Sydney Contemporary is a biennial art fair in its inaugural year to be held in the newly expanded Carriageworks. Put simply, an art fair is a no-holds-barred, flat-out, art-buying frenzy. Galleries set up in booths under one roof and vie for the attention of collectors. They're like incredibly cool, high-end trade fairs and they're terrific fun. At Sydney Contemporary you'll be able to flit from stand to stand, seeing works from each gallery's stable of artists, chat to the gallerist and check out the incredible lineup of programs, guided tours and workshops on offer. Kelly McDonald, assistant curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Sydney Contemporary panelist explains, "Sydney Contemporary affords the opportunity to make the work of Australian artists available en masse within the context of international galleries. It's fantastic that visitors can come and see the broad spectrum of artists working today and hopefully be introduced to the work of artists they may not otherwise have encountered". Read all about the exhibitors, artists, buyers, visitors and, of course, very cool events in our Bluffer's Guide to Sydney Contemporary. Image: Kate Mitchell, Getting Through It, 2O12, Single-channel High Definition digital video production still (Chalk Horse gallery)
Let's be clear: it's fine for fictional movies to take certain liberties. Consider physics: bending bullets mid-flight was a playful idea in 2008's otherwise woeful Wanted, just as ducking them entirely provided an exhilarating and groundbreaking sequence in The Matrix. How does Superman actually fly? Air pressure and negative mass, apparently. Who really cares — it's fun and they commit to it. Really, the only time you have to take movies to task is when they just get something categorically wrong. Like, wrong wrong; the opposite of right. If you've seen the trailer for Liam Neeson's new movie Non-Stop, you'll have seen the condemnable shot. As a 737 plummets towards the ocean, the pilot dramatically pulls back on the yoke like it's some sort of fighter jet and levels out the plane, occasioning a handgun to float skywards into the accepting hands of Neeson. Yes, 'up'. The gun floats up. Anybody who's ever flown before, or been in an elevator before, or moved on a planet with gravity before, knows how inertia works. It's Newton's first law. Not his 118th, which you could be forgiven for skipping. Not his second. His first. Are we nitpicking? Is a movie to be disparaged because of a single shot? No; this is just a suitably representative case for illustrating why Non-Stop is largely non-good. It begins with a shot of a gruff looking Liam Neeson, essentially because: Liam Neeson. Gone are the days of the nurturing single parent from Love Actually; now Neeson is all about the embodiment of grumpy. That characteristic was the perfect ingredient to 2008's Taken, but since then has felt increasingly platitudinous, pigeonholing a fine actor with proven range into a painfully narrow set of performances. In Non-Stop he's an alcoholic air marshal who — mid flight — is forced to deal with an anonymous blackmailer threatening to kill a passenger every 20 minutes until they receive their ransom. Both the premise and its initial execution are actually quite compelling, handled in a way that's just plausible enough to be entertaining and even thrilling. The threatening text messages appear on screen a la the BBC's Sherlock series, providing a periodic 20 minute menace that gives Non-Stop its ominous momentum (Newton's 18th law, probably). There are also some decent performances put in by the supporting cast, including Julianne Moore and Corey Stoll (House of Cards) as passengers, and Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey), Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years A Slave) and Linus Roache (Batman Begins) as crew. It's a whodunnit at 40,000 feet, and for most of the film you're genuinely invested in the mystery. Such a shame, then, the way it ends. Fear not, there are no spoilers here, but suffice it to say the villain's motivation for the caper is stupefyingly illogical, and the final five minutes of dialogue contain just about every cliche in the book. There's an overwhelming sense of 'sure, why not?' to the writing; an unnecessary rush-job on what might well have been an excellent thriller had they just taken the time to imbue the finale with as much consideration as the setup. https://youtube.com/watch?v=nODrjQUR5YU
Everyone has an opinion about public art. And with Clover Moore’s recently unveiled plans for a souped-up CBD, there’s plenty to talk about. Dominating the debate was the Cloud Arch/Space Noodle, a sculpture which will be gracing our city skyline in 2017. It’s amazing how quickly the announcement polarised public opinion. This discussion will be led by some of the more qualified voices. The speakers include Tony Albert, Elizabeth Fortescue, Ian Milliss, Bridget Smyth and Michael Snelling. Held at the State Library, a stone’s throw from the future construction site, the group will address how public art is commissioned and current funding models. This event is one of our top ten picks of Art Month. Check out the other nine here. Image: Junya Ishigami, Cloud Arch, Sydney.
Two icons of Australian creativity will combine in the country's newest opera, which sees Opera Australia take on the life of famous Aussie artist Brett Whiteley. Called Whiteley, the production will come to the Sydney Opera House across July 15–30, 2019, exploring and honouring not only the celebrated, two-time Archibald Prize-winning painter, but his wife and muse Wendy. And, as well as turning their tale into a song-filled drama, the opera will feature a digital backdrop that'll incorporate the artist's iconic pieces onto huge LED screens. The set design will be Dan Potra's domain — and if you saw any of the Handa Opera shows on Sydney Harbour, or even just saw pictures, then you'll know you're in for a visual treat. As for the rest of the talent behind this take on an Aussie talent, it'll be directed by David Freeman, with music composed by Elena Kats-Chernin and libretto by Justin Fleming. The opera will mark the second time that Whiteley's story and works have made the jump to another medium in just a few short years, following on from the 2017 documentary also called Whiteley — but so far, this latest effort is exclusive to Sydney as part of Opera Australia's packed 2019 season. While a slate of Melbourne productions have also been announced for next year, Whiteley isn't taking the trip down south yet. That means art fans should schedule a mid-year getaway, or cross their fingers that Whiteley will feature among the company's touring productions down the track. Whitely comes to the Sydney Opera House from July 15–30, 2019. For more information or to buy tickets, visit the Opera Australia website. Image: Photo courtesy Brett Whiteley (Australia; England, b.1939, d.1992). Self portrait in the studio 1976. Oil, collage, hair on canvas, 200.5 x 259 cm. Art Gallery of New South Wales. Photo credit: AGNSW, Chritopher Snee.
Whether you think you can dance or know for a fact that you can't, we have got a hell of a weekly activity for you. From January 2018, twice-weekly, in fact. Held each and every Monday and Tuesday evening at 107 Projects in Redfern, Groove Therapy is a relaxed, hour-long dance class for the aspiring street dancer in all of us. There's no pressure, no recitals and — most importantly — no mirrors. Indeed, the workshops are designed for beginner students who might feel intimidated by a more professional environment. Don't let that fool you though, because the instructors are legit, and will have you popping and locking in no time. It's perfect for those of us who dream of burning up the dance floor, but have never had the moves to back it up. Image: Kurt Davies
Cooking kick-ass vegan food with Smith & Daughters' Shannon Martinez, a behind-the-scenes tour of Lune Croissanterie and verbally deconstructing lasagne with Massimo Bottura. It sounds like regular programming for Melbourne's annual celebration of food — but it's not quite. Forced to postpone its physical March festival because of COVID-19, Melbourne Food and Wine Festival has just launched The Online Edition, allowing avid home bakers and food fanatics around the country to dial into chats, masterclasses and trivia sessions with some of the world's best chefs from the comfort of their kitchens. And for lucky Melburnians, there are some IRL food specials available to order every day, too. Running from Monday, May 25–Saturday, May 30, MFWF: The Online Edition is taking place entirely on Zoom and Instagram Live. Those who've spent lockdown with a Sméagol-like obsession for sourdough can get their fix with Baker Bleu's Mike Russell, while those who prefer their carbs flaky and filled with butter will want to log on for chats with Helen Goh — who's worked alongside Yotam Ottolenghi for over a decade and co-authored Sweet — and Australia's Queen of Tarts Philippa Sibley, as well as the aforementioned tour of Lune with the inimitable Kate Reid. On the topic of Lune — look away now, if you're not in Melbourne — the croissanterie is recreating some of its biggest hits for the festival, including the Lune Reuben croissant, which you can pre-order for pick-up or delivery via the Lune website. Elsewhere on the IRL menu: foie gras ice cream from Leonardo's Pizza Palace and Black Axe Mangal's Lee Tiernan, a one-off six-dish menu from Bar Saracen, an oyster and champagne pairing, and a menu of Torino-style dishes from Mister Bianco designed to eat while watching the classic 60s flick The Italian Job. [caption id="attachment_697090" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lune by Marcie Raw[/caption] Back on the virtual program, expect a lineup of talks with international talent, including René Redzepi — who's just (temporarily) transformed his world-renowned Copenhagen fine-diner into a burger and wine bar — former co-editor of famed food magazine Lucky Peach Chris Ying and Lee Tiernan of London's Black Axe Mangal. More locally, The Everleigh's Michael Madrusan will teach us how to drink better, culinary idol Tony Tan will take us on a tour of his new cooking school and author Julia Busuttil Nishimura will show us the art of the one-pan dish. While The Online Edition has less hot chip parties and Queen Victoria Market takeovers than its scheduled predecessor, it's certainly not short on talent. The program has been pulled together by MFWF CEO Anthea Loucas Bosha and Creative Director Pat Nourse, who both have decades of experience in the food industry and will be hosting many of the virtual talks.
Twelve months ago, if you uttered the words 'doughnut day', you were probably using them in the literal sense between mouthfuls. Thanks to the chaos of 2020, however, the term now refers to a day without any new COVID-19 cases — and, when it comes to locally acquired cases, both New South Wales and Victoria have just notched up that milestone. Both states have been dealing with a rise of coronavirus numbers since before Christmas, starting in Sydney's northern beaches suburbs, and including cases in Melbourne as well. As a result, festive plans were thrown into disarray around not only both states but the entire country, as new restrictions on borders, gatherings and mask usage came into effect. So, zero new locally acquired cases in NSW and Victoria is the good news that everyone needs in 2021. Today, Thursday, January 7, NSW Health sent out its daily Tweet with yesterday's numbers and it's what we all want to see: a big fat zero. It spans the period up until 8pm on Wednesday, January 6; however, there were six new cases acquired from overseas, in hotel quarantine, during the same timeframe. In today's press conference, NSW Acting Premier John Barilaro did note that one local case has been identified today, in the northern beaches, but that'll feature in tomorrow's numbers. In total, NSW currently has 114 active cases. https://twitter.com/NSWHealth/status/1346970806476161025 The Victorian Government Department of Health and Human Services also sent out its own daily Tweet, and also served up a nice round numeral. In the southern state, in the period until midnight last night, there were also zero new cases acquired from interstate or from overseas, too. That gives Victoria 38 active cases at present, with 32,767 tests conducted in the past 24 hours. https://twitter.com/VicGovDHHS/status/1346929086896238594 Of course, this doesn't mean the war is over in either state, or around Australia — but it is some very welcome news after a few weeks with rising numbers. To keep an eye on the situation in Sydney, you can check out an interactive map that plots places that positive COVID-19 cases have visited, which takes data from the state's venue alerts. There's also a map that shows cases by postcode. If you're in Victoria, you can head to the state's own interactive map, which displays cases by postcode or local government area. For more information about COVID-19 in NSW and current restrictions, head to NSW Health. For more information about COVID-19 in Victoria, head over to the Department of Health and Human Services website.
Eager to devour some of the best food the world has to offer, but can't afford a trip to one of the usual culinary hotspots? Stop feeling envious and start eating in your own backyard. No, not literally — but TripAdvisor has just released a rundown of the world's ten best emerging foodie destinations, with Australia claiming three places on the list. While Quebec City in Canada took out top spot and Savannah in the US came in second, Sydney ranked third, Queenstown in Tasmania came fourth and Brisbane ninth. The selection is based on tour bookings via the site, and highlights cities where reservations are on the rise. The list also reveals the most-booked experiences in each location — although, unsurprisingly, the top picks are all tourist favourites rather than local go-tos. A trip to Sydney Tower's 360 Bar and Dining unsurprisingly proves the most popular in New South Wales, while a lunchtime cruise along the Brisbane River on the Kookaburra Queen emerged victorious in Queensland. Other cities named 'foodie destinations to watch' include San Juan in Puerto Rico, Miami and Charleston in the US, Cabo San Lucas in Mexico and Vienna in Austria. For travellers looking for an overseas jaunt to an existing culinary mecca, the site also named the best overall food cities in the world, running through the thoroughly usual suspects from Rome, Florence and Paris to Madrid, Tokyo and Bangkok.
Bared — creators of some of the comfiest footwear in the world — are popping up in Sydney for just one week. It's called the 'Tree Change' pop-up and they’re bringing some mighty fine company with them, in the form of Byron Bay Hanging Chairs and plant installation experts Loose Leaf. If you’ve ever been to Bared’s headquarters in Armadale, Melbourne, you’ll know what we’re on about. Founded by podiatrist Anna Baird, the company sells shoes that trick your feet into thinking they’re walking on clouds. The secret is a beautifully designed foot bed, plus a bunch of other smart features. Oh, and they look mighty fine, too. Bared will be taking over Megan Morton’s The Studio in Rosebery. Baird says, “Our Tree Change is about bringing a tangible Bared footwear experience to Sydney, offering a whole new city the opportunity to enter our world … We love being able to sell our shoes around Australia via our website, but there is nothing quite like being professionally fitted into the perfect shoe, and meticulous notes are kept on every customer, allowing for a truly personalised service every time you visit.” The pop-up will run between Thursday, November 26 and Wednesday, November 2. OPENING HOURS: Thursday, November 26 — 10am-8pm Friday, November 27 — 9am-8pm Saturday, November 28 to Wednesday, December 2 — 9am-5pm
Ever find yourself standing in the supermarket frozen in confusion as you stare at a wall of olive oil and wonder which one? What's the difference? Fresh Extra Virgin Olive Oil (FEVOO) Harvest Festival 2013 can help you answer this mind-boggling dilemma as they bring together those passionate about oil to talk, explain and enlighten us on why it is so essential to life. This is Australia's first festival dedicated to extra virgin olive oil and it will be showcasing the new-season oils at the Mint. Stephanie Alexander is headlining, with all proceeds of an oil auction going to her Kitchen Garden Foundation. An all-things-olive-oil menu will be designed by Lyndey Milan as you learn about the difference in oils and just why Australian olive oils are among the best in the world. FEVOO will be held at the Mint on July 10, 2013, from 6pm. Entry gains you a glass of wine, nibbles, tastings, a masterclass and an invitation to watch the panel discussion, and tickets can be booked through Eventbrite. Go along and sip, slurp and spit some of the best olive oils in Australia. Thanks to the folks at FEVOO, we have five double passes to give away to the event. To be in the running, subscribe to our newsletter (if you haven't already) and then email hello@concreteplayground.com.au with your name and address.
Over the coming months, Sydney's new chicken joint Sunday is set to take punters on a globe-trotting celebration of the humble roast chook — via a series of flavour-packed Sunday sessions co-helmed by some of Australia's most exciting chef talent. Sunday's own chef-owner Morgan McGlone (the same guy behind Belles Hot Chicken) will be inviting a few famous friends along for these special chicken-centric feasts, which kick off on Sunday, April 18 with a visit from Pauly Carmichael (Momofuku Seiōbo). Together, the pair will be plating up an exclusive Puerto Rican-inspired menu, starring dishes like a reworked arroz con pollo with seasoned roast chicken, yellow rice, sweet potato and beans. To match, award-winning bartender Jenna Hemsworth is set to whip up a special lineup of rum-infused cocktails and booze-free sips, as inspired by the same Puerto Rican flavours. For this first Sunday Sessions run, there are four sittings available to book (12pm, 2pm, 4pm and 6pm), with a spread of snacks and drinks starting from $30 per person. Then, stay tuned for details of the next Sunday Sessions collaborations, coming soon. Images: Nikki To
If you're reading this, it's likely you're in New South Wales — maybe you've lived here your whole life, maybe you're a relatively new transplant, maybe you're visiting for a few months — but how much of its 809,000 square kilometres of bountiful land have you really explored? Next time you head for an outdoor adventure, instead of sticking to your favourite beach or local park, venture a little further afield and check out what regional NSW has to offer. Spanning ocean and desert, NSW boasts an abundance of local food, live music and breathtaking nature to take in. From the lush Orange vineyards to the crystal waters of Nelson Bay, there are festivals and events for every taste. And it's all happening in the new year. Now's your chance to explore. Without some planning, however, your next few months are going to look a little dull. To help you out, we've teamed up with Destination NSW to put together a handy list of top things to do with your entourage just in time for the new year.
Super Discount is part play, part dance piece and part super-heroic triumph. Under Bruce Gladwin's direction, a cast of six from Geelong's Back to Back Theatre Company survey the escapism of the myth of the superhero, whilst treading some fairly muddy territory about disability as well. STC's Wharf 1 is left unadorned by designer Mark Cuthbertson, save one remarkable opening tornado, constructed by a team of 'Air Engineers'. A snake of dry ice swirls upwards as we listen to performer and devisor Sarah Mainwaring speak about the impossibility of reaching an 'ever-shifting centre'. And boy do these guys get left of centre in the show that follows. The first half is a slow pondering of the limits of devising theatre and of disability as the cast tries to decide who should play the role of Mark Deans, a performer with Down's syndrome who they’ve decided can't play himself because he will not be clearly heard. The conversations between the cast as they audition people are revealing and honest. Able-bodied actor David Woods recalls being ignored during a Q&A session after a performance in Vienna and complains that he is dismissible because he doesn’t have a disability. He reads out definitions of different intellectual disabilities from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and Simon Laherty gently explains that he finds it offensive. Then Woods says the word retard. It's awkward, and fantastically so. Any tensions about allowable terms are addressed directly in this first section before we head out in to the wild world of what performer and devisor Scott Price calls 'post-disability'. The tension between mockery and comedy never goes away though, much as German director Christoph Schlingensief achieved in his reality TV style show Freakstars, with its cast of people with an intellectual disability. Actor and devisor Brian Tilley has brought his encyclopaedic knowledge of superheroes to the piece and his bravado is a powerful match to Woods's relentless challenges to everyone around him. As the pair get dressed for a showdown, Woods takes Tilley to task on his love of superheroes, explaining that we'd all be better off if we realised that no one will save us and we should just get on with our lives. Nevertheless, Woods cuts a fine form in Shio Otani's puffy super hero outfits and performs an electric duet with Tilley. Marco Cher-Gibard's music here is excellent, and combined with Andrew Livingston’s lovely fluoro panels, it’ll have you wishing you could join in, as Mark Deans does from his seat upstage. Deans makes the transformation from peripheral participant to the subject of Woods' mimicry of him, to a kapowing boss with a calm that is pretty funny. His performance in the final sequence is completely captivating. Image by Jeff Busby.
The team at pop-up restaurant space IconPark have announced their latest temporary tenant: a European-style canteen with a different menu every day. Headed by executive chef Naomi Lowry, formerly of Biota Dining and Pilu, the canteen will occupy IconPark’s Stanley Street location from now until the end of March, when the space’s permanent leaseholders are expected to be revealed. Open 7am to 4pm Monday through Friday, the restaurant will focus on rustic, wholesome foods, with diners picking one of two proteins and selecting veggies or salads to go with it. Dishes announced so far include white wine juniper braised lamb shoulder with cumin yogurt, lemon pepper leaf and thyme roast chicken, and cocoa salt-crusted slow roast beef. Sides? So far we've seen balsamic roast beets and roast carrots with almonds and fetta. The IconPark space has previously been the home to Matt Stone’s Stanley Street Merchants and barbecue joint Rupert & Ruby. Tenants are selected through crowdfunding campaigns; whichever restaurant concept raises the most amount of capital gets the keys to the fully licensed kitchen. In December, IconPark revealed that the winners of their latest contest would be awarded a permanent lease. So if you’re keen on the sound of the European Canteen, head down to Stanley Street ASAP. Icon Park's pop-up canteen is open 7am to 4pm, Monday to Friday at 78 Stanley Street, Darlinghurst. Menus change daily.
In a marriage of two great hospitality venues, Newtown's Hartsyard is teaming up with Melbourne's Bar Liberty (which we awarded best new bar last year) to create a Creole feast inspired by the best dishes of the New Orleans bayou. The one-off dinner will take place on Thursday, June 1 with Hartsyard's head chef Gregory Llewellyn hosting his mate from down south, Bar Liberty chef Casey Wall, in a night that will see the two American expats join forces to bring the States' Deep South to Sydney. This is Llewellyn and Wall's second dinner collaboration, with their first taking place down in Melbourne at Rockwell and Sons in 2015. For this one, the two classically French trained chefs have designed a menu inspired that re-imagines hearty southern classics — think étouffée with local marron and duck or jambalaya and dirty rice. As with true home-style hospitality, guests will share their meal at communal tables, along with cocktail pitchers of Ramos gin fizz. The set menu is at a surprisingly reasonable price point of $65 per head — but, due to the sharing nature of the dinner, dietary requirements cannot be accommodated so be sure to check in with the team before booking if you have any. Bookings can be made through the Hartsyard website.
Michael Mann makes movies like a man haunted. From his 1981 debut Thief to his latest release Ferrari, it's no wonder that his films linger with viewers. Mann's work whirrs with the pursuit of professional greatness, and with the pressures of balancing that relentlessly revving chase with personal ties and desires — quests and woes that aren't his own in his narratives, but always feel intimate. Heat, 1995's Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon)- and Al Pacino (Hunters)-led crime-thriller that the filmmaker will forever be known for, has proven a spectacular example for nearly three decades. While the skilled burglar and dogged detective caught in its cat-and-mouse game are both experts in their realms, that doesn't make juggling their on-the-job and at-home realities any easier, cleaner or less chaotic. Using that very notion as its road, Ferrari is clearly the product of the same director. Perhaps Mann is speeding down that exact path after all, then, navigating the complexities of getting a film onto screens — his last was 2015's underseen Blackhat — on a mission to master his favourite themes. Mann has helmed several model features already in Thief, Heat, The Insider and Collateral, with Ferrari a worthy addition to his resume. Wheels spin on and off the track in the elegantly and exquisitely crafted slice-of-life biopic, many literally but others via its namesake's personal life. Based on Brock Yates' book Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Cars, The Races, The Machine, as adapted by screenwriter Troy Kennedy Martin (the OG The Italian Job) to cover events in the summer of 1957 only, Ferrari is always hurtling — even when it's as patient as cinema in Mann's hands has ever been. The collision between single-minded goals and the messiness of existing constantly gives his pictures urgency, no matter how steady the gaze and stoic the character. And make no mistake, Adam Driver's (65) gravitas-dripping portrayal of race car driver-turned-sports car entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari (and Italian-accented but speaking in English, just as he did in House of Gucci) is as serious and determined as Mann's protagonists get, too. Sometimes with editor Pietro Scalia (an Academy Award-winner for JFK and Black Hawk Down) crosscutting frenetically like the film is shifting gears up and down, sometimes going for a lengthy drive in Enzo's business exploits and his home affairs separately, Ferrari tracks its protagonist's mission to save his company through racing glory in tandem with steering into his relationships with two women. Duality, a regular Mann obsession, slicks the flick like engine grease; there's two purposes to his car manufacturing, those two loves and two sons, for starters. "Two objects cannot occupy the same point in space at the same moment in time," Enzo explains, but the clashes and contrasts that surround him are hardly as clearcut as physics. Take his approach to death, for instance: over the loss of his son and heir Dino by wife Laura (Penélope Cruz, Official Competition), he seeps heartbreak like he's losing brake fluid, but the idea of tragedy befalling his drivers garners a matter-of-fact reaction, plus a speech about the life-or-death and at-all-costs commitment that his chosen sport requires — and he demands. In the world of Ferrari as a car outfit, financial struggles have both Enzo and Laura — partners in the business as well as in marriage, albeit barely hanging on in the latter — assessing options to keep their Modena factory running. Royalty might covet their vehicles, but Enzo's passion for his racing fleet is as expensive as it is dangerous. "Jaguar races to sell cars. I sell cars in order to race," is his frank description of Ferrari's manufacturing split. Bringing in outside cash from Ford or Fiat is proposed, enabling the company to increase production on its retail vehicles. The picture's choice of year also puts the last Mille Miglia in front of its windscreen, with victory in the twisty race on Italy's public streets — ideally with one of Enzo's drivers (which include River of Desire's Gabriel Leone, Lady Chatterley's Lover's Jack O'Connell and Thanksgiving's Patrick Dempsey) triumphing over Maserati — likely to help Ferrari continue vrooming. 1957 is also when Enzo's second son Piero (Giuseppe Festinese, Santa Lucia) by his mistress Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley, Dumb Money) is to be confirmed. Installed in a house outside of town, his other family remains a secret from Laura; however, as Lina angles for Enzo to let Piero take his surname and Laura frays with mourning, already well-aware that her husband isn't faithful, there's as much tension there as whenever someone has a car zipping and zooming. As Ferrari flings together melodrama and racing thrills, neither gives the audience an emotional or psychological reprieve. Mann doesn't just want to put his viewers in the film's array of driver's seats, but in a state where there's no escape from the stress — to stay solvent, to win, to avoid tearing Enzo's romances apart and inflicting more pain, and to secure his legacy. Mann obviously didn't choose Ferrari's pair of biggest stars based on their appropriate names. And Driver wasn't picked for his penchant for living up to that moniker (see: his stint as a poetry-writing bus driver in Paterson, then his time commanding spaceships in the Star Wars sequel trilogy and 65), either. Still, they're sublimely cast. Not just thanks to his silver locks but due to the intensity of his presence, Driver easily passes for a man who's a year off 60 — so, almost 20 years past the actor's own age — while wearing Enzo's iciness like armour, yet still letting his charisma peek through with Lina and Piero. Despite having a supporting part, Cruz has rarely been better than as the achingly furious and piercingly grief-stricken woman who refuses to let her contributions to the Ferrari name and Enzo's fame, and everything their nuptials and son represented, be pushed into the backseat. Given the Spanish talent's career (her Oscar for Vicky Christina Barcelona, nominations that should've been wins for Parallel Mothers and Volver, and her exceptional work in Pain and Glory, All About My Mother and Jamón Jamón as well), that's no minor feat. Ferrari's immaculate central portrayals are just two of the movie's pistons; Mann's meticulous efforts behind the lens, and at the top of his game again, is merely a third. It'll come as zero surprise to anyone familiar with his filmography that everything is that finely tuned, from the light and shadows imparted by cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt (The Killer, and Oscar-anointed for Mank) to Daniel Pemberton's (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse) note-perfect score. And when Ferrari gets racing, especially in its centrepiece stretch that stuns and shatters, the heart pumps, nerves are shredded and little else in depicting racing in cinema compares. The only roadblock: the feeling that Mann could've told more of this tale, and about his latest unswerving but divided man, although wanting more of his work simply comes with watching it.
Amber Koroluk-Stephenson is one to watch. The Tasmanian artist is showing her most recent works at MOP gallery and they're an absolute delight. Her paintings of urban utopias are ever so slightly undercut by a subtle sense of uneasiness. The artist draws inspiration from her native Tasmania, presenting large, brightly coloured canvases filled with neat brick houses, overly manicured gardens, girls sunbaking and little kids about to take a dip in the backyard pool. Upon closer inspection, the suburban 'utopias' depicted begin to fray at the edges. Seats are overturned, the sunlight is a little too bright, and the picture planes shift ever so slightly, giving a fabulous sense of discord. The apple tree is laden with far too much fruit, and it's all falling neatly onto the blanket below. The title of the series, 'Quixotic Habitation', also points to the imperfection of the painted utopias, along with the titles of the individual works. Staging of an illusion, Prelude at the Garden's Edge and In the Interlude - there's something a bit filmic about the scenes. They feel a little staged, a little too studied. Also on show in the gallery are small, somewhat abstract paintings by Mason Kimber. The dreamlike works investigate 'architecturally remembered space'. His use of colour is terrific. You could spend quite a while gazing at these pieces. MOP is one of Sydney's best artist-run spaces. Their shows are consistently great and act as a vital springboard for emerging and unrepresented artists. With a pretty ambitious exhibition program - up to 35 shows a year – the volunteer-run space usually exhibits several artists at a time, creating a vibrant dialogue between works from different artists. The gallery sits on Abercrombie Street, Chippendale, a particularly urban and gritty part of Sydney. It's interesting to look at Koroluk-Stephenson's lush green works examining suburban utopias before wandering back out of the gallery onto the grimy, grey street. Image: Staging of an Illusion, Amber Koroluk-Stephenson. Image courtesy of the artist.
As co-author Kate Mulvany explains in the program, Belvoir Downstairs' new Medea is all about playing. The action of Euripides' ancient version of Medea takes place offstage while two young boys — the playful, sulky, and serious Leon (Joseph Kelly) and the exuberant, sad, and dreamy Jasper (Rory Potter) — stay locked in their room, play around, and wonder what's going on between their parents outside, parsing overheard arguments as their mother, Medea (Blazey Best), comes in, talks cryptically, and leaves. Euripides' version of the story (spoiler ahead) has a distraught Medea kill her children after husband Jason (of the Golden Fleece) leaves her for another woman and tells her he's taking the kids. Anne-Louise Sarks was struck by the killing of four-year-old Darcey Freeman by her own father during a custody battle, and also by the effect on Freeman's older brother. This became linked to the ancient story of Medea, and Sarks found a willing collaborator in Kate Mulvany. (And, later, in ATYP.) The boys are joyfully clumsy. They have no compunction in looking silly as they muck about in their room. While the boys play, the production itself is rife with dramatic foreshadowing of death and tilts to its classical origins. The wrenching ending of Euripides' version is thought to have been a surprise for his audience, a final twist on the scale of Game of Thrones' first season, for an audience expecting a very different ending. Sarks and Mulvany’s version leaves this surprise as writ in the program, and next to the theatre door. But never in the words of the actors. In fact, even with all its foreshadowing, this production has a distinct lack of foreboding. The surprise instead is a rending final speech from Medea, leaving us in no doubt about her feelings toward her children. This speech is powerful. Despite a strong and funny performance from both boys, it stays with you afterwards as the emotional core of the play. The boys give us a second-hand account of the ups and downs of their parents’ marriage, but these final words give the play the equally strong adult grief that had been needed from its opening moments. Sarks and Mulvany's play owes a lot to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (including its clever word games). And, like that play, it's intellectually engaging, funny, slow-paced, and stuffed with all the drawbacks and benefits you get from having the major plot points take place offstage. This Medea is three plays in one. Multiple versions of reality coexist, like a twice-told myth or a child puzzling out the world in guesses. Two boys’ play reflects an adult world. A very modern custody battle goes wrong. A murderous classical story gets told. The boys — acted with flair, humour, and patience by Kelly and Potter — play with each other, play animal word games, and play war games over the production's on-stage hour. It should be a harsh story to work through, but the meat of this production is, indeed, the play. Instead of giving us Euripides' catharsis of horror and revenge, the play gives the boys one more final hour of powerful play — a long hour full of joy, puzzlement, escapades, and love. Photo by Heidrun Lohr.
No citywide festival can go by without Gelato Messina having a part in it, and Vivid Sydney is no different. This year, Messina will put on its own gelato-filled light show when it opens a pop-up dessert bar at Darling Square. Expect florescent desserts aplenty on offer from May 24 through June 15 when the custom-built ultraviolet store — named Blacklight — opens from 6–11pm each night. It's all in honour of the gelato giant's upcoming shop opening within Darling Square's Electric Treat Street, which is slated for August. Up for grabs throughout the festival will be two glowing gelato cakes, including the signature Dr Evil's Magic Mushroom cake (chocolate gelato, peanut butter cookies and dulce de leche covered with neon painted dark chocolate) and the Dulce-de-Lighted: a three-layer dulce de leche cake of milk sponge, crumb and cream, all topped with a glowing strawberry and roasted cinnamon anglaise. But the cult gelateria isn't stopping there — it has also asked three other Darling Square residents to join in. In week one (May 24–June 2), Bubble Nini will be in the house, slinging two flouro bubble teas. Those include The Sun and the Moon (Messina's jersey milk infused with Taiwanese black tea, glow-in-the-dark strawberry pearls and herbal jellies) and the It Takes Two to Mango (Jasmine green tea with fresh orange, passion fruit, apple, coconut jelly, glowing pearls and Messina's mango sorbet). In week two (June 3–9), Edition Coffee Roasters will join the party with warm mochas and a special Miso Hungry gelato sandwich — it fuses Messina's coffee gelato with miso caramel, two miso dark chocolate cookies and dipped in neon dark chocolate. For the final week of Vivid (June 10–15), the Devon Café team will offer up a teaser of its upcoming DOPA by Devon Japanese-inspired concept. The dessert for the Blacklight pop-up will remain a surprise, so you'll just have to head along to find out. The Blacklight cube itself follows the Vivid theme, too — expect an array of colour-changing panels on the outside and multi-dimensional, neon-lit artwork by Brisbane artist Leans inside.
As anyone with a Facebook account knows, the word 'friend' has a slightly different meaning on the site. Facebook friends can be anyone who's not a total stranger, from actual real-life friends to people you hate but want to stalk/stalk you. FONY 2013 is a play about those people. Written by Courthouse ARTS directors Ross Mueller and Georgina Capper, FONY 2013 explores the way social media has turned schoolyard bullying into something that no longer stops when the bell rings at the end of the day. "If you've ever been to school or if you've ever used the internet, you will relate to this play," Ross said in an interview with Forte Mag. So if you're reading this right now, that definitely includes you. Courthouse ARTS is an arts company for young people, and the FONY 2013 actors are mostly just out of school themselves. After premiering in Geelong, the play will be making its Sydney debut with the Australian Theatre for Young People at Walsh Bay.
2013 is the year organisers were promising Future be their "biggest festival lineup yet", and after rifling through the massive line-up piñata it seems they have indeed delivered. After an already big 2012 outing Future Entertainment has topped that with a bill straddling nearly every sub-genre of pop or dance, ensuring they'll draw not only a larger but a more diverse crowd. 2013's Day of the Dead-Set Awesome will be headlined by English electronic dance commanders The Prodigy, grime MC Dizzee Rascal, indie rockers Bloc Party and reformed rockers The Stone Roses, making it more of a Brit-fest than a Mexican one. Other exciting acts joining the bill include Harlem femcee Azealia Banks, Rita Ora, electro house mainstay Steve Aoki and our own The Temper Trap. And PSY will also be there, just in case you feel like contracting a South Korean virus without actually paying for a ticket to his own upcoming show. https://youtube.com/watch?v=i3Jv9fNPjgk
New Theatre dared a group of Sydney playwrights to dream up a series of plays dealing with women's shifting role in politics, society and culture, and they created Women, Power & Culture — Then and Now. Vanessa Bates, Verity Laughton, Katie Pollock, Gina Schien, Kathryn Yuen tackled 'Then', while Van Badham, Zoe Hogan, Maxine Mellor, Suzie Miller, Alana Valentine took on 'Now'. Over two weeks at New Theatre in Newtown, 12 successive plays will pay tribute to women's triumphs and struggles since they first gained the right to vote at the turn of the 20th century. Australian women have made a lot happen since getting that vote, and this will be serious and smutty, gutsy and gorgeous, general yet specific theatre. Go support the staging of contemporary plays that affirm the importance of women’s thoughts and emotions — past, present and beyond.
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is quite the cinematic right of passage. Donald Duck has assumed the mantle, as have Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine and the Muppets. Heady names indeed when considering yet another remake. But the ambitious Robert Zemeckis has stepped up to the plate, with the ebullient Jim Carrey and British film gold Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Bob Hoskins in toe. Trying his hand again at the painstaking performance capture animation, Zemeckis has jumped off The Polar Express and into Dickensian London (albeit one in 3D).It feels as if Zemeckis has literally gone back to book, beginning as he does with the classic shot that delves into the pages of its source material. More so than previous adaptations, his film feels darker — literally and thematically — which probably aligns this version closer to its 1843 origins. Which is not to say A Christmas Carol has been stripped of its wry commentary nor its redemptive warmth. Though Jim Carrey mostly reigns himself in as the wizened Ebenezer Scrooge, there are still many comedic moments. In fact, he’s positively bizarre as the candle-shaped Ghost of Christmas Past.And yet it somehow feels as if we spend too long in the darkness. Although the first act is conveyed with impressive precision, many sequences within it and the more adventurous second act are overly long. Granted this is a ghost story, but still there is little to entertain younger children, while the joyful ending seems rushed. Similarly the 3D too often falls back on finger pointing for thrills, paling in comparison with the glorious 3D artistry of Pixar’s Up. For better or worse, this classic tale seems destined to be reinvented time and time again. Zemeckis’ attempt is certainly striking, bold and quite intense at times, but the dynamic cinematography combined with Carrey’s captivating portrayal of Scrooge make for another rewarding paring of Disney and Dickens.
As it turns out, there's now an upside to forking out heaps of money on road tolls — it could help you earn money back on your car registration. Yes, you could be paid money to drive through the Harbour Tunnel thanks to the NSW Government's Toll Relief program. After introducing the scheme earlier this year, the government has announced that it will expand its offer next year — and even more drivers will be eligible to receive a heavy (or even full) discount on their rego. If you're handing over $15 or more for tolls each week — which is about four trips through the Sydney Harbour Tunnel, five through Lane Cove Tunnel or three on the Eastern Distributor — $780 over the financial year, from July 1, 2019, you'll be able to claim a 50 percent discount when you next register your car. It's expected almost 300,000 of the state's drivers will benefit from the new eligibility criteria. If you're handing over $25 or more for tolls each week, or $1300 over the financial year, you'll now save up to $715 when renewing your vehicle registration. Which, for some, will result in free rego. As an added bonus, the government will be backdating the toll spend from July 1, 2018, which means you can still reap the benefits of all that money you spent during the past year. While the half-priced rego for those who spend $15 a week on tolls won't be introduced until July 1, 2019, the government is already giving discounted rego to those who spend $25 a week — so, if you're a regular toll road user, don't forget to check if you're eligible next time you renew. To access the reduced rego, and find out how much you're eligible for, next time you're doing your rego renewal just add in your licence plate number and toll account. The rego discounts depend on the size of your car — which coincides with rego fees costing more, the heavier the car — with a full list of savings and sizes listed on the NSW Government website. To find out more about the Toll Relief program and see if you're eligible, head to service.nsw.gov.au.
In July, Bondi Beach Public Bar played host to renowned Philadelphia pizza joint Pizzeria Beddia for one week in its only Aussie pop-up. But, since its departure, the space it occupied at the back of the Campbell Parade restaurant has sat empty ever since — so owner Maurice Terzini has decided to fill it with a worthy substitute: more pizza. It's set to be transformed into Aussie-accented enoteca named Bonnie's Food + Wine. A local riff on the relaxed wine bars you'll find dotted throughout Italy, it's a low-key spot with a penchant for a few top drops with a back story. The wine selection heroes real, sustainable and natural creations from Aussie producers, delivered with minimal fuss and lots of respect. It'll feature just four or five winemakers at any one time, and change up regularly. To match, group Head Chef Monty Koludrovic has pulled together a lineup of modern Italian-inspired bites his menus at The Dolphin and Icebergs are known for. Walk off the sand and into a feast of Calabrese meatballs, fried calamari and sardines with salsa verde. The main drawcard will be three varieties of fried pizza — which are small enough to be a personal snack, and are best matched to a bottle of something fun and local. For a touch of nostalgia, it's all served on classic silver plates. Bonnie's Wine + Food opens within Bondi Beach Public Bar from next Wednesday, September 19 at 203/180 Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach.
If you've seen director Joe Wright and Keira Knightley's subtle and affecting period dramas Atonement and Pride and Prejudice, you might think you know exactly what you're in for with Anna Karenina. And you could not be more wrong. This is an Anna Karenina full of risks. It's a melodrama with the zippy editing of a Guy Ritchie film, the Gallic filigree of Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and, above all, the flourish and symbolism of a work of theatre. In fact, pretty much the whole film has been transplanted to within the confines of a theatre, a conceit that brilliantly suggests a society ruled by pretence and observation. In this world, society balls play out on stage, affairs unfold within the wings, and when a character visits the poorer part of town, he climbs three storeys into the shaky rafters. When the St Petersburg elite sit down to watch a piece of theatre, the curtain lifts on the next scene in their lives. Does it hammer you over the head with this metaphor? Absolutely. Are we bothered? No. Anna Karenina is knowing in its heavy-handedness, and all power to it for embracing the brashness of what is, after all, culture's most populist medium. It doesn't always succeed, but where it takes you is mostly great and always interesting — and that's the bigger achievement. It's kind of extraordinary to read that the whole world-within-a-theatre idea only came 12 weeks before the shoot, because it's a striking marriage of theme and methodology. Wright already had two names known mostly for their imposing stage work attached to the project — screenwriter Tom Stoppard (indeed, many of the scene changes call to mind Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead) and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, whose expertise informed the smallest gestures as well as an expressive waltz — alongside ever-intense film composer Dario Marianelli, and they each play their part in taking the movie one bold step further away from the expectedly realist to the dizzyingly theatrical. Leo Tolstoy's famously vast novel has of course been whittled down, so that everything that happens on screen elucidates the central theme of infidelity and whether it is an impulse "of the animal or the soul". By the time Anna (Knightley) dives into the arms of besotted military officer Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), desire and repercussion has been examined from every angle, and we feel for both the lovers and Anna's betrayed, dispassionate husband, Karenin (Jude Law, who's excellent here). It's also still a tale of two cities (St Petersburg and Moscow, in a Sydney-Melbourne-type rivalry) and the country, with their contrasting characters and morality. It's easy to conclude that this Anna Karenina is a superficial portrait of a superficial society, but that would be to dismiss how emotionally powerful it is in key moments, particularly an intricately choreographed society scene that communicates the oppressiveness of gossip. At other times, mainly when the campiness loses its originality and grabs at cliche, the film goes off the rails, and it sadly detracts from Anna's fate. Wright and co. should be applauded for having the guts to do things differently and birth an Anna Karenina unlike any of its predecessors. It's worth watching, and more than once.
When you think Australian culture of the 1970s, you probably get a stodgy, insular, Chiko-rolls-and-panel-vans kind of picture. But somewhere in Melbourne, a young John Romeril was kicking around La Mama, building a performing arts collective in a converted pram factory and writing The Floating World. His most well-known play, it features a war vet, a cruise ship, a Malay waiter, an in-your-face comedian and an unstable reality that lurches with the throes of its main character's mind. Les Harding (Peter Kowitz) is on the 1974 Women's Weekly Cherry Blossom cruise to Japan with his wife, Irene (Valerie Bader). They're meant to spend their days in sun loungers and nights in the bar with their dapper new friend, Robinson (Tony Llewellyn-Jones), and the hired entertainment (Justin Smith as emcee and Justin Stewart Cotta as one-man band). And they do do some of that. But the closer they get to their destination, the stranger Les starts to behave, ruining these idyllic moments as memories long buried are stirred to the surface. As a young private, Les fought in Japan with the Australian Imperial Force, and the traumas he experienced there have managed to go unexamined for nearly a lifetime. The most startling achievement of The Floating World is its vivid, violent, sometimes comic and usually unsettling portrayal of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, written at a time when PTSD was not yet known and defined (it was among the goals of the anti-Vietnam War demonstrators at about the same time to get the condition recognised and treated). In The Floating World, you experience reality in the same malleable, untrustworthy way Les does, and it's heartbreaking. The breakneck, bewildering comedy in the writing is also a treat to discover in this, the only 'classic' Australian play in Griffin Theatre's otherwise all-new-writing season. Director Sam Strong has done great justice to the work, crafting smooth transitions and interjections as well as a layer of uneasy hyperreality that ties it all together. If you have a parent or grandparent who fought in one of Australia's wars, this play will strike the heart, paving a bridge that crosses what years of pain and stoicism may have made distant. If you don't, it might be a bit harder to connect with the play. Les is a disagreeable old sort, and Kowitz plays with him with such gruff perfection that his yammering can be realistically hard to listen to. There's too much full-tilt Australiana in here for it to be a play that communicates beyond the limited bounds it's set in. But as a voyage into the Australian wartime legacy, The Floating World is highly effective.
Throughout 2014, fans across the globe will celebrate 450 years since William Shakespeare's birth. To mark the occasion, popular Sydney-based Shakespeare company Sport For Jove, renowned for their outdoor productions, are celebrating with their largest ever indoor repertory season. And with this comes their premiere production of All's Well That Ends Well. A play rarely performed and yet impressively bold, All's Well That End's Well is uniquely daring but often avoided due to its exploration of inherently difficult (and yet totally topical) issues. Here, Sport for Jove tackles the beast head on. Under the direction of Damien Ryan (winner of the 2013 Sydney Theatre Critics Award for Best Director of an Independent Production), All's Well That Ends Well is about an ordinary girl with a big plan. The dark yet delightfully comedic play cuts straight to the heart of Shakespeare's wonderfully subversive perspective on love and family. "It explores a sexual scandal, and the subsequent fierce gender debate and moral furore that can follow," says Ryan. Starring Robert Alexander, Sandie Eldridge, Francesca Savige, Edmund Lembke-Hogan and George Banders, All's Well That Ends Well also features the return of the supremely popular Twelfth Night ensemble. All's Well That Ends Well plays in repertory with Twelfth Night, or What You Will. https://youtube.com/watch?v=GGiUNkb1LVg
Playing a string of intimate gigs in Melbourne and Sydney, European buzz boy SOHN (aka Christopher Taylor) is embarking on his first ever Australian tour this month. Though you may not have heard too much from him now, we highly recommend jumping on tickets. This guy's about to blow up in a big way, and you'll probably be paying double in a year's time for his sell-out gigs at The Enmore Theatre. Having just released his debut album Tremors, SOHN is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer who specialises in hypnotic electro beats. Perfect for your average chill session, SOHN's music lies somewhere between the moody vocals of James Blake and the precise repetitive grooves of Alt-J. And, if you ask us, that's a surefire recipe for success. As a London expat now living in Vienna, there's also a great deal of place reflected in his music. SOHN reportedly recorded every song on the album entirely at night, then took a long walk at sunrise through the city to clear his head. As a result of this, Tremors has been described as the perfect blend of London's buzzing hubbub and Vienna's iconic serenity. Tracks like 'Artifice' and 'The Wheel' show this perfectly — some great listening for your evening stroll to his gig. https://youtube.com/watch?v=AslPYSm7jfg
The Australian Garden Show is shaking the winter out of Sydney and letting everyone know which life-giving season is boss. You probably know Costa Georgiadis as much for his striking, luscious beard as his gardening tips but ‘The Greek God of Gardening’ joins UK Garden Designer of the Year Andrew Fisher Tomlin, Don Burke, Indira Naidoo, Better Homes and Gardens’ Graham Ross and a host of other seriously passionate gardeners at various events over the four-day show. Thirty gardens will be on display in Centennial Park, including gardens specifically designed for balconies and space-poor city-dwellers, and a series of photography workshops will be run by The Aperture Club. You’re bound to learn something useful about gardening, design and wellbeing with over 80 free talks, including ‘Junglefy Our Cities’ by Joc Gammon from Junglefy (the green thumbs behind the cascading greenery of Chippendale's Central Park), who will be talking about the need to give Sydney more green spaces.
This menswear shop is all about bespoke tailoring and accessories that will elevate your nine-to-five wardrobe. Belancē offers carefully crafted suiting known for achieving a hybrid of traditional and contemporary style. Take advantage of its made-to-measure tailoring service for ultra sharp, high quality suits and jackets. You'll also find carefully curated accessories and pieces to enhance your personal style, from fresh white kicks to leather work and travel bags. Don't wait till wedding season to get yourself chalked up for a new suit — Belancē is the store you hit up for lifelong clothing made with skill and dedication.
The beloved schnitty might not be the first thing you think of when you hear the word "degustation", but that's all about to change. Inner west pub The Toxteth is celebrating Sydney's favourite crumbed chicken dish with a one-off, eight-course schnitzel degustation on Saturday, September 14. For a tidy $50 a head, guests will find themselves tucking into eight crafty schnitzel dishes, featuring a whole swag of different proteins. There'll be a kangaroo schnitzel teamed with bush tomato and lemon myrtle, a fish number with baby capers and cheesy potato, and even a dessert schnitzel matched with chocolate mousse, Anzac biscuit crumbs and berries. As for the standard chicken version, it'll be elevated with a gutsy wasabi and sesame crumb. Of course, a schnitty just isn't a schnitty without a cold beer to match, so Pirate Life has jumped on board to offer a special degustation beer pairing menu. You'll be able to team your dishes with matched beers from the South Aussie brewery for an extra $25 a head. To book, head to The Toxteth Hotel website. Images: Kitti Gould
Ever looked at the guy holding the 'slow/stop' sign on a construction site and wondered if he was internally grappling with philosophical questions as he flips the sign? Probably not, but you will after seeing this play. A Sign of The Times is a NIDA Independent and The Follies production written and directed by Stephen Helper and starring Scott Irwin, the play's central and only character. 'Man' is a former uni lecturer who, after it all gets too much at work and home, decides to give it all up and become the slow/stop man at construction sites. The audience is invited inside Man's head as he spends his days internally pondering life's big questions, using his knowledge of Shakespeare, Einstein, ancient Greek drama, T.S. Eliot and Robert Frost. According to Helper, the play was inspired by a chance encounter at some road works with a "friendly, energised" workman who left a lasting impression on him. But despite the heavy intellectual content, Helper says audiences can expect the play to be "very,very funny."
The Dumbo Feather Conversation Series is back in 2013 with entrepreneur and social innovator Chid Liberty, CEO of Africa's first Fair Trade Certified apparel factory, Liberty and Justice, which creates economic opportunities for displaced African women. "We keep talking about poor people as if they don't make rational decisions," says Chid. "But they make much better, much more rational decisions than most wealthy people. All we're going to do is move the needle a little bit at a time every day." p> The Dumbo Feather Conversations series is a live version of Dumbo Feather magazine, which features inspiring conversations with "people worth knowing, across enterprise, education, science, sport, politics, fashion and the arts". You can start chewing over the issues of the night by having a read of Chid's Dumbo Feather interview here.
Have you ever wanted to see your work on the walls of a gallery but didn't know how to go from notebook doodler to exhibited artist? Well, Museum of Sydney has got you covered with its summer exhibition Make Your Mark, inviting visitors of all ages to do the one thing we're told we absolutely cannot do in a gallery, and that is draw on the walls. You have until Sunday, February 7 to quite literally make your mark on every surface of the exhibition's dedicated space. Your work of art will be prompted by the sentence 'my city is…'. And if that's not enough, you can also unleash your creative spirit by adding to three new commissions from artists Georgia Norton Lodge (aka Georgia Draws a House) and Digby Webster, plus singer/poet Gumaroy Newman. Collaborate with friends and strangers to create an ever-changing artwork that reflects our city and the people who make it such a great place to live. You can enjoy the exhibition every Thursday through Sunday, from 10am–5pm. Or, head down on a Thursday evening for Culture Up Late, which runs from 5–8pm. Entry to the Museum is $15 for non-members, or free for Sydney Living Museum members. To become a member, sign up here. Book your tickets over here. Images: James Horan for Sydney Living Museums.
Been itching to experience Bowral's acclaimed fine diner Biota, but aren't so keen on making the two-hour trek down south? Well, come June, you can sample the goods without putting in the kilometres, because chef and owner James Viles will bring Biota to the big smoke for a four-week residency in Chippendale. Taking over the former Silvereye space within The Old Clare Hotel from June 11 to July 7, it'll be a 'fun and casual' dining experience, built around Viles' trademark commitment to cracking local ingredients. The specially designed five-course menu is inspired by some of the Biota team's favourite places and produce, Australia's finest imagined in dishes like a whole salt and pepper mud crab with wild greens from Far North Queensland. As for the beverage pairing, there'll be signature cocktails made with all-Aussie spirits and a tight but interesting crop of domestic wines, curated by the restaurant's star sommelier Ben Shephard. There's even a beer crafted exclusively for the residency, that's made — believe it or not — from weeds. Expect a few more surprises, too, with a handful of special guests scheduled to make cameo appearances throughout the month. In May, Viles is hitting Far North Queensland for a cooking and camping trip with chef mates like David Moyle (Longsong), Aaron Turner (Igni) and Lennox Hastie (Firedoor) — word is, some of that crew will be swinging by the Chippendale kitchen, adding their own one-night-only dishes to the Biota menu. And if, after that, you're keen to head down to Bowral to check out where it all comes from, book in for one of Biota's 'gather and cook' adventures, where you'll go foraging in the Southern Highlands before eating your finds over a campfire feast. Biota Chippendale will run from June 11 until July 7 on level two of The Old Clare Hotel, Chippendale. It will be open for dinner Wednesday and Thursday, and for lunch and dinner Friday and Saturday. The five-course menu clocks in at $110 per person, with matched beverages for an extra $68 per person. Bookings can be made here.
Remember when we used to bemoan the fates of so many young women growing up with Bella from Twilight as a hero? Now we know the same generation has had Katniss Everdeen, and the kids are all right. Plus, those of us well on the 'A' side of 'YA' want in on the flamboyant, ultra-capitalist dystopia and its inadvertent girl revolutionary. Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games is a really developed universe, and the story only gets more compelling with Catching Fire, which in film is a 2 hour 25 minute whirlwind. After the gameplay-based formula of the first instalment, it was hard to figure out where the sequels would go — another fight-to-the-death Battle Royale would be repetitive, but if we don't spend any time in an arena, the premise of the trilogy would look pretty disposable. Suffice to say, Catching Fire has it covered. After the act of subversion Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) pulled off on live TV at the end of The Hunger Games, agitation is spreading in the poorer districts of Panem, and the despotic President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and the ruling elite of the Capitol will do anything to quell it. Snow manipulates Katniss into placating the proletariat via a tightly controlled publicity tour — and if she fails, he has a plan B. Following the strategy of his sly new head gamemaker, Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman. Just bear with the name), Snow calls for a special-occasion Hunger Games, for which all the competing tributes are drawn from past victors. This throws our old favourites — Katniss, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), Effie (Elizabeth Banks), Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) — back together, while also introducing a new field of characters fierce in combat and charisma. Just try not to love matter-of-fact badass Johanna (Jena Malone) and sleazy Finnick (Sam Claflin), an arrogant prepster who nonetheless piggybacks his elderly mentor, Mags (Lynn Cohen), about the place. It's all on Katniss to survive, again — while protecting Peeta, her family and her distant love Gale (Liam Hemsworth). This time, she also has to slot in her obligations to all of humankind. Collins' story gives the film excellent bones. The allegories — to reality TV, consumer society and good old fashioned class struggle — sit very near the surface, but that doesn't dull their impact; it's a thrill to see such politics in a dazzling mainstream package. Several key moments of protest are nimbly handled, such that they provoke real empathy and reflection. Director Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) and his team have not dropped the ball. There's no Disneyfication; Catching Fire has a distinct look and sustained dark, gritty mood. The Capitol is made to look both glamorous and repulsive, and comedy is inserted with precision; every time Stanley Tucci does a weird laugh, we do a weird laugh, and Malone kills it in the space of an elevator ride. Of course, The Hunger Games' ultimate weapon is Jennifer Lawrence, and Catching Fire lets her unleash her Jennifer Lawrenciest self, pulling some unpretty faces, cracking a few jokes and being brazenly down-to-earth in the face of Panem-wide 'Girl on Fire' hysteria. We'll follow her into any showdown — including when the final Hunger Games arrives split in two parts, in 2014 and 2015. https://youtube.com/watch?v=MkvUNfySGQU
Whether you think you can dance or know for a fact that you can't, we have got a hell of an at-home activity for you. Groove Therapy has brought its judgement-free classes online and is charging just $8 a pop. The relaxed, 35-minute live streamed classes for the aspiring street dancer in all of us run most nights at 6 or 6.30pm AEST via Zoom. From Sunday–Thursday, you can partake in a Sweats in Sweats class — where you'll stretch it out and learn a mini-choreography — then on Friday the founder of Mission Stiletto Cassandra Merwood will run you through a playful class in stilettos (if you want, otherwise barefoot is just fine). Indeed, the classes are designed for beginner students who might feel intimidated by a more professional environment. Don't let that fool you though, because the instructors are legit, and will have you popping and locking in no time. It's perfect for those of us who dream of burning up the dance floor, but have never had the moves to back it up. If you'd like to sink your teeth into a longer dance program, Groove Therapy also offers four online dance courses, which you can progress through at your own rate. Kick things off with the 16-class Beginner 1: Grooves (for $69); level up with Party Dances ($89), which'll teach you everything from the moonwalk to the running man, then complete your education with House 1 ($89) and 11 ($69). You'll be ready to rip up the disco dance floor in no time. Images: Gracie Steindl
Set along the banks of the Parramatta River, the Riverside Theatre is Western Sydney's premier performing arts centre. It's a favourite amongst locals and visitors alike, with some of the best performances taking up residency here each year. Alongside all the theatrical performances, Riverside also screens a range of films in its Raffertys Theatre. And you can use two NSW Dine & Discover vouchers for any show at all, which will cover the cost of all of the aforementioned, as prices range from $30–49 for non-member adults. Before or after the show, be sure to check out the 'eat street' precinct along Church Street, with loads of restaurants offering quality pre-theatre dining options. Image: Destination NSW
As it is with porn films, the attraction of musicals is rarely 'plot'; instead, it's the music that appeals most (another thing that is, very rarely, a high point in porn). In the musical world there are the dramas (Les Mis), the comedies (Avenue Q, Book of Mormon), the rock operas (Jesus Christ Superstar), the classics (West Side Story, Oklahoma) and whatever the hell Urinetown is. More recently, though, we've seen another type of musical: 'the jukebox', in which the vast majority of songs (if not all) are taken from pre-existing catalogues (i.e. Mamma Mia). In a genre already light on the plot, these 'jukeboxers' tend to be the worst offenders because whichever 'story' is presented is usually just a threadbare device to get you from one toe-tapper to the next. Jersey Boys is something of an exception to that rule, because while it does contain a catalogue of amazing old songs, its plot is based on the true story of 1960s all-boy band Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. It's a familiar enough tale: a fledgling group struggles to establish itself in the notoriously fickle music industry, when suddenly - just as all hope seems lost - the perfect combination of singer, songwriter and song ('Sherry') come together to launch the group into stardom. With success comes fame, and with fame, its many pitfalls: affairs, debts and artistic differences, to name but a few. Jersey Boys is based on the enormously successful Broadway show of the same name, and all but one of its leading men come straight from the stage version (the exception being Vincent Piazza of Boardwalk Empire). It was originally slated to be directed by Jon Favreau (Iron Man), but in the end the role fell to Clint Eastwood, though to watch to film, you'd scarcely know it. The shots are largely static, the colours heavily desaturated and the drama almost non-existent. Somehow, the genuinely interesting story feels decidedly the opposite thanks to the lacklustre direction, and were it not for the songs, there'd be little reason to watch. Thankfully, the cavalcade of hits in Jersey Boys transforms what would otherwise be a subpar film into one that's a pleasant enough trip down musical memory lane. https://youtube.com/watch?v=DbURfiUWVtg
Carriageworks is pretty quiet on a Saturday afternoon post-Eveleigh Markets. But that's probably the best way to experience Working Class Hero (A Portrait of John Lennon), a video installation by Berlin-based artist Candice Breitz, which is tucked away in Anna Schwartz Gallery at the far end of the building. The installation features 25 John Lennon fans selected by Breitz to record their own version of Lennon's first solo album, Plastic Ono Band, and they all play simultaneously on individual screens. Standing right in the middle of the dark room, listening their voices echoing around the giant empty space is pretty surreal. It definitely adds to the experience. It might seem weird for a 'portrait' of John Lennon to not have any actual images of him, but in Working Class Hero, the focus is on the fan — their relationship with the music and the way it means something different to each of them. It brings to mind that quote from Almost Famous, about how being a fan means "to truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts". You can see it in their facial expressions, the emotion in their voices, the way they perk up or the way they start bopping away when one particular song comes on. Working Class Hero is the fourth part of a series of similar 'portraits' by Breitz — Legend, King and Queen, which were about Bob Marley, Michael Jackson and Madonna respectively — all available on her website. They're not essential viewing, but you do get a better sense of what Breitz is trying to capture. And the contrasts between the different groups of fans. For instance, there's a lot more dancing in the Michael Jackson and Madonna ones, while John Lennon and Bob Marley fans prefer to sing with a bit of swaying and head bopping here and there. Even if you're not a hardcore John Lennon fan, the experience of being a fan, and having that one album that you'll always know inside out, is something everyone can relate to.
This August, The Morrison Bar and Oyster Room will be hosting the The Morrison Loves Oysters, a month-long oyster festival with events that cater to everyone from oyster virgins to connoisseurs. They could also make for fun dates — particularly given the oyster's reputation as an aphrodisiac. A highlight of the festival is Oyster Hour, serving up $1 oysters from 6-7pm every day in August. Normally at The Morrison they shuck the oysters for you, but hey, oyster shucking is a valuable cosmopolitan skill — which is where Shuck Me Silly comes in. The Morrison's own Vio Pramano will hold classes where he'll show you how to shuck oysters while looking classy and not accidentally severing your fingers, which is always a plus. And for the more discerning oyster fan, there's the Oyster Love-In, hosted by Sean Connolly, 'seafood genius' John Susman and two top oyster farmers. There'll be a four-course meal where they'll teach you how to spot a perfect oyster, where the best ones come from and how to match your wine with your oysters. They'll also be serving up a range of oyster-related cocktails, including oyster shots — which are oysters squished into the bottom of shot glasses and topped with your choice of either Verdita, pineapple, coriander, jalapeno and mint or Sangrita, tomato, pomegranate and lemon. There's also the Oyster Dry Martini, which replaces the traditional olive with oyster brine.
The crew responsible for Taylor’s Social’s Saturday night parties is adding an extra shindig to the schedule this holiday season. On Boxing Day — right when you’ll be looking the post-Christmas blues in the face — Taylor's Rooftop and Danceetc will come to your rescue with CLASSICSetc: an afternoon-evening party packed with disco, ‘90s house and ‘00s electro. Headlining the adventure is house guru Kaz James, who's spun tunes all over the planet, including at Coachella and Ibiza. Meanwhile, Kid Kenobi will be taking on 15 years’ worth of electro history, playing classics you’d forgotten existed. Then there’ll be Goodwill with his enormous disco and house collection and Mark Dynamix, who’s been responsible for some of the Ministry of Sound’s most popular compilations and will take you time-tripping back to 2002. Before these assorted legends hit the decks, a handful of locals, including John Glover, Alex Taylor and Toby Neal, will be warming up the dance floor with a stack of their favourite tracks. Thanks to a collaboration between CLASSICSetc and Campari, Negronis will be on special all night long. And getting your travel sorted is a cinch with goCatch — enter the code CLASSICS15 for a $25 voucher. First release tickets have been snapped up already, but if you get in quick, you might nab one in the second release.
Art in the car park is nothing new in Sydney these days. Oversize art fairs aren't sitting too far away on the cultural horizon, either. But while the looming Sydney Contemporary will work at the pricier end of the scale, and the bounty of Alaska Projects comes with a modicum of urban spelunking, the Fringe's annual art market spread sits conveniently just off King Street. Artcore Guerilla Artfair is situated in the Newtown Dendy's cavernous car park, bringing together art by 30 local artists. It's guerilla by price as well as by name, with its art starting around $5.
If you've got an inquisitive mind and a sweet tooth, you're going to want to pay a visit to Eat the Collection, a one-night-only event at the Powerhouse Museum that will involve playing with the latest 3D printing technology — to print in chocolate. A part of Vivid Ideas 2013, Eat the Collection "explores the interaction of design, food and technology", with 10 of Sydney's most creative minds to lead proceedings. There'll be artists, graphic and industrial designers, sculptors and architects, including design studios Kink and Supermanoeuvre and LAVA founder Chris Bosse. They'll search the museum's online collection for an object to inspire their own drawing, which then gets printed out in 3D. Chocolate 3D. People are invited to come along and eat the 3D creations, as well as hear the stories behind them — their creative processes, what objects were used as inspiration, as well as learn a little bit more about the technology behind 3D printing. There's also going to be games, DJs, a silent disco and food and drink in the unlikely event that you get sick of all the chocolate.
To tell you the truth, we know as much about this event as you do: next to nada. And that's exactly the point. Well Sensered Food is a mysterious, multi-sensory dining experience that aims to disrupt everything you know — or you think you know — about eating out. So, until the night, every detail is top-secret, from the location (which is presented via a hand-drawn map) to the menu. That said, rumour has it that you'll be sipping your away through somewhere between seven and ten cocktails and that every course will have a story to tell — at some point during the evening you might even be at risk of being blindfolded. This event is part of Good Food Month — check out a past happening over here.
Music venues across Melbourne and regional Victoria are set to take part in a pilot anti-sexual harassment and assault program, launched by the State Government this week. To begin, staff members in nine venues will receive training in identifying and responding to incidents. This will be followed in late April with the distribution of posters and related materials. Officially titled the Sexual Harassment and Assault in Licensed Live Music Venues Pilot Program, the initiative was created by a taskforce and working group convened in mid-2015. Members include representatives of LISTEN, SLAM (Save Live Australian Music), Music Victoria, Live Music Office and Victorian Police. The Victorian Government, under Labor Premier Daniel Andrews, provided funding. Venues taking part in the pilot, which will run for twelve weeks, are Corner Hotel, Richmond; Howler, Brunswick; Revolver Upstairs, Prahran; The Toff in Town, Melbourne CBD; The Gasometer, Collingwood; The Croxton Bandroom, Thornbury; The Chelsea Heights Hotel, Chelsea Heights; The Workers Club, Geelong and Karova Lounge, Ballarat. "This ground-breaking program will enable staff and patrons to step in and better respond to sexual harassment when it happens, and to prevent it from happening in the first place," said Minister for Gaming and Liquor Regulation Marlene Kairouz. In 2012, UNSW researcher Dr Bianca Fileborn surveyed 230 women and found that 96 percent "thought harassment happened in bars and clubs", with 80 percent describing it as common.
UPDATE: April 20, 2020: The Guilty is available to stream via SBS On Demand, Google Play and YouTube. Some time in the not-too-distant future, Jake Gyllenhaal will sit in a nondescript cubicle, strap on a headset and try to save a woman's life. He'll do so while playing a police officer who's been demoted to phone duties, tasked with taking emergency calls, who suddenly finds himself talking to a kidnapping victim as her abduction is in progress. The camera won't move from his grey office location as he frantically attempts to resolve the fraught situation, and the movie will be all the more gripping for it. But no matter how effective this forthcoming flick is (or not, depending on how it turns out), exceptional Danish actor Jakob Cedergren and stellar thriller The Guilty will always have gotten there first. An English-language remake of Gustav Möller's Oscar-shortlisted debut was always bound to happen. It's the kind of high-concept film that Hollywood loves, regardless of where the idea came from. Tense Ryan Reynolds vehicle Buried, the involving, Tom Hardy-starring Locke, and Halle Berry's awful The Call have all played with aspects of the same concept, however The Guilty might just be the best of the talk-heavy bunch. With claustrophobic visuals and an uneasy mood, it's not simply smart, savvy and suspenseful, although each of those descriptions apply. More than that, this single-setting, real-time screw-turner is downright masterful in achieving its aim — that is, ensuring that one guy making and taking phone calls ranks among the most intense 85-minute periods in cinema history. In a standout role that deserves to bring Cedergren to broader attention, the Danish TV mainstay plays Asger Holm, a short-tempered, nearly-axed cop who couldn't be unhappier with his current assignment. One call virtually bleeds into the next in his frustrated mind, until a particularly fearful plea for assistance stands out. Iben's (Jessica Dinnage) story is distressing from the outset, involving domestic violence, being whisked away from home against her will, and two young kids left behind to fend for themselves. And so Holm springs into action, doing everything he can without leaving the phone to track down the kidnapped woman, as well as her reportedly explosive ex-husband (Johan Olsen), before it's too late. The immense skill required to not only engage and excite an audience's imagination, but to truly activate it, can't be underestimated. While the printed word achieves the feat with frequency, cinema typically prefers to be more explicit. Even when mystery is involved, movies tend to avoid relegating their most thrilling moments to spectators' heads — the same is true for the bulk of their action and drama, for that matter. Streamlined without ever proving simplistic, The Guilty takes the opposite approach, forcing its viewers' minds to fire on all available cylinders. The details shown on screen are far from sparse, including the range of emotion on offer from the picture's controlled but expressive leading man, and more subplots than one might expect given the movie's premise. But even as cinematographer Jasper Spanning spends much of the film's running time honing in on Cedergren's piercing, pensive eyes, the tale that's literally told via snippets of conversation couldn't be more vivid. Thank Möller's tight, taut script, as penned with economical but evocative precision with co-writer Emil Nygaard Albertsen. Thank their star as well, once again. And, with hearty enthusiasm, thank the craftspeople responsible for creating the film's fine-tuned soundscape. The fields of sound editing and sound mixing can confuse even the most dedicated cinephiles come Oscars time each year, with the former referring to finding and assembling individual sources of audio, and the latter involving the act of stitching them all together. Here, both disciplines are on show, although experienced sound editor Oskar Skriver has done a particularly astute job of finding the right sound for every single moment — and making audiences hang on each and every voice and noise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qYyTJM6Kvo
In 2011, in this very country and galaxy, a pop culture favourite gained a singing, stripping burlesque parody. It's the mash-up that was bound to happen. Who hasn't looked at George Lucas' space opera, its sprawling drama and ample spectacle, and wondered what a steamier, funnier version with more visible butt cheeks would look like? Russall S. Beattie clearly did, and had a good feeling that other people would give it a shot. The Empire Strips Back was the end result. It became a hit around Australia, then took itself overseas to much acclaim. Now it's returning home for a 2019 tour — once again showing local audiences that lightsabers aren't the hottest thing in the Star Wars galaxy. The saucy show promises "seriously sexy stormtroopers, a dangerously seductive Boba Fett, some tantalising Twi'leks, a delightfully lukewarm Taun Taun, a lady-like Skywalker [and] the droids you are looking for", according to its website. Apparently Yoda doesn't get the sexed-up treatment, but there is plenty of song, dance, acrobatics and — because it's burlesque — the removal of clothing. A dancing Chewie and Han is just the beginning of this cheeky take on Star Wars cosplay. Given that it's got an upbeat soundtrack, the costumes are extremely detailed and the show throws out lots of references to George Lucas' original plot, it's not surprising that local audiences — presumably the same ones that pack out Star Wars parties and large-scale screenings with a live orchestra — have latched onto the production. Heading to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, The Empire Strips Back sits alongside Dame of Thrones in Beattie's pop culture parody stable — so if you've already seen one of your fantastical screen obsessions get the burlesque treatment, then you know what you're in for. If you're super keen, you can also nab a Wookieerotica magazine online: a 116-page, 70s-style men's mag, just casually featuring all of your favourite jedis, siths, ewoks and other Star Wars characters. Either way, it could be a great introduction to burlesque or Star Wars, depending on which way you're coming at it. The Empire Strips Back tours Australia early 2019. It will be at Perth's Regal Theatre on January 11–12, Melbourne's Palais Theatre on January 18, Brisbane's The Tivoli from January 31 to February 2 and Sydney's Enmore Theatre on February 15–16. Ticket pre-sales commence at 9am on Thursday, September 13 — visit the show's website for further details. Images: Jon Bauer, Leslie Liu and Josh Groom.
Frontmen rarely come as charismatic as Henry Wagons. A storytelling character and a half, the Melburnian native has returned from the dark desert highways of the US to bring Wagons' shiny new album to the townspeople. Seeing music as a joyous occasion rather than a moment to wallow in your sorrows, Wagons' shows are downright shindiggerous in their approach. "'Music is a public activity — the very birth of music was designed to be joined in on,'' Wagons told SMH. ''The first music was played at celebrations. The insular emo songwriter in the bedroom is this recent offshoot of what music is at its core. Music for me is for other people. I write it alone, but with the idea of playing it for other people.'' These "other people" make up the remaining five members of Wagons, one of Australia's best and most underrated live bands. Wagons have just released their latest single 'Beer Barrel Bar', taken from brand new, sixth studio album Acid Rain and Sugar Cane and nabbing a four-star rating from Rolling Stone. Landing feature album at 2ser and RTR, Wagons' new release heralds the end of a long period between drinks for the band — Henry Wagons released his own lovelorn ballad-filled solo album in 2013 and spent many months on the dusty highways of America touring his wares. With Mick Harvey (The Birthday Party/Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds) behind the mixing desk and Wagons himself bringing his US-inspired country stomping style to the plate, Acid Rain and Sugar Cane has quite the Nashville twang to it. Best enjoyed with a whiskey in hand and a soulmate far away, the LP is a natural evolution of Wagons' indie country blues into an Ameristralian tavern hootenanny. Supported by Emma Swift + Joseph Liddy and the Skeleton Horse. https://youtube.com/watch?v=WXoiX2bFPDY
