of critics listed are men. Indeed, according to a 2016 study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, men outnumber women on the site by 73 percent to 27 percent. It's a topic that everyone from Jessica Chastain to Meryl Streep to Reese Witherspoon has drawn attention to in recent years, and now a new initiative is aiming to offer an alternative. That'd be CherryPicks, which will exclusively focus on female film critics. Expected to launch later this year, it'll provide "perspectives on film, tv, music, and more with reviews, ratings and high quality original content, all though a female lens," as its website explains. "This is where you can find out what women like, and what they don't," the site continues, in an aim to more accurately represent the full spectrum of critical voices. The project spearheaded by director, producer, actor and distributor Miranda Bailey and author, producer and entrepreneur Rebecca Odes. Speaking to IndieWire, Bailey noted the need for the film industry to not only change to "include more minorities and females on both sides of the camera", but to "change the perceived desires of consumers" as well. "How can we possibly change what consumers consider good and worthy content if the majority of critics who tell them what to want are predominately older white males?" she asked. CherryPicks will rate films on its own scale, ranging from a 'Bowl of Cherries' to 'The Pits', while also analysing each title's representation of women and considerations appropriate to women according to its own 'Cherry Check' system. In addition, it'll feature newsletters, podcasts, lists, articles and more, and spotlight women — critics, filmmakers, actors, writers and other creatives — working across the movie business. Via IndieWire.
For nearly a century, the Capitol Theatre has stood on Melbourne's Swanston Street — initially playing host to silent films that were preceded by live theatre productions before each screening, and also accompanied by Australia's first large Wurlitzer organ. First opening in 1924, it's a crucial part of the city's entertainment history; however since 2014, the space has remained closed. Owner RMIT is eager to change that, launching a crowdfunding campaign to restore the theatre and put it back into use. With $20 million in restoration and improvement works mooted, the university is seeking to supplement the Victorian Government's pledged $2.5 million with $2 million in public funding — with every dollar donated to be matched by RMIT. And, for folks who give $250 or more, their name will be featured on the building's wall. Running since late 2017, the campaign aims to "give Melbourne a spectacular and world famous space to house festivals, film premieres and screenings, concerts and conferences" — according to the appeal's website — plus learning spaces for RMIT students. It's the latest chapter in the theatre's eventful lifespan, which has seen it closed in the 60s, renovated to turn its stalls-level seating into the Capitol Arcade, and then remodelled again when RMIT took over in 1999. If you've ever stepped inside the space — which was used as a venue for the Melbourne International Film Festival as recently as 2014 — you will have noticed the decor. Designed by architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, who also designed the city of Canberra, its striking, geometric-shaped, light-filled ceiling attracts as much attention as anything on the venue's stage or screen. The entire structure, aka Capitol House, has been on the Victorian Heritage Register since 1989 — with the Capitol Theatre pre-dating both the nearby Forum and Regent Theatre. For more information, visit the Capitol Theatre campaign website. For images of the site, visit the campaign blog. Images: Michelleyesf / Stephen Bain / Adam Carr.
Matt Moran's Woollahra venue Chiswick is welcoming the warmer weather and its new Head Chef Taylor Cullen by throwing a series of picnics on the lawn of its lush green outdoor space. The picnics are taking place over four dates between Saturday, November 27 and Saturday, December 11 and will offer Sydneysiders the opportunity to sample Chiswick's new spring menu as well as Bombay Sapphire gin cocktails in the sun. "Our spring menu is bursting with flavour and life, and we're really excited for the community to come in and try it," says Cullen. On offer at the picnics will be a spread of Chiswick small plates including woodfired flatbread, Vannella burrata with heirloom tomatoes and olive tapenade, Milawa camembert and strawberry and passionfruit trifle. Tickets are $139 per person and can be booked in groups of four to six. Included in the ticket price is all of the day's food, picnic gear for the day supplied by To Dine For Picnics, and a cocktail on arrival. [caption id="attachment_832887" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Chiswick's spring menu, Steven Woodburn[/caption]
Pier One's harbourfront igloos are back. And, this time, one of them has its very own hot tub. Yes, a hot tub. So if you've been hankering after wintry waterside drinks — but aren't quite willing to brave the cold — this should be a very viable option. In case you're wondering, the igloos aren't made of snow and ice. They're transparent dome-shaped structures that you can hire for yourself and up to 15 mates, as long as you're willing to indulge in a few cocktails, glasses of Champagne and snacks from the Igloos on the Pier menu (you have to spend $150 for one hour in the tub or $300 for three hours. The hire comes with fluffy robes, slippers and a change room, and regular non-hot tub igloos are available too. During Vivid, the igloos are lighting up in blues, red and pinks. Plus, there's an installation inspired by the native Australian honey bee, which hopes to raise awareness of the creature's precarity.
Writers' festivals are getting more and more 'with it' these days. People wear shirts with hashtags on them, you're encouraged to live-tweet questions for authors on panels, and the events are no longer held at local library reading rooms, but cool back-alley warehouse spaces. The kind of place where everyone's wearing black-rimmed glasses and talking about Tao Lin. All this is old news now however, as the Emerging Writers' Festival has just announced the creation of the world's first exclusively online writers' festival to take place in February 2014. While writers' festivals once lamented the damning effects of the internet and digital technology on the written word, the Digital Writers' Festival will be a 12-day celebration of it. Digital publishing, eBooks, alt lit, fan fic, webcams and Twitterbots — the publishing industry and the nature of writing itself has transformed dramatically in even the past few years, and DWF is going to be a dedicated space in which to examine it. This also has a huge impact on accessibility. Do you live in the Northern Territory and always feel jealous when you see pictures of the Melbourne Writers' Festival? Maybe you live in Melbourne, but never felt quite cool enough to head along to the events. Perhaps you tried, but got lost looking for the event down a laneway? The DWF will be the first truly accessible festival for a vast array of people all over country, and more than that, the world. Read our Twitterview with DWF director Connor Tomas O'Brien here. Update 29 January: The full program for the Digital Writers' Festival is now up on the site.
It's the movie that was always going to be made, the re-enacted version of one of the most heartbreaking small-town murder mysteries and biggest miscarriages of justice the United States has seen. It's also the movie that never should have been made, for the devastating true tale as told in four documentaries now — the Paradise Lost trilogy, and West of Memphis — can't be embellished, fictionalised or bested. Yet exist Devil's Knot does, a cinematic facsimile of the originals, albeit with an ample dose of star power. Though the potency of the facts remains, the sensationalist and the sentimental combine in an attempt to craft a cautionary case of tragedy crippling a community not just in its initial appearance but in the way it is then handled. Two trios drive the story: eight-year-old schoolboys who meet a gruesome fate, and teen outsiders marked for their difference. In the wake of the crime that rocked Arkansas, panicked locals start braying for the blood of Damien Echols (James Hamrick), Jason Baldwin (Seth Meriwether) and Jessie Misskelley Jr (Kristopher Higgins). For private investigator Ron Lax (Colin Firth), discrepancies complicate the reported information. As grief-stricken mother Pamela Hobbs (Reese Witherspoon) watches on, the untimely demise of her son becomes a circus fuelled by a determination to convict and a disregard for competing theories. Alas, though dead children, blamed adolescents and bureaucratic bungling make for strong material, Devil's Knot places its emphasis on Lax and Hobbs, unconvincing figures of focus rendered as observers, not participants. Their sympathetic access point isn't needed given the strength of what lies beneath, nor are Firth and Witherspoon's overplayed performances. Another issue plagues the adaptation of Mara Leveritt's 2002 text of the same name: only relating part of the puzzle. Many real-life developments occurred after the book's publication; that the outcome is relegated to the film's endnotes robs it of its conclusion. With a wealth of data to draw upon, something had to give, and the problem of recreating oft-seen scenes was always going to be difficult to overcome. Director Atom Egoyan and his writers — Deliver Us From Evil duo Paul Harris Boardman and Scott Derrickson — just can't strike the right balance, indulgent in what they include and troubled by what remains absent. What emerges in Devil's Knot is an unfortunate example of the right pedigree and intentions making the wrong moves, on a subject so scrutinised that any missteps would always stand out. With an auteur's eye on an inflammatory case, and with well-known actors wringing importance from the situation, the film wants to exemplify the kind of haunting deliberation of complexity the story demands, but its lingering gaze — narratively, emotionally and aesthetically — remains superfluously tied to its surface. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ofkn4zYrF5U
With the chill factor turned up to the max and our after-work hours firmly in the dark, it's a good thing Sydney Living Museums is dedicated to enlivening our nighttime exploits. The historic collective is back with another instalment of After Dark, the late-night series that welcomes live music and art to the Hyde Park Barracks. For one night this June, the UNESCO World Heritage-listed site will hold a spotlight to the creative genius of Daniel Crooks. The celebrated contemporary artist — who mostly works in photography, video and sculpting — created Boundary Conditions as the third piece in Sydney Living Museums' annual round of art commissions. Wander as you take in the immense video installation, suspended on a monolithic screen in the Barracks' forecourt. Then, grab a drink and settle in to hear the conceptual foundation and artistic process from the maker himself, as he delves into the work with Sydney Living Museums CEO Adam Lindsay. More good-time vibes will be served via performance pieces throughout the night. A lineup curated by Byron Scullin — the Boundary Conditions audio composer — will ensure attendees are in for a truly one-off night of creative festivities at the historic site. The music line-up is jam-packed with artists, Chris Abrahams from The Necks, Clare Cooper, Robbie Avenaim, Gail Priest, Alex White and Nina Buchanan, all to make an appearance. Worried about your mid-week endurance levels? Energy is sure to remain high with tasty bites from Nighthawk Diner and cocktails mixed by the beverage aficionados at Archie Rose. If you like to dive deep into creative form — and prefer to do so with a drink in hand and a killer soundtrack delivered live — the June After Dark offering is the winter warmer for you. And if you're a member of Sydney Living Museums (or you sign up at the checkout), you can score a sneaky discount on tickets too. After Dark will hit the Hyde Park Barracks from 5–9pm on Thursday, June 30. Head to the website to book your tickets. Top image: Joshua Morris
Time to update your MySpace status and rock out to that mix CD your friend made, The Kooks and Julian Casablancas have just announced they're both coming to Australia. While we're currently quietly chuffed by the news — they're both still indie greats — our 2006 self is absolutely losing their shit. We're going to elbow our way to the front row and finally make that eye contact we've been pining for since first hearing 'Someday' on our Discman. Though there are no current plans for solo shows, Casablancas has been added to the lineup for Falls Festival and Southbound with his side project The Voidz. Trading in the polished guitar riffs of The Strokes for a more raw punk sound, Casablancas and The Voidz have released their new album Tyranny just this week which will no doubt make up the majority of his festival sets. It's not all that often that Casablancas makes the trip down under, so we've secretly got our fingers crossed for some of his older work to hit the stage. In an ideal world we'd get treated to the stripped back demo version of 'I'll Try Anything Once', but we'd also settle for some solo stuff from Phrazes For the Young. The new collaboration is fine and all, but post-punk is admittedly hard to swoon over. Alternatively, The Kooks are just as boppy and Brit-poppy as you remember them on your car radio on the way to high school roll call. Their most recent album Listen has seen a little electro added to the mix, but the tunes are as upbeat as ever. Plus it's still super fun to sing along while emulating Luke Pritchard's accent. Though they visited just last year for Groovin' The Moo, The Kooks will be embarking on a full national tour in January 2015. Supported by The Griswolds and Catfish & the Bottlemen, they'll be hitting up Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne with enormous (mostly) all ages shows. Sure, it's been close to a decade since you added 'Naive' or 'Seaside' to your MySpace playlist. Yes, Julian Casablancas has lost a little of that babyface rockstar charm. That shouldn't stop you doing a favour for your 2006 self and buying a ticket. You won't even need to pull a double shift at Maccas to raise the cash this time! Julian Casablancas December 28 - January 1 — Falls Festival Lorne (SOLD OUT) December 29 - January 1 — Falls Festival Marion Bay December 30 - January 3 — Falls Festival Byron Bay (SOLD OUT) January 3 - 4, 2015 — Southbound Festival The Kooks January 17, 2015 — Belvoir Amphitheatre, Perth. January 20, 2015 — Hordern Pavilion, Sydney. January 23, 2015 — Riverstage, Brisbane. January 24, Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne. All tickets on sale 9am Friday, October 3 via Ticketmaster.
The only logo to rival 'I Heart NY' on the t-shirts of hip kids worldwide is that of DFA: a lightning bolt with three capital letters in the middle, which looks a little bit like your 5 year-old brother might have drawn it. This is the visual aesthetic of DFA records. Raw, energetic, direct and potent, a symmetrical reflection of their intelligent, analog audio. The one responsible for this is Michael Vadino, a New York-based artist, who began by designing a DFA party invite and soon was art directing the whole shebang. Vadino is also responsible for this exhibition in a more direct way - namely, 'digging around in closets' to collect the artworks. The exhibition includes the original sketch of the infamous logo, DFA tour posters, invites and artwork, and a selection of James Murphy's own pieces. There will also be an emphasis on legendary music-makers LCD Soundsystem, to coincide with their final album, This Is Happening, and tour. Whether or not you managed to hunt down tickets to the Sydney show this week, make certain you don't miss this. Here is a sneak preview of some of the work on display. Image: courtesy of Michael Vadino, DFA Records and EMI Records
Splendour might be done and dusted, but that doesn't mean you have to pack away your rainbow wellies until summer shows its face. Rekorderlig, ever keen to demonstrate that we Aussies should be tackling winter with a tad more brio than a pack of grizzlies, has just announced the headliner for free upcoming music event Sounds in the Snow. On September 13, just as the flakes start to melt and smack bang in the middle of the Toyota One Hit Wonder Mountain Festival, Sydney synth pop boys Panama will appear in Thredbo to deliver their so-called hopeful house music live. Fronted by Perth-born songwriter and classically-trained pianist Jarrah McCleary, the trio are currently touring Europe and the United States on the back of sophomore EP Always. The only thing we can't tell you is where in the Alps you'll find them, as Rekorderlig is keeping the venue top secret — for now at least. To be among the first to find out, join the Rekorderlig Facebook page. Sounds in the Snow is just one of the many excuses that Rekorderlig's giving you to head to the snow this season. Afternoon sessions are happening at the Thredbo Alpine Hotel every Thursday, Friday and Saturday between 3pm and 6pm; fire pits are burning; the Rekorderlig Hot Pool is providing serious apres-ski relaxation; and their tasty cinnamon and vanilla-fused Winter Cider is at the top of the drinks menu. https://youtube.com/watch?v=UylPrMcurB8
Sydneysiders, it's finally time to drop it like it's hot again — because Snoop Dogg is coming back to our fair city. For the first time since 2014, the rapper is hitting stages Down Under as part of this new 'I Wanna Thank Me' tour, which'll be playing Qudos Bank Arena at 7pm on Wednesday, March 1–Thursday, March 2. If this sounds familiar, that's because this tour was initially due to happen in 2022, only to be postponed. Now, Snoop Dogg has locked in the rescheduled dates, complete with an extra show in Sydney. Clearly, fans of the musician/actor/cook book author/wrestling MC/wine brand owner will be breaking out the gin and juice. Snoop will also be inspiring hip hop aficionados to be the life of the party and, if you can remember his time as Snoop Doggy Dog and Snoop Lion across his career, to ask about his name as well. Yes, you can expect to hear singles such as 'What's My Name?', 'Gin and Juice', 'Drop It Like It's Hot' and 'Snoop's Upside Ya Head', as well as tracks from his last few albums — with his 17th record from 2019, I Wanna Thank Me, sharing its moniker with the tour. Since then, he's also dropped two more albums: From tha Streets 2 tha Suites in 2021 and BODR in 2022, with another, Missionary, also in the works.
Gigs and shows are well and truly back, and a series of affordable gigs is bringing a collection of beloved local acts to concert venues for just $10. The Live At Last Tour was unveiled by Jack Daniel's and Secret Sounds last year as a way of placing fan-favourite bands back on stages during the pandemic, offering free gigs in intimate venues around the country like Frankie's Pizza and The Triffid. Now, it's back, taking to larger venues this time in order to raise money for Support Act. This year's iteration of the tour will see Triple J and festival circuit favourites play on stage for the very affordable price of $10. The bands in question are Pond, San Cisco, Ruby Fields and Psychedelic Porn Crumpets — each of which will take to one city on the tour. You can catch Pond in the Sunshine Coast on Tuesday, April 12; Psychedelic Porn Crumpets in Sydney on Thursday, April 21; San Cisco in Brisbane on Sunday, April 24; and Ruby Fields in Melbourne on Thursday, April 28. All the acts on the lineup will be joined by yet-to-be announced special guests. Tickets to the gigs are on sale now, and with the $10 price tag, they're sure to be snatched up quickly. If you want to head along you can find all the venues and ticketing information on Secret Sounds' website. Best of all, the whole thing is supporting a good cause. Support Act has been a massive driving force of positivity in the music industry over the last two years. The not-for-profit assists musicians through tough times, whether that be financially or personally, by providing crisis relief grants, mental health workshops, online resources and funeral assistance among a host of other things to people in the music industry. [caption id="attachment_814499" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pond, Matsu[/caption] LIVE AT LAST TOUR DATES Pond — Tuesday, April 22 at SolBar, Sunshine Coast Psychedelic Porn Crumpets — Thursday, April 21 at Factory Theatre, Sydney San Cisco — Sunday, April 24 at Fortitude Music Hall Ruby Fields — Sunday, April 24 at The Espy, Melbourne Live At Last is set to kick off on Tuesday, April 12. Tickets are on sale now via the Secret Sounds website. Top image: Vincent Shaw
A four-week festival is taking over Sydney's inner-east throughout October. Eastside Unlocked will see 80 different events pop up across 35 venues, spanning the likes of Potts Point, Surry Hills, Darlinghurst and Woolloomooloo. "Eastside Sydney has so much to offer when it comes to culture, live performance, food, drink and more," says the festival's manager Lorraine Lock. "We're inviting Sydney to rediscover Eastside's world-class restaurants, art galleries, cosy cocktail bars and iconic nightlife venues." So, what's on the program? Rosie Campbell's is hosting a Caribbean Festival, you can head to Ching-a-Lings for a life drawing class, Bitter Phew will be taken over by a natural beer festival, Ezra will be hosting a night of fashion and feasting, and The Winery is sticking true to its name and serving up a rosé festival. [caption id="attachment_536727" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Rosie Campbell's[/caption] There's also a range of Halloween-themed events to celebrate spooky season, including an immersive horror experience at Hotel Hollywood. Soda Factory is running a series devoted to Halloween hijinx and you can settle in for a spooky drag brunch at Bar Nina. And if you've been looking for an excuse to don your cowboy hat all year, Shady Pines will also be celebrating with a Halloween honky tonk. Other participating venues include The Strand, Eternity Playhouse, Brix Distillers, Darlo Bar and Kings Cross Hotel, just to name a few. You can check out the full program and plan out your next four weeks of eastside activities at the Eastside website. [caption id="attachment_751542" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bitter Phew[/caption] Top image: The Winery by Letícia Almeida
If you've found yourself eating your way around London at some stage in the past few years, you're probably familiar with legendary 24-hour Brick Lane bakery Beigel Bake. Now, you can get your hands on a close rendition of its signature house-made, carbo-loaded treats — without the 23-hour plane flight. Yes, a crew by the name of Salt Beef Beigel has hit Aussie shores and it's channelling the beloved Jewish-style 'beigels' (the word 'bagel' is thought to be an Americanisation of the word 'beigel', which is used throughout England). After popping up at Enmore's Sly Fox in 2019, the team is back for a new kitchen takeover at Stanley's in Darlinghurst. From Friday, June 19–Sunday, June 21, Salt Beef Beigel will be plating up two pillowy bagel creations: the OG Salt Beef Beigel ($10), with slow-cooked beef, mustard and pickles; and a cream cheese number ($5). Both will come on the team's signature boiled-then-baked beigel. To drink, you'll find a lineup of five different cocktails ($18–20) as colourful as Stanley's itself. Pick from the likes of the Flamingo Run (with watermelon, pomegranate and vodka), Popcorn Piña Colada (rum, popcorn and pineapple juice) and Everything's Peachy (Aperol, peach liqueur and prosecco). Salt Beef Beigel pop-up will be open from 5–8pm each night.
When a restaurant proves so popular that it has to open up a second site, everybody wins. In China Diner's case, fans of the Bondi favourite get a second place to get their share-style Chinese cuisine fix, while those in the vicinity of Double Bay get a new Asian eatery. Setting up shop on Kiora Lane, China Diner's new venue still boasts the dumplings, duck pancakes and other dishes that have already made it such a hit; however, there's more than just tried-and-tested tastiness on the menu here. In a move reminiscent of executive chef Jack James Steer's approach to Cantonese cooking, the Double Bay digs blends the traditional and the modern courtesy of a few fresh selections. Existing fans can savour another serving of crispy pork bao with apple and carrot kimchi, or chicken and sesame 'chiko' spring rolls with blood plum sauce, while newcomers can try the new concoction that is Steer's chicken and sweet corn soup topped with truffle foam. Drinks-wise, China Diner Double Bay serves up a creative cocktail list that similarly aims to showcase the restaurant's love for its chosen cuisine, and Asian food in general — think the lemongrass and coconut sour (with lemongrass-infused Wyborowa vodka, citrus and coconut foam), as well as share jugs of samurai Pimms (with Kirei sake, Pimms, mint, strawberry, orange and dry ginger ale). Throw in decor that mixes cocktail stools, open tables and booths, as inspired by the American diner vibe, and the scene is set for a relaxed, playful and delicious Chinese dining experience. Find China Diner Double Bay at 16 Kiaora Lane, Double Bay, or visit the restaurant's website for further details.
If seasonal change has left you in a dizzy headspin of new colours and fabrics and prints and jackets — or if, y'know, you just like some fancy new clothes now and then — you'll be pretty pleased to know that the Big Fashion Sale is back. Usually, it's a physical affair that takes place in Sydney and Melbourne; however like plenty of other events at the moment, the shopping extravaganza is going online — and national — for its next outing. The name pretty much says it all. This thing is big. You'll find a hefty array of lush items from past collections, samples and one-offs from a huge lineup of cult Australian and international designers, both well-known and emerging — including Romance Was Born, Alexander McQueen, Isabel Marant, The Row, Dries Van Noten and more. With discounts of up to 80-percent off, this is one way to up your count of designer threads while leaving your bank balance sitting pretty, too — whether you're keen on clothes, shoes, swimwear or accessories. The Big Fashion Sale's online edition kicks off at 9am on Monday, May 18 on the event's website — and you can register in advance to be notified when it kicks off.
Gene and Brian Sherman are putting their personal collection before public eyes for the first time in an exhibition titled Go East. Sprawling across both the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, the show features pieces from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Tibet and Vietnam. At SCAF, you'll be able to read into 20th-century Chinese history as experienced personally, thanks to Yang Zhichao's epic installation Chinese Bible (2009), which is made up of 3,000 actual diaries. Meanwhile, the AGNSW entrance court will be filled with bone-shaped letters, communicating the speech that Gandhi's delivered the night before his legendary Salt March in 1930. It's the creation of Jitish Kallat and is titled Public Notice 2 (2007). Ai Weiwei, Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, Daido Moriyama, Bharti Kher, Shigeyuki Kihara, Lin Tianmiao, Dinh Q. Le, along with eight other artists will also feature. Plus, there'll be talks, forums and literary events — at both the AGNSW's Art After Hours, held on Wednesday nights, and SCAF.
