Sometimes the arts and sport are pitted against each other. But next month, the two will unite in the award-winning new romantic comedy, Become The One, which is playing at Riverside Theatres from Thursday, May 19 till Saturday, May 21. The play explores the relationship between Tom — a celebrated AFL player on the cusp of retirement from sport — and his new love interest, Noah. As the relationship intensifies, the characters are forced to question their identities and consider how they'll manage their private lives in the public sphere. Become the One flips the script on a stereotypical closeted sportsperson and asks audiences to consider a scenario in which it's the partner, not the athlete, that is pushing to dismantle heteronormativity within Australian sport. It'll make you laugh, potentially cry and you'll likely question what you would be willing to sacrifice for the one you love. Keen to check it out? 'Become The One' will play from Thursday, May 19 till Saturday, May 21 at Riverside Theatres. For more information and to book, visit the website. Images: Jodie Hutchinson.
Melbourne's bubble tea franchise Gotcha Fresh Tea is rapidly expanding — into Sydney. Having already opened one in Chinatown's Dixon Street, it's just launched a second store in World Square. Its eye-catching neon purple and pastel pink hues make it easy to spot among the shopping centre's many other offerings. Gotcha also stands out from the pack thanks to its teas, which are all exclusively grown and hand-picked on the Gotcha plantation in Taiwan — the country where bubble tea originated, mind you. The extensive menu goes deeper than your average bubble tea shop, too. Milk teas come in red bean, bamboo charcoal, taro and durian flavours. Fruit teas come with sliced fresh fruit, including lychee, passionfruit, cumquat and mango. They all range from $5.20–18. There are also teas available with cheese, salted egg or tiramisu foams; a range of 'healthy' collagen teas in bamboo, aloe vera and mulberry flavours; and a menu of macchiatos, lattes, health teas and smoothies to choose from. Of course, you can add pearls and jelly to any and all flavour combinations. Gotcha's expansion is no where near slowing, either, with over 15 stores slated to open in 2019.
“Living together alone is hell between consenting adults" according to Michel Houellebecq. Porn.Cake, (written by Vanessa Bates and directed by Shannon Murphy) first played to Melbourne audiences at the Malthouse and is on now at Griffin Theatre 'til the 14th of July. If you’re expecting cakes in the shape of naughty body parts: don’t. The producers have opted for standard cake, lovely cake in fact, made by the bakers at the Epicurean Kitchen. Speaking of Epicurus, it’s strange that he is now associated with gluttony and indulgence, when he was really just a hippy who believed that the good life meant spending quality time with friends and family over a modest bowl of soup. Porn.Cake is a world apart from the Epicurean ideal. We meet two mirror-image couples living the middle class domestic dream, who are sick of their respective partners and are unable to communicate let alone copulate. The women are obsessed by their diminishing attractiveness and the men are forever texting about a "business matter". Cake acts a cover for their unfulfilled sexual desires and lack of connection. Porn.Cake’s premise is that "cake is the new porn". Just as porn stimulates a perpetual desire without fulfillment, cake promises sweet satisfaction without nourishment. Steve Toulmin’s sound design using snippets of Jamie and Nigella talking seductively about food in between scenes is pornographic in so far as it is full of promise, with the moment of satisfaction always out of reach. The performers eat cake mechanically, without the appreciation that Epicurus would have us note. In this way porn and food act as "points of entry" into the themes of isolation and existential dissatisfaction. (For more on this watch Steve McQueen’s Shame.) The piece is comprised of four monologues joined by scenes that repeat and morph as the evening progresses. The clunky opening monologue, performed by an otherwise entertaining Olivia Pigeot, falls short of the rest of the play. And this odd start means the play is a bit of a slow burn, but once it gets moving it’s thoroughly enjoyable. In particular, Georgina Symes’s monologue as the naturopath with a bee in her bonnet is excellent and hilarious. Be advised - you should go on an empty stomach, unless you have a truly voracious appetite for cake or porn or both. Image by Griffin Theatre.
If you have plans this Saturday, take a raincheck. AdHoc.FM, Preservation Records and Rose Quartz are throwing one hell of a night at Dirty Shirlows, a warehouse that holds cultural events and gigs that are for people looking for something a little left of field. The name of it is ASTRALWERKS, a night of cosmic and psychedelic music to send you straight into the stratosphere. The set list is as follows: DEEP MAGIC (Los Angeles) SunAraw Preservation PIMMON Preservation Stunned SECRET BIRDS No Kings Sonoptik ANGEL EYES Melbourne NotNotFun FOUR DOOR Naked On The Vague + Holy Balm + Guest Djs: Tom Ellard (Severed Heads), DJ Preservation and Ears Have Ears DJs til late From the former editors of Pitchfork’s experimental blog Altered Zones, Ad Hoc (http://adhoc.fm/) is a Brooklyn-based, 100% independent, daily music and visual culture publication that brings together music bloggers, writers and active imaginations from all across our global grassroots community. It aims to expose pockets of DIY culture the world-over, strengthen ties across countries, and foster scenes that are working in the shadows cast by the gleam of traditional cultural focus. In line with this, Astralwerks compiles some of Australia - and the world’s – leading practitioners of mind-bending and forward-thinking music. All proceeds from the event go towards the Ad Hoc project. Rose Quartz (http://rosequartz.blogspot.com/) are five dudes from Australia and New Zealand. They started blogging about great new music at the start of 2007 and since have hit the publish button over 1500 times, put on gigs in New York, the UK, Australia and New Zealand and been one of the founding members of Pitchfork’s collaborative sister blog, Altered Zones. If you want to know what everyone else will be listening to in months to come, this will be the place to hear it.
There's something oh-so-relaxing about staring at the sea; however, even when Sydney is basking in glorious sunshine, we can't always all hang out on the beach. Or near rivers or in pools for that matter — but you can head to the Ocean Film Festival World Tour. Between March 3–11, it'll unleash a cinematic feast of water-focused wonders onto the big screen — at the Hayden Orpheum between Tuesday, March 3–Thursday, March 5, Chippendale's Seymour Centre from Wednesday, March 4–Thursday, March 5, and the Randwick Ritz between Tuesday, March 10–Thursday, March 11. Film-wise, viewers will spend time both above and below the ocean's surface thanks to a compilation of shorts from around the world. Expect to chase big waves, explore a range of sea life and get a hefty ocean rush, plus a heap of other sea adventures. The program is united by a love of the ocean, an appreciation of the creatures who dwell in its waters and a curiosity to explore the substance that comprises more than two-thirds of the earth. It's the next best thing to diving in, all without getting wet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5BZV6IoSX8&feature=emb_logo Image: Travis Burke.
Nakkiah Lui is a new Australian voice very worth your sitting still and listening to, whether in the theatre, on TV's Black Comedy or on Twitter. She writes about life, love, politics and institutionalised racism in her new play, Kill the Messenger, and because director Anthea Williams just couldn’t imagine anyone else in the role, she'll be playing herself. Cue suddenly extra-awkward sex scenes. We loved Lui’s debut full-length play, This Heaven, also at Belvoir, and can't wait for the sharp stab of heartache and anger sure to come with this one, a very personal story about how racism becomes just a part of the system. Lui was writing about the death of a man turned away from a hospital emergency room when her own grandmother fell through the floor in her home — a home that was left in disrepair by the Aboriginal Housing Office. The two stories, and Lui's questioning of them (and of their place in the theatre), become intertwined in Kill the Messenger, a night of self-reflexive theatre not to miss.
The Bayou Mansions are like a council flat in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's 'hood — rambling, sepia-toned, variously European and darkly whimsical. The inhabitants of the Bayou are the depraved and forgotten of a prosperous city, and their children run amok. Beyond average juvenile delinquency, Zelda and her gang, the Pirates, plot Marxist revolution. Meanwhile, sweet, bourgeois Agnes Eaves and her daughter, Evie Eaves, move in to extend the youths the civilising influence of craft class; the gloomy custodian is one pay cheque away from escape, although the residents around him insist those "born in the Bayou die in the Bayou, too"; and outside the tenement, the city enters a moral panic about the "child problem", which eventually presents a bitingly contemporary solution. This is the premiere run of The Animals and Children Took to the Streets from British company 1927 (Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea). What draws them sell-out crowds and widespread acclaim is their mix of animation, performance, spoken word and cabaret that is genuinely multimedia in approach and fun and accessible in execution. The City of Lost Children seems the obvious reference point, but Tim Burton, Dave McKean, Shaun Tan, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, naive art, vaudeville and Soviet typography have all left their mark on these rich visual stylings. Performers Suzanne Andrade (also writer/director) and Esme Appleton (also costume designer) interact with a world created by Paul Barritt's animations, which allow them to yell out of high windows, fall through space, get rained on, ride cats and, in perhaps the most poetically realised image, lie asleep in their beds while walking in dreams. The wry soliloquies are snipped short of monologue by music hall ditties (written and performed by Lillian Henley) so catchy you'll want them recorded. There's something we just know to be magical about interacting with animation right there on stage, which is why it doesn't matter what I say in this last sentence; you've already stopped reading to go book your tickets, and that's as it should be. https://youtube.com/watch?v=0B-XsKGQ4yE
Imagine if the SBW Stables Theatre in Kings Cross were not the SBW Stables Theatre. Imagine if you climbed those creaky stairs and in place of one of Sydney's premiere performance spaces was just another of the area's utilitarian, asbestos-laced, '50s-era studio flats whose occupants are too unsettled to wholly furnish. Imagine if this flat, in this exact spot, held a story — of a young woman and her encounters with love, loss and cricket. It's a slightly magic flat. Thick grass grows in place of some of the floorboards, and, on a few fuzzy mornings, a typically Cross-ian neon sign drops down to inform us, "This is not her place". Ellen (Belinda Bromilow), a Melburnian whose two years in Sydney have yet to bring friends or any sense of belonging, has taken to finding comfort in sauvignon blanc and the beds of strangers. They're all played by Nathan Lovejoy (an FBi Awards best performer nominee for Way to Heaven): Brian, an overeager Stanmore sharehouser; Tom, a pushy Woollahra work contact; Adam, whom she has accidentally brought back to her own place and ought to remember from somewhere. At the same time, her father (Tony Llewellyn-Jones) has emerged as a surprise house guest, and she regresses to childlike vulnerability and desire to please as they follow the summer's Ashes cricket matches — on the radio, as per their tradition. Some say there are five stages to grieving. There also happen to be five tests that make up the Ashes. It's one of the most beautiful and yielding of this play's devices. The result is moving but graced with plenty of gentle humour — This Year's Ashes is proudly a romantic comedy, and it uses that generally derided genre's conventions to question as well as entertain. The new work is inspired by playwright Jane Bodie's own experiences struggling with a relocation back to Sydney, and the honesty embedded in it shines through. The shine is dulled somewhat by moments of melodrama, which do not work in the play's favour and are amplified by lighting, sound and directing cues that try too hard to tell you how to feel (much like a mainstream romantic comedy would, come to think of it). It may be why the scenes between father and daughter don't quite knock you for six. There's also that niggling reason why we don't often see modern romantic comedies on stage: the genre is built on fantasy (true love will rescue you, conquer all, etc, etc), and art, we often think, is for seeking out truth. That's not to say you can't go fossicking with such a tool and still unpick nuggets of trueness, but this outing could have come back with a heftier haul.
Regardless of your thoughts on the Biennale boycott (and if you care about both art and asylum seekers, you probably had a few), the festival's eventual split with long-term sponsor Transfield has come as at least a temporary relief. Now, there is no reason for people to avoid attending the 19th Biennale of Sydney, and to miss out on a wondrous, inspiringly thought-out and immaculately implemented iteration of the event. Artistic director Juliana Engberg, usually of Melbourne's Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, has a great gift for curation (and communication; you must listen to her speak about the art), and she'll be a tough act to follow. So, yes, it appears the carefree summer days are drawing to a close (or over? They're over, aren't they?), but you can take consolation in the impressive selection of art, talks, films, workshops, forums and performances on offer across our most exciting cultural venues. Autumn's looking pretty awesome, to be honest. Tacita Dean: Event for a Stage Carriageworks plays host to this intriguing world premiere from England-born, Germany-based artist Tacita Dean, probably best know for her 16mm film works. With a lengthy (Turner Prize-nominated) career largely based around film, photography and drawing, Dean is dipping her toes in the theatre pond with this explorative co-commission with Carriageworks. Using English actor Stephen Dillane, Event For a Stage explores the relationship between theatre, sound and voice, raising questions about invention, artifice and the impact of technology upon the worlds of art and film. “I am never prouder than when my labour appears as nothing but the soundtrack of life,” Dean writes. 1-3 May 8pm, 4 May 5pm; $25-$35; Carriageworks Bay 17 Yingmei Duan: Happy Yingmei Happy Yingmei is probably one of the more unusual events on offer. Chinese performance artist Yingmei Duan will, for the entire length of the Biennale, be stationed in a kind of dreamlike forest installed at the Art Gallery of NSW. In a performance-meets-sound installation, Duan will hand out handwritten wishes (presumably beneficent ones) to gallery patrons. Part of the Chinese avant-garde, Duan worked as a painter before switching over to pure performance art and took part in the now iconic To add one meter to an anonymous mountain, a collaboration between Beijing’s East Village artists. Her solo work often explores human instinct, particularly fear and desire. 21 March to 9 June; Wednesdays 12-8pm, Thursdays-Sundays 11-5pm; free; Art Gallery of NSW Biennale Boot Camp The very title Boot Camp may send shivers of pure dread running through your soul (at least for those who’ve experienced a sadistic personal trainer with highly honed humiliation techniques). But fear not! This is different. You catch a ferry to Cockatoo Island, where a personal trainer/artist will lead you around art works that are activated by the human body. At each work you’ll perform a series of exercises while learning about the piece. It basically sounds like you’ll be distracted from the fact that you’re exercising by how cool the art is. Moderate fitness levels are requested… whatever “moderate” means. From 30 March, Sundays, 8:45-11am; free (not including ferry ticket); meet at Wharf 5, Circular Quay. Image Credit: Marko Luli, Space Girl Dance, 2009 (video still) States of Mind Film Series The States of Mind Film Series will be held Wednesdays and Sundays at the Art Gallery of NSW. You’ll be able to take in free screenings of films all about (you guessed it) states of mind, with themes like fantasy, madness and memory. The program includes Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2000), Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (2003) and Michael Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). Check the Art Gallery of NSW website for the screening schedule. 23 March - 8 June; Sundays 2-4pm, Wednesdays 2-4pm and 7:15-9pm; free; Domain Theatre, Art Gallery of NSW Cardiff and Miller: City of Forking Paths Blending technology with art, City of Forking Paths is a site-specific interactive walk. First step, comfy shoes; second, a smartphone (beg, steal or borrow); third, download the app and let it guide you around The Rocks, experiencing scenarios and discoveries crafted to complement this year’s Biennale theme, ‘You Imagine What You Desire’. Creators Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller (who have designed interactive walks all around the world) recommend dusk but timing is flexible — just remember to book. City of Forking Paths is the first “legacy artwork” to emerge from the Biennale, meaning the City of Sydney Council are forking up big bucks to make it a permanent part of the City Art collection. 1 May onwards; available daily; dusk tours recommended; free; booking essential Nick Waterlow OAM Memorial Lecture, Juliana Engberg Juliana Engberg, this year’s artistic director of the Biennale, will be speaker at The Nick Waterlow OAM Memorial Lecture, a biannual event commemorating the contribution of treasured Australian art expert and former Biennale curator Nick Waterlow to academia and the arts. Engberg is also artistic director of the ACCA (Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne), a role she somehow juggles alongside curating, writing, teaching, designing and publishing. You can have a read of her blog Engberg on the Road, written as she travelled the world developing the Biennale (what a job!). A cracking good speaker, Engberg will be talking about the act of making art — specifically, it’s “libidinous, amorous and compulsive aspects.” Sounds pretty juicy. 5 April; 3.30-4.30 pm; free; Domain Theatre; Art Gallery of NSW. Image Credit: Emma Sullivan. Mystery Tours Those who like to be surprised may want to sign up for a Mystery Tour. The brief is pretty vague (how mysterious!) but from what we can gather, get to Cockatoo Island on a Saturday morning and you’ll be led on a special journey. It will be “special” because (a) you don’t know where you’re going, and (b) you don’t know who will be conducting the tour. Each week, you see, a new celebrity will put on their tour guide hat, from artists to writers to who knows what (celebrity is a very loose term these days isn’t it?). But their uniting quality will be their love of art. So that’s nice. From March 29; Saturdays; 11.30am; free; Cockatoo Island Panel: Where Angels Fear to Tread Where Angels Fear to Tread is a food-for-thought panel discussion led by artists whose work has a definitively sociopolitical focus. Norway’s Bodil Furu and Ane Hjort Guttu, Switzerland’s Siri Hermansen and Australia’s Susan Norrie are all artists who have embedded themselves within a variety of geographical locations in order to develop artwork exploring the local culture and sociopolitical situation. They will be chatting about the highs and lows of their process, ranging from conception through to reception. Jeff Khan, artistic director of Performance Space, will act as chair. 25th March; 6-8pm; free; Carriageworks. Image: Susan Norrie, Dissent, 2012 (video still). Behind the Scenes Designed with those studying or teaching art and curatorship in mind, Behind the Scenes gives you the chance to join Australian artist Benjamin Armstrong and MCA staff for a collection of presentations and talks, all of which will reveal the behind-the-scenes processes involved in putting on the Biennale. If you’re determined to run your own gallery, be a professional artist or, heck, maybe even direct the Biennale one day, this event could provide a valuable insight into just what it takes to pull off an art event of this scale. I’m guessing a lot of coffee was involved. 6 May; 12.30- 2pm; $10 for students, teachers free; bookings essential; MCA. Image: TV Moore, Installation view of the 19th Biennale of Sydney at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Photograph by Ben Symons. MCA ARTBAR curated by Ross Manning If you’ve never been to the MCA after dark, you should head to ARTBAR. The gallery will be blissfully free from gangs of screaming school kids on excursions (I know that was me once, but I was angelic) and tourists who slam their backpack into your face when you’re trying to appreciate a Tracey Moffatt series. You can wander around exhibitions unmolested, with drinks in between. Plus, the best part is that guest curator Ross Manning, a featured 19th Biennale of Sydney artist known for his colourful kinetic sculptures, will be transforming the space into, and I quote, “a pulsating piece of performance art”. Alliteration like that always makes one giddy with anticipation, doesn’t it? 30 May; 7-11pm; $25 at the door; MCA Hero image: The Turbine Hall at Cockatoo Island. Photo by Lindsay Smith.
Every year as a kid my primary school took a bunch of jumpy, allergy-prone inner-west kids into the bush and made them walk for hours, skinned knees and sunburn be damned. There would always be a talk during the day, where, on the one hand, you could sit down, but on the other, you had to listen to park rangers carrying on about rock paintings and culture and just how old everything was. And we all sat patiently sulking, staring vacantly at some of the oldest artifacts of human civilisation, waiting for the icy poles we had been promised. Thing is, a lot of the time in Sydney we tend to forget the amazing and unique culture and historical heritage which is all around us. As a friend of mine said, "it still feels like school." The Discovering Country initiative is working to change all of this, with an art exhibition celebrating the environment, history and indigenous culture of Sydney Harbour. The exhibit brings together some of Sydney's most talented landscape photographers, working with the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Aboriginal Discovery Rangers, who provide information about Sydney's indigenous culture and the native environment. The project aims to contribute funds to further develop the opportunities of the Tribal Warrior Association, which is revitalising Aboriginal culture and empowering disadvantaged indigenous people. And it doesn't feel like school at all.
Years of hipster geekdom have led to this, a film directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Spaced), starring Michael Cera (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Juno, Arrested Development) and adapted from a comic book based on the conventions of video games and romance. Cera is Scott Pilgrim, an average, sweet but EQ-challenged 22-year-old who plays bass with suburban unknowns Sex Bob-omb and considers getting a "fake high school girlfriend" one year on from a messy break-up a sure sign he's moved on. He soon becomes infatuated with the new girl in town — aloof, doe-eyed, tempestuously hair-dyed Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). So infatuated is he that nothing can shake him out of his loved-up reverie, not even news he'll have to face her seven evil exes in battle to the death. One ex-boyfriend has special powers bestowed by vegan purity and righteousness, another through musical skill daunting enough to conjure sonic dragons into combat, others just punch, kick and duel like kung-fu masters. And so, it turns out, does Scott, as Cera ably and amiably whips out the butt-kicking hero that's been hiding behind his constantly dopey demeanour. This plays out in the most stylised of fashions, where visual effects bend time and space, onomatopoeic lettering accompanies sounds and decimated ex-boyfriends explode into showers of coins. Amazing editing not only does the best job to date of mimicking the comics-reading experience but develops a mesmeric pacing all of its own and makes even featherweight jokes land knockout punches. It's buoyed along by a spotless supporting cast including Kieran Culkin, Jason Schwartzman and Mae Whitman (a.k.a. Anne/Egg from Arrested Development), plus original Sex Bob-omb tunes composed by Beck. Scott Pilgrim is an allegory of the male dating experience, so the manic pixie dream girls are in full force, but don't let that put you off. The film is inventive, observant and warm, and you can read as much semi-irony into it as you like. Best of all, it won't leave you out of the fun just because you haven't read the books, played Super Mario Bros., been a gen-X slacker or a gen-Y know-it-all. Wright has already proven himself a virtuoso of the niche-busting genre mash-up, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World — slacker-cross-martial arts in subject, film-cross-manga-cross-video game in form — is quite the opus. https://youtube.com/watch?v=8NUBVcit5VM
If you thought the full possibilities of the sci-fi genre had been plumbed by that episode of Doctor Who the other week where the human space colony of the 29th century have to vote every five years to 'protest' or 'forget' the secret exploitation at the heart of their thriving space society ('cause I totally did) — think again. This Session #3 of the Creative Sydney festival rips the sci-fi playbook out of the hands of its nerd guardians and tosses it back and forth between hi-tech jocks and lo-fi hipsters. Dorkbot, Even Books and the Australian Theatre for Young People guide the evening on its way, and that should assure you you're in good hands. Toy Death — not content with instruments they didn't invent themselves nor the frequencies of sound accepted by established science — will be playing their repurposed toys, Beef Knuckles will be supplying Robot Love comics with space for you to fill in the blanks and Radar Synthesizer and Dubtable will be setting the mood with impressive installations. Your robot dance moves are, just this once, encouraged. This session is presented by Concrete Playground. To guarantee your spot, register on the Creative Sydney website.
There was once a time when fashion photography was about trying to get a clear, objective, crinkle-free shot of a garment. Now we know it as creating an atmosphere, telling a story and selling an identity. The latter style originated, as these things do, in Europe, but it was pioneered in Australia by Bruno and Hazel Benini. Italian-born Bruno was a photographer with a wonderful sense of narrative, painterly composition, drama and light. Hazel — a Kiwi, artist and shop window stylist — could put together a Sportsgirl display that would draw crowds of office girls when it was unveiled on a Thursday afternoon. Uniting in the 1950s, they had chemistry to last over 40 years of creative and marital partnership, and their photography, which she styled and he snapped, remains extraordinarily expressive. The museum recently acquired the personal archive of Bruno Benini, and its curators have assembled this remarkable exhibition on their first sifting. With Sydney Design on around it and Frock Stars alongside, Creating the Look goes even further toward proving that the Powerhouse approach isn't just for kids; it will enrapture and challenge at any age, and the weekend crowd testifies to this mix. Here, crisp photographic prints are not just hung on the wall but given meaning through artefacts, sound bites, rooms that re-create the studio and (most impressively) the dark room and an interpretive, immersive installation by contemporary artist Jean-Francois Lanzarone. The tail end of the exhibition reflects on the Benini legacy through the prism of contemporary fashion photographer Juli Balla, extreme stylist Edward Coutts Davidson, street style maven Fernando Frisoni and the current trend for viral video. Some Benini photographs have iconic staying power (a gun-toting, shoe-stroking model in niqab, for one), while others pluck at pedestrian '50s nostalgia. They invariably drip with glamour even when advertising mere Sportscraft dresses and Wittner shoes and work a charm even now. Fashion photography is all about creating mystery; the Powerhouse Museum is about stripping it away. The resulting collaboration means letting slip some of the mystique to gain a sense of the impulse of style, the ingenuity of craft and the beauty in the everyday — a fair trade, I'd say. Catch talks by Fernando Frisoni on Wednesday, August 4, at 12.30pm and Juli Balla on Sunday, August 8, at 2pm.
Between January 3-27, Architects of Air (who treated us to Mirazozo in 2011) will transform the Sydney Opera House forecourt into a multisensory experience, with their massive inflatable sculpture EXXOPOLIS. 53 metres long and nine metres high, it's an immersive luminarium, comprised of tunnels and domes, and filled with light and sound. Architectural inspiration includes Gothic cathedrals, Archimedean solids and Islamic stylings. EXXOPOLIS is open daily from 10am – 7pm.
Iconic? To say the least. Blockbuster? Yes and yes. Summer is coming boys and girls and what better way to while away those melting January days than by swinging open those glass doors to the MCA and sneaking in for some AC comfort and a little celebrity self-indulgence. Annie Leibovitz's photographs are dreams upon dreams. Sinking. Beautiful. All that is sumptuous and glossy and far, far away. Not just a survey of Annie's infamous celebrity pics, this globe-trotting touring exhibition, Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990–2005, serves us with lashings of the artist's private life on the side. Facebook not voyeuristic enough for you? We've got your poison. Personal photographs of Leibovitz's sprawling tribe of family and friends as well as chronicles of major family peaks and troughs like the birth of her three daughters and the deaths of her father and longtime lover, Susan Sontag. Its vanity fare, baby. And we are lapping at the bowl. *Free entry for members and children under 12
You know the summer slumber is over when even the gallerinas are back at work. Not that they have been on holiday. No, its just that everyone else has. Hamptons, anyone? Just like the traditional putting away of your white shoes after Labour day, Sydney commercial art galleries start to pry open their doors post-Australia Day with the lure of the group show. Last year we saw a bumper crop of group shows where most of the high profile Sydney galleries tackled the GFC head on with emerging (cheaper) artists. This sounds nasty but it actually worked. It really felt like the end of summer, coming up from your last salty wave into February. This year, we are back to stable (staple) group shows, and I am tongueing my tears for the salt. BREENSPACE puts on a good goodbye to summer. Here we see David Haines and Joyce Hinterding, Dani Marti, Tim Silver, Sally Smart, John Tonkin & Emma White with almost all new works across the two gallery spaces. John Tonkin presents a stunning farewell with his last light view of Bondi, Emma White never fails to bring a smile with her wonderful work on 'the beach ball of death', and like a sprawling sea floor of anemone, Dani Marti envelopes us with his face-off portraits, standing guard by the entrance like the red and yellow flags we know so well. It's not all goodbye fun and sun and holidays, it's also hello art world — welcome back! Image: Emma White, A Blank (make your mark already), 2011
Loosen your grasp on the truth and prepare to embrace a bit of deception, because this year's Sydney's Writers' Festival is all about lies. Returning for its 22nd edition from Monday, April 29, to Sunday, May 5, the internationally renowned literary event will take over venues across the city, bringing with it a dazzling program of local and international writers. This year, they'll examine the ways in which writing can be used as a tool of deceit in today's world — for good and evil — with the theme of 'Lie to Me'. An exciting lineup of literary talent is coming to play, kicking off with opening night's acclaimed trio: bestselling US author of The Interestings, The Wife and The Female Persuasion, Meg Wolitzer; Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, who's the mind behind dystopian short story collection Friday Black; and award-winning writer of Grief is the Thing with Feathers and Lanny, Max Porter. A star-studded cast of literary talent appears throughout the rest of this year's program, too. Flying the flag for the Aussie writing scene are the likes of Leigh Sales (Any Ordinary Day), Trent Dalton (Boy Swallows Universe), Mark Brandi (The Rip), Clare Wright (You Daughters of Freedom) and Candice Fox (Gone By Midnight). They're joined by a stack of international names, like lauded Pakistani author Fatima Bhutto (The Runaways, Songs of Blood and Sword), who'll be exploring current shifts surrounding politics, gender and race, along with writers like Susan Orlean (The Library Book) and Andrew Sean Greer (Less). Man Booker Prize winner George Saunders (whose novel Lincoln in the Bardo, which has a staggering 166 narrators, was one of our favourite books of 2017) will also be taking to the stage in the City Recital Hall. The festival's also dishing up a range of special events — the Curiosity Lecture Series covers quirky topics from witches to the subculture of 'chilli-heads', Eddie Sharp's Erotic Fan Fiction makes its hotly anticipated and cheeky return, and an assortment of festival guests share stories of their own queer literary heroes in a segment called Gay For Page. While the Sydney Writers' Festival hub will remain at Carriageworks, events will be held across the city — stretching from Sydney Town Hall across to Penrith and down to Wollongong. Images: Prudence Upton.
Electric Keys will showcase the Powerhouse Museum's newly acquired private collection of 20th century keyboards in a refreshingly niche, long running exhibition. The electronic instruments will complement the Museum's existing collection of mechanical musical objects, which includes early 20th century pianos and organs to modern-day synthesisers. The collection will explore the modern keyboard's development and contribution across jazz, pop, soul and rock. One of the highlights is the Model B3 Hammond organ: a 1954 invention which weighs in at 132 kilograms and was a favourite among professional musicians in the 1960–70s. Image: Hohner Clavinet D6, developed by Ernt Zacharias for Hohner Germany, 1967, Powerhouse Collection
To celebrate truffle season, NOMAD has launched a limited-time brunch menu to celebrate the fancy fungus. Running every Sunday for four weeks from June 12, all dishes are served with approximately two grams of Manjimup black truffle from WA, so you can really itch that seasonal truffle craving. Start with a three-cheese manoush ($25), followed by ham hock hash browns with baked eggs and wood-roasted tomatoes ($19). A smokey date glazed bacon ($22); wood-roasted mushrooms with Jersusalem artichokes and pinenuts ($32); and a warm French cheese from Bruny Island cheeses served with honeycomb and crudites ($65) serve as lazy grazing nibbles. The brunch banquet is finished with an ice-cream sandwich, featuring olive oil ice cream and pecan cookies ($19). For those looking to make the brunch boozy, there is a range of specialty cocktails available for additional purchase. Think: NOMAD's signature bloody mary ($22), a seasonal bellini ($18), mimosas ($35) and espresso martinis ($22).
Petersham's Oxford Tavern is going full sour this summer — and not just with its beers. The Rise 'N Brine festival will return for a third year, taking over the pub for a jam-packed day of pickle-themed food, booze and even entertainment on Saturday, December 18. To start off, the bar will offer a few pickle-flavoured beers, which have been brewed for the day by local craft breweries. Other booze options include a pickle-y cocktail menu, which features a slushie version of the classic pickleback — aka a shot of Jameson chased with pickle juice. And the pickling doesn't stop there, either. The pub has also created a special menu of pickle-inspired eats to tuck into. In the past, the event has served up jumbo pickle poppers, Cuban sandwiches, reuben spring rolls and pickle pops. There's also a whole heap of pickle-based entertainment throughout the day. The main event is the pickle eating competition, however there'll also be a pickle toss game with prizes on offer, plus live bands and DJs.
Not content with bringing rum distilling back to Sydney's inner city, making batches of it in a 1200-litre still and serving up more than 150 different varieties at its onsite bar, Brix is adding another aspect to its operations — custom 20-litre casks that Sydneysiders can help design and make (and then drink, obviously) themselves. Fresh from opening back in August, the Surry Hills distillery has launched a barrel program, which enables rum lovers to whip up their own concoction. Customers will choose their own barrel style (including lightly or heavily charred, ex-whiskey, Chardonnay or Shiraz) and create a rum to their preferred taste. Next, they'll help head distiller Shane Casey during the distillation process, before filling the barrel themselves. The cask is then signed, sealed, stamped, stacked and stored at the Bourke Street spot, for a minimum of two years. As the rum fully matures across that period, barrel owners can pop in for a taste and sample whenever they like — and choose when they think the spirit is ready to drink. As you might've noticed, there are a few caveats. Firstly, you do have to be willing to wait two years to take your boozy barrel home with you. Secondly, you'll need a lazy $3,500 + GST lying around, although the price does include excise. If you're patient, cashed-up and raring for your own rum, you'll also receive with a Brix tour and tasting for four people with your barrel purchase, plus 10 percent off at the bar for life. Find Brix Distillers at 352 Bourke Street, Surry Hills. Its regular opening hours at 12pm–midnight Monday–Saturday, and 12pm–10pm Sunday.
Recently we have been truly spoilt by the number of DIY festivals popping up Australia-wide. Sparked only a few years ago, arguably by the team at Secret Garden Festival, the boutique festival scene is now at an all time high. Goulburn-based newcomer Marmalade Skies however, finds a unique grounding for its first year by being completely crowdfunded. Earlier this year they launched their Pozible campaign which saw them raise above $22,000, surpassing their intended budget by over $7000. Unfortunately the team have faced their first festival production hurdle; yesterday the team issued a statement that during a site inspection the Goulburn Mulwaree Council — alongside the local fire and police department — have decided to postpone the festival due to fire hazards threatening the area throughout December. New dates will be announced within a week. Refunds have been offered, but the team have pleaded with guests to give them a chance "Once we announce the new date we will set up a refund option for those no-longer able to come; but for those that can, we ask you, please, to keep the faith a little while longer. You have invested in upcoming, young, Australian music, in a new production company, in a fresh new face on the Australian festival scene. Please allow us to prove you right. We at Marmalade Skies Festival are still confident of putting on an incredible party just, this time, on the other side of summer." But the festival organisers shouldn't be too concerned yet. Marmalade Skies has seen an overwhelming amount of support and popularity, even before the lineup was announced — teams of local graphic designers and many other volunteers have been offering to assist the festival organisers for months. It is truly becoming the 'festival for the people' the team hoped it would be. The all-Australian lineup — featuring the likes of Fishing, Kilter and Luen — is one of the summer's most underrated (and largely unknown) lineups we've seen. Stay tuned for Marmalade Skies' new date announcement over the next week.
In May, the Sydney Opera House launched UnWrapped, a performance series that highlights smaller Australian artists, independent companies and producers and allows them to further develop their shows. And now it's back with a new collection of works for an August instalment. This time round, three performances will showcase a range of Australia's natural talents. Lucy Guerin's dance work Split is one not to miss as Guerin's stellar choreography scored her a Helpmann Award this year. Ich Nibber Dibber (a trio consisting of Zoe Coombs Marr, Natalie Rose and Mish Grigor) blends drama, comedy and political commentary in a collaborative performance based upon a decade of friendship. Finally, Australian singer-songwriter Mojo Juju will present an intimate performance from her newest album, underlining her Indigenous heritage and the stories that have inspired her writing. The best part? The tickets are less than fifty dollars. That's a cheap date night at the Opera House. UNWRAPPED AUGUST PROGRAM Split — Wednesday, August 8 – Saturday, August 11 at 7.30pm + Sunday, August 12 at 5pm Ich Nibber Dibber — Wednesday, August 15 – Saturday, August 18 at 7pm + Sunday, August 19 at 5pm Mojo Jujo: Native Tongue — Sunday, August 19 at 7.30pm Image: Document Photography.
Aboriginal & Pacific Art gallery taps in to the strong heritage of the area, exhibiting contemporary Aboriginal works from established and emerging artists. Director Gabriella Roy founded the gallery in 1996 and continues to work with advisors from around the country to house a diverse range of art and artefacts. The gallery represents works by artists and community centres from across the country, including South Australian weaver Yvonne Koolmatrie and Yarrenyty Arltere Artists in the Northern Territory. Image: Kitti Smallbone
Supporting charities should generally be the kind of thing you do without an expectation of anything in exchange. But there's definitely something nice about getting a return on your good deeds, beyond the fuzzy feeling of helping someone in need. Making it easier than ever is SleepOut for Homeless Youth — the first public fundraiser hosted by the Property Industry Foundation — on Thursday, November 10 at Centennial Park . The event, which takes place right next to the Wild Play Discovery Centre, will encourage attendees to sleep out without a roof over their heads for one night, so they can get a glimpse into the struggles faced by homeless young Australians needing a place to sleep. The event's charitable aim is to raise funds to build a 19-bedroom refuge for young people and change some pretty rough statistics — like the fact that 44,000 people under 25 don't have a secure place to sleep. And what's in it for you (in addition to the aforementioned feel-good vibes)? In the process of spending the evening bundled in a sleeping bag and looking at the night sky, you'll also have the opportunity to enjoy some excellent entertainment, eats and general fun — there'll be goodies like food trucks, lawn games, trivia, an acoustic guitarist, and a fire-making workshop so you can toast marshmallows. Over 16 and keen to get involved? Register for free, for SleepOut For Homeless Youth's overnight fundraiser on Thursday, November 10 at Centennial Park, and do your bit to end youth homeless — while having a stellar evening out in the process.
Avoca Beach on the Central Coast is filled with so many great cafes and eateries, but a beachside spot definitely worth a visit is Becker & Co. Located on Avoca Drive a stone's throw from the water, the pint-sized spot is serving up great cups of joe made on beans by Sydney's Single O. To eat, expect all the brunch classics — and lots of avocado. Choose from the likes of poached eggs with avocado, beetroot labneh on sourdough, Vegemite lime and toasted tamari seeds, toasties and fresh pastries. All of the ingredients used in the dishes are seasonal and organic.
Brisbane's Damian Griffiths is doubling down on his mission to put the entire population of Sydney — and indeed, Australia — into a diabetic coma. After giving us our first taste of his insanely popular Doughnut Time creations, the sugar-mad restaurateur is bringing his retro ice cream parlour, Mister Fitz, across the border. The first Mister Fitz opened in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane last December, followed quickly by a second location in South Bank. The Sydney move was first announced in April 2016, and while we're still waiting for a concrete opening date for the permanent store, Griffiths is kicking things off with a pop-up in Sydney's CBD, opening Friday, May 26. You will have to head into a shopping mall to find it though, as one half of Myer's winter Alpine Village activation beside a sibling Doughnut Time pop-up. Mister Fitz's pop-up menu is just four ice-cream sandwiches strong including the Gimme Macklemore (chocolate cookie sandwich, s'mores ice-cream and hot chocolate sauce), and the 24 Carat Magic with a slim shady doughnut sandwich, milk and cookies ice-cream and unicorn crumb), and warm offerings like the Sticky AF (sticky date pudding with vanilla ice cream topped with hot caramel sauce and unicorn crumb). The Mister Fitz and Doughnut Time Alpine Village is located on Level 6, Myer Sydney, 436 George Street, Sydney and will be open during Myer trading hours from May 26 to July 16. To celebrate the opening, both brands will be giving away free ice-cream sandwiches and doughnuts from 12-1pm on Friday, May 26.
There's something nostalgically romantic about the sound and story of Warpaint. It might be the fact that they formed on Valentines Day, or perhaps the level of reverb they use on their harmonised vocals, but there's no denying the happy place Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman take you to when they start singing. Their sweet harmonies are weighted by Jenny Lee Lindberg's lethargically bounding bass lines and the heavy tom’s of Stella Mozgawa's kit, in what seems like an effortless ensemble — even for a post-punk band. Of their live performances, it has been said that they can disarm a room and transform a crowd into a transfixed, star-gazing shuffle-ufagus. They’re coming to the Oxford Art Factory but really, these are stylish divas who should be performing in prairie fields of golden (non-GE) canola in the dusky haze of an autumn afternoon. Can someone maybe find one of those for them?
If you're a pet owner, you'll know if can be difficult getting your dog/cat/iguana/parrot/rat from A to B — especially if you don't own a car. Example A: your friend has given you and Fido a ride to the beach, then bailed and left you and the fluffy boy stranded. Trains are out (in NSW or Queensland), Fido's too big for a box on a bus, you're nowhere near a ferry or CityCat, so you book a taxi, but the drive takes one look at sandy Fido and says no. Thankfully, this type of scenario will be left in the past when Uber Pet launches in Sydney and Brisbane tomorrow, Tuesday, March 10. Launching as a trial, Uber Pet will be available in your Uber app as a separate option — alongside UberX, Comfort and Pool — and will match you with a driver who's happy to pick up pets. It'll cost an extra $6–7 per ride, with some of that passed onto the drivers, too. While the cat below may not agree, it's really a win-win scenario. If the trial is a success, it'll be rolled out nationally as a permanent option on the app. So, you can plan more trips to dog-friendly pubs, beaches and parks. And get to the vet a little easier (don't tell your cat). While Uber expects cats and dogs will be the most common passengers, it allows any kind of domesticated animal use the service — at the driver's discretion. Assistance and service animals are still allowed in regular Ubers, as they are on all forms of public transport. You can read more about travel for assistance animals in NSW and Queensland here. Uber Pet is available in Sydney and Brisbane from Tuesday, March 10.
You might remember One Day Sundays for its legendary monthly hip hop block parties, which took place around Sydney before the pandemic. After a few years' hiatus, the One Day Sundays crew is back to bring you an unforgettable shindig this long weekend. Partnering up with touring agency Niche, the collective is presenting Daybreak from 2–9pm on Saturday, April 23 — with the event taking you from day to night in the Ivy courtyard. Daybreak will showcase some of the country's most exciting musical talents. Don't miss the debut DJ set from western Sydney producer OPEN TILL L8, whose work you might recognise on Youngn Lipz and Kerser tracks. There will also be vocals from Sahxl and Pania, plus Babyface Mal. And, you'll be able to plenty of live beats from a lineup of Sydney's top DJs, who'll be playing rap, R&B, drill and afrobeats on the Ivy's world-class sound system. So, it's a two-for-one kind of event, letting you discover some rising talent in the Australian hip hop scene while enjoying a much missed One Day party. Tickets are on sale now, but are selling out fast — so get in quick.
This is opera, but not as you know it. For a start, it's The Nose, the first opera written by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who, at the time — 1928 — was just 20. Its basis is a surreal, satirical short story by fellow Russian Nikolai Gogol about Platon Kovalev, a civil servant who wakes up one morning in his St Petersburg home without his nose. He sets off to find it, only to discover it's become a character in its own right: a mischief-maker of superior social status. Along the way, Kovalev begs for help in a cathedral, police station and newspaper office, but encounters only callousness. Shostakovich fuels the protagonist's pursuit with a wild, chaotic score of changing time signatures, clashing harmonies and destabilising shifts in direction, influenced by folk, jazz and Gregorian chants. He co-wrote the libretto with Georgy Ionin, Alexander Preis and Yevgeny Zamyatin. Secondly, it's in the hands of Aussie expat Barrie Kosky, current director of Komische Oper Berlin. Now, there are many ways to interpret the satire: is it a comment on society's obsession with appearances? A critique of classism and snobbery? Does Kovalev suffer a castration complex? However, rather than choosing a single perspective, Kosky plunges Kovalev (Martin Winkler) into a dystopian world, in which the loss of his nose turns all order upside down. As he lurches from one institution to another, repeatedly met by indifference or outright scorn, his nose appears in various manifestations — here as a menacing shadow, there as a line of cheeky tap dancers. The singing, dancing, jeering crowd is a nightmarish maelstrom of corrupt police officers, worn-out journos and bearded cabaret dancers. Fart jokes, slapstick and disruptions of the fourth wall (at one point, an actor planted in the crowd calls out, "This isn't the Rooty Hill RSL, it's the Sydney Opera House!") interweave with rare moments of pathos, including a moving scene in which the clownish Kovalev sobs alone in bed, hidden beneath the sheets. It's fun and irreverent, but loud, brash, shocking, confronting and, at times, overwhelming. The production, which features a new English translation of the libretto by David Pountney, is a collaboration between Sydney Opera House and the Royal Opera House, London. Image: Prudence Upton.
There are loads of bands popping up on the DIY indie-music scene who can be described as 'young heretics', but there's only one band, who hail from Melbourne’s DIY indie-scene, that you can actually call Young Heretics. The dramatic pop duo are Kitty Hart (she brings the drama) and Matthew Wright (he works on the pop), and although some might label them 'emo', their epic rants and brooding melodies are no different to a Kate Bush classic — and everyone loves those. Hart and Wright live up to their title (somewhat an affirmation) and are traipsing around the country to launch their self-produced and self-released LP, We Are the Lost Loves, which caused a kerfuffle when it was released as a free download for the first month. The album that caused a stir in the industry will cause a stir in your soul with its emotionally charged and a-little-bit eerie lyrics (take 'Bones of a Rabbit' for example: "I deceived the lonely/And in the dark I've grown/I now clench the fists of hands/To limbs that aren’t my own") but their powerful melodies will have you singing along as if you were Kate Bush — and nothing will make you stop.
Extinction isn't permanent, apparently. Sydney's Night at the Museum-like party, Jurassic Lounge is being resurrected for a one-off event to celebrate Dia de los Muertos — the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead. Returning to the Australian Museum in collaboration with the new Aztecs exhibition, The Festivalists' beloved after-hours event will once again take over the entire museum on Saturday, November 1. Hinged around the epic Aztecs exhibition, the return of Jurassic Lounge ties Halloween-like Dia de los Muertos celebrations to their historic roots. "Day of the Dead celebrations date back to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl," explains programming consultant Lupita Feint. "The festival traditionally gathers family and friends to remember those who have died and unfolds as a costumed fiesta. It has now spread around the world as a colourful cultural celebration." Scattered throughout the shadowy rooms of the museum you'll find Lady of the Dead performances by Pickled Tink and 2014 Miss Burlesque NSW winner Memphis Mae and an exhibition from Mexican photographer Roberto Duran. Mexican artist Sergio Plata is crowdsourcing a traditional ofrenda — a collection of objects placed on a ritual altar for the Day of the Dead — while you can make chocolate skulls and get your Dia de los Muertos facepaint in the arts and craft market. Jurassic Lounge favourites like Silent Disco and Date Roulette will return, alongside papel picado and piñata workshops and a Mexican dance-off — fuelled by the delights from the Mexican cantina. The one-night-only ressurection of Jurassic Lounge is most excellent news from The Festivalists, the Sydney-based, non-profit company who just opened their brand new after-hours night, Hijinks, at Sydney Aquarium. In true Festivalists style, there's sure to be plenty of happenings and Easter Eggs planned for the night. "Jurassic Lounge is back by popular demand for one night only,” says programmer Karina Libbey. "We’re putting together a huge line-up, inviting local artists and audiences to seek inspiration in Mexican culture for what should be a spectacular celebration. Expect lots of surprises on the night!"
Every February, Secret Garden Festival takes over a forest just outside Sydney with a 48-hour extravaganza of music, live performance, costumes, food and art. Central to the colour, action and frivolity is a collection of epic purpose-built installations, which, over the years, have ranged from a suspended stage inspired by a flying saucer to a kissing booth created with a chainsaw. Now, we can't tell you what to expect for the festival's upcoming 11th year — as is custom, the lineup won't be announced until tickets sell out and most of the other details remain a secret until the moment you arrive. But to show you why people turn up to this mysterious two-night disco each year, we're rewinding the clock to take a look at the wackiest of Secret Garden's installations over the last decade. See you at the kissing booth. THE KISSING BOOTH (2015) One thing's for sure: gardeners dig kissing. Set up at the 2015 shindig in an empty forest, the Kissing Booth attracted a constant and enthusiastic queue. Kissers could order items from a dedicated menu — such as a main of pash with a side of squeeze — on entering. The installation's popularity showed that gardeners were just as keen on participating as spectating, thereby paving the way for more interactive programming. The Kissing Booth was the creation of Max Downes, brother of Secret Garden founder Clare Downes, who agreed to build it on the condition he could use a chainsaw. HUMAN FOOSBALL (2016) Yep, this was as nuts as its name suggests. Using bamboo, Ned Long and the Bamboo Crew constructed foosball of human proportions in 2016. True to the game, all participants were tied to beams, which allowed only limited horizontal movement. Teams had to register in the lead-up to the festival and were part of an actual competition, which culminated in a grand final, trophies and dramatic thank you speeches. Whenever a match was in progress, powerful stadium lights provided illumination, making sure spectators didn't miss a second. APPLAUSE THEATRE (2016) Also part of 2016's celebrations was the Applause Theatre, which turned every single secret gardener into an unwitting performer. Placed at the festival's entrance, it was filled with, well, anyone and everyone who cheered, clapped and whooped as ticket holders arrived. Yep, it's a pretty simple idea, but an effective one — and stacks of fun. The theatre was designed and built by Fresh Prince Studio, a design company based in Sydney, whose recent projects include a tiny house for Unyoked and a hanging shade garden for The Squires Landing at the Overseas Passenger Terminal. CAMP QUEEN MOTEL (2017) If you're a die-hard secret gardener, you'll be familiar with Camp Queen. This stage, devoted to drag queens, has been at the heart of shenanigans for yonks. Last year, head honcho Joel De Sa decided to take things to the next level with Camp Queen Motel. This involved turned the stage into an installation that looked like accommodation. DJs spun tunes at a central reception desk, and, on checking into one of two rooms, guests discovered drag shows in full flight. HOUSEPARTY (2017 + 2018) For the last two years, Secret Garden has extended from the forest into four solid walls with Houseparty. This installation was set up exactly like your favourite neighbour's home, complete with a stereo that let you play your own music. As with all Secret Garden festivities, watching people immerse themselves to the point where reality and festival become blurred is half the fun. At one point, a gardener became the home owner's offspring and jumped atop a table: "My parents are going to freak when they come home!" Before long, a couple of equally immersed gardeners turned up at the door step in police uniforms and tried to shut the party down. COSMOTEQUE (2018) You might've experienced some wild dance floors in your short time on Earth, but none like Cosmoteque. Inspired by a flying saucer, this otherworldly structure was suspended from a tree during Secret Garden 2018, in the deep, deep dark of an old, old forest. Its total dedication to soul and disco had revellers dancing non-stop throughout the festival's 48-hour marathon. Cosmoteque was the creation of Olivia Luella and Six Finger Society. Secret Garden Festival 2019 is happening over the weekend of February 22–24. You can snap up tickets here.
Urban dwellers are usually more accustomed to seeing copious amounts of neutral tones around our cities than bright splashes of colour. It's argued that colour makes people feel happier, so wouldn't it be nice if our city looked like one big rainbow, or perhaps an array of different shades of blue or pink? Many charming little towns throughout the world have put this idea into practice, painting their buildings in bold and bright colours. The bursts of colour add an artistic ambiance to older buildings and bring a source of life to cities during the colder months, and become popular tourist destinations in the summer. Here is a collection of the best examples of places around the globe where colour reigns supreme. La Boca, Argentina Jodhpur, India Bo-Kaap, South Africa Guanajuato, Mexico San Francisco, USA Willemstad, Netherlands Antilles St John's, Canada Riomaggiore, Italy Wroclaw, Poland Salvador, Brazil Jaipur, India [via Environmental Graffiti]
Now that 2021's cooler months are here, locations around Australia have been transforming into winter wonderlands, celebrating the chilly season in all of its frosty glory. Starting back in May and running through until September, The Winter Village has returned after its debut run in Melbourne two years back — and this time it's dropping by several other cities, including Parramatta. Modelled on your typically picturesque European winter market — and giving Aussies a taste of a winter experience that we don't really have otherwise — The Winter Village comes complete with an ice rink, an igloo village, daily snow showers, and a food and drink lineup. Think of it as your quaint wintery escape, just in urban surroundings. The Parramatta stopover was always mooted, but it now has a start date: Saturday, June 19. It'll take over Prince Alfred Square as part of a partnership with the City of Parramatta's Winterlight, and will stay in place until Sunday, September 12. Attendees will be able to dust off their skates and hit the ice, and hire a private igloo where you can wine and dine with up to eight people in cosy solace. Folks spending their time in The Winter Village's igloos will feast on grazing plates of chips, dips, mini pretzels, cured meats, fried chicken bites, mac 'n' cheese croquettes and more, drink their choice of wine or beer, and tuck into a chocolate ice cream sandwich for dessert. That's the $49 package, with the $69 option including espresso martini-flavoured chocolate fudge dipping sauce, berries, brownies, marshmallows, cookies and your choice of a Bloody Shiraz Gin spritz, espresso martini, wine or beer. Or, get festive over brunch instead — which includes a 45-minute skate session and a meal afterwards for $35. There'll also be pop-up bars and outdoor seating throughout the village, should you be keen on heading along without spending time in an igloo. The latest venture from hospitality group Australian Venue Co, the frozen oasis will be open daily and free to enter. That said, ice skating, igloo hire and a couple of winter warming beverages will come at a cost. The Winter Village will head to Parramatta's Prince Alfred Square from Saturday, June 19–Sunday, September 12. Head to the event's website to book igloos and skating sessions. Top images: Mazloum J.
Francesca Martinez will tell you she's wobbly. She started her career on the (only recently-cancelled) teen classic Grange Hill, has performed with QI favourite Jo Brand, and been on Extras and Spicks and Specks. She makes her living as a standup these days. She's coming to Sydney, running her only local gig out of Parramatta's monthly Laugh Garage at the Riverside Theatre. Wobbliness is her name for cerebal palsy — a kind of paralysis, which often causes spasms as well — which she pillories as much as anything else in her act. On Grange Hill, she was one of the first disabled actors to get a big, regular part on UK television. Living with cerebral palsy is difficult, but stand-up is hard. She worked hard in the middle of the last decade, doing gigs to the point of exhaustion in 2004. Coming back from an enforced hiatus, she hopped straight back into the comedy circuit and onto the stage of the gargantuan Edinburgh Fringe. With a routine heavy with filth and swearing, it's a surprise the press focuses so much on her wobbliness instead of her talent. Balanced or otherwise, she's funny as. <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="510" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FQQ3sM85oYY?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
It's been a long time between drinks for Sydney dance floors and, if you regularly parked yourself in front of the DJ in your pre-COVID-19 life, you might be on the hunt for a dance-filled night now that restrictions have been rolled back. The Lansdowne has you covered with its weekly indie dance nights courtesy of party collective All My Friends. In recent years, All My Friends has hosted club nights across Sydney. Most recently, it had found its home at The Bank's upstairs space Waywards for weekly nights — pre-pandemic, that is. Now, the club night has now found a new berth at The Lansdowne. To kick things off, it returns this weekend for eight hours of good music and even better dance moves. Expect to hear tunes from the likes of The Chemical Brothers, Tame Impala, Robyn, Glass Animals, Phoenix and Rufus. Obviously, that list goes on. The dance floor will be open and tunes will be blaring from 9pm–5am on Saturday, April 3 — and entry is free. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J294A-R1Cjk
For those in the Shire looking to get out and about in the crisp winter air, Cronulla's popular waterfront market is returning in June. The two-day affair comes from the team behind the market at Watsons Bay and it will bring all of the market stalls, food trucks and entertainment you need to break out of your seasonal slump. Taking place at Don Lucas Reserve, the market will feature over 150 stalls. If you're heading down for a bite to eat, you'll find food stalls from popular Sydney businesses such as Brooklyn Boys Bagels and Thicc Cookies. As with any good market, there will be a range of stalls selling handmade goods from designers, brands and producers like The Peony Press, Isekai Studio, Foxytrot and Bowerbird Jewels. Live music will soundtrack the weekend and the kids will be thrilled by family-friendly activities and games. Market organiser Madelienne Anderson stresses the importance of local markets and their role in supporting small businesses. "Small business is the lifeblood of the Australian community and at our markets, hundreds of small businesspeople, makers and creators come together to offer the community a wide variety of exceptional goods," Anderson says. The markets will be open 10am–3pm on both Saturday, June 29 and Sunday, June 30.
Titus Andronicus is, as this performance's director Kate Revz points out, "gods and monsters" stuff, the kind of thing you have to step up to. Classical in its unabashed gross-outs as well as setting, a fictionalised imperial Rome, this is an elemental play with a plot that plays out in a series of horrifying events the logic of which is put brutally before the audience. The play operates with regard to invention and internal consistency rather than to relatability or immersivity: it is firmly in the realm of the spectacular. But here we are in the 21st century, and Cry Havoc's aim is "the pursuit of fearless interpretation, collaboration and re-birth of canonical texts of the human experience," so things here are played a lot more specifically pitiable than they would have been for audiences more used to allegory. And the playing is rather great. The actors are clearly all very, very comfortable with the text — there's not any of that awkward 'here is my Shakespeare voice' that detracts from so many performances of his plays, and the physicality of the individual characters and of the ensemble scenes communicates mood very clearly. The audience was laughing where they were supposed to, wincing where they were meant to and generally thoroughly caught up in what was going on. I had some doubts about where and how some of these atmospheres were created and reactions provoked, though. There seemed to be a lack of justification for why some of the horrors were played straight and others camped up to the max, for one thing. Also, the viscerality of some of the violence, the abstraction of the choreographed interstitial scenes and the thematic flinging and daubing of brightly coloured powder going on at decisive moments did not really do one another any favours. This is an interesting attempt at a difficult play. Cry Havoc have made an admirable effort to produce theatre with contemporary relevance that doesn't get stuck at the kitchen sink and that does classical without presuming scholarship. In the end, though, it pushes both the ultraviolence of the ancients and the contemporary relevance that has in terms of family and war a little too hard, and the audience ends up sold a little bit short.
Not to alarm you, but you might have noticed that it has been hot recently. If you're suddenly finding yourself aware of a lack of summer-friendly clothes in your wardrobe, ready-to-wear label Tigerlily is offering something very relevant to your interests: a big six-day clothing sale to get you some much-welcome bargains. There's never a bad time to treat yourself to some new clothes, especially when you're saving money in the process. The Aussie brand is known and loved for its timeless prints and unique patterns, so getting your mitts on some of the goods for less is a major win. From Wednesday, November 27 until midnight on Monday, December 2, you'll be able to get brand new threads — including dresses, shorts and kaftans — with a cheeky 30 percent discount to help you survive the summer months both in store and online. Plus, if you're shopping online, you'll find sale items at up to 80 percent off. Tigerlily's Black Friday Sale runs from Wednesday, November 27–Monday, December 2 both in store and online. If you want to hit up the sale IRL, you can find your closest store here. To check out what's up for grabs online, head here.
Wishing you had time for a quick country getaway, but just can’t fit it into your ridiculously crazy schedule? Take a deep breath and write the words 'Taste Orange Food and Wine Festival' in your diary. Orange’s growers and wine-makers know that we city-folk can’t always make room for the 257km journey to their town. So, in conjunction with the Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel, they’re doing us a little favour and coming to Sydney for a day. On Sunday, May 25, Watsons Bay’s Robertson Park will transform into a mini-Orange (with the benefit of Harbour views!) filled with food stalls offering the best of local produce, from irresistible cheeses to dips to antipasti, which you’ll be able to pair up with one (or many) of a hundred or so wines. By way of entertainment, there’ll be acoustic music from The Silver Lining and an old-fashioned, country-style apple bobbing comp. Keep your day at an appropriately lackadaisical pace by catching the ferry there and back. Taste Orange Food and Wine Festival is part of Aussie Wine Month.
While it doesn't seem like earth will be home to a real-life Jurassic Park anytime soon, you can visit something close to it in the Blue Mountains these summer holidays. Jump on the Scenic Cableway and journey 66 millions years back in time as you descend into the Jamison Valley. Here, you'll find a fossil-filled alley and roaring dinosaurs scattered throughout the ancient rainforest. The life-sized T-rex, triceratops, stegosaurus and more all make up Scenic World's new openair Dinosaur Valley experience, which is running until Sunday, January 31. It's definitely an experience kids would enjoy, but there's nothing saying adults won't either — even if it's just another excuse to get out of the city and explore the wonders of the Blue Mountains. You'll probably learn a think or two about earth's prehistoric residents, too, with facts scattered throughout the exhibition and knowledgeable guides on hand. When you've finished exploring, you can take the world's steepest passenger train, the Scenic Railway, out of the valley. And, if you want even more excitement, you can also grab a Scenic Pass, which includes the glass-bottomed Scenic Skyway — an invigorating ride on the 270-metre high cablecar that takes in some of the mountains' most spectacular vistas.
Looking for a little luxury this summer? Consider this: you and your mates, champagne, oysters, canapes and internationally-acclaimed DJs onboard luxury superyacht, The Jackson. You can find the luxury you're looking for at 'In the Sun', featuring Veuve Clicquot, onboard The Jackson. Combining summery vibes and all the fine things in life, these luxury events are taking place across six Saturdays in January, February and March 2024. The Jackson can accommodate its guests across three sophisticated levels, both indoors and outdoors, to immerse its passengers in the views of Sydney Harbour. Your ticket to this luxurious summer offering in the sun includes two glasses of Veuve Clicquot, roaming canapes (champagne lobster brioche, anyone?), a luxe oyster bar, mini gelato and four hours of sailing on The Jackson, soundtracked by live music from the likes of Jarred Baker, Aroha, Troy Beman and more. Optional extras to this extravagant voyage include pickup from Circular Quay, Rose Bay or Manly Wharf, plus the option to purchase a magnum of Veuve Clicquot to share onboard, you deserve it. If you haven't had the pleasure of a voyage on The Jackson, this summer is your opportunity to change that. 'In the Sun' featuring Veuve Clicquot runs on select Saturdays throughout January, February and March 2024. For more information and to get tickets, visit the website.
Manuwangku: Under the Nuclear Cloud is a political exhibition. Photographed by Jagath Dheerasekara to draw attention to (and oppose) a likely nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory in an area known as 'Manuwangku' to its traditional owners. The ingredients are here for a breathtaking landscape photographs — sweeping vistas of red sunlight, green spinifex and figures on the move. But this is not a picturesque exhibition. Instead, it follows a theme developed by the contemporary Sydney Festival — ordinary lives of ordinary people, made extraordinary when brought to Sydney audiences. These theoretically dramatic elements are photographed with a documentary eye by Dheerasekara, who lets them frame a window into the everyday. A quiet pink house sits with its dusty 4WD at rest, a woman paints in dots across an art table (not unlike Pine St's own classrooms), a man half awake, rises to the edge of his bed and seems to wink at us over his boots. In one photo a child looks up from the table where his mum reads the paper, while in another a cigarette, a television and a perky lapdog take a quiet moment. If not for their location and their indigenous subjects, the photos could easily be mistaken for fifties kitch, filled as they are with shopping trips, old cars and a catalogue of the domestic. But in documenting this every day life, Dheerasekara mixes a sense of threat into quiet moments. The spectre of a nuclear future is explicit only in one image, but it hangs over the rest, imbuing ordinary moments with a sense of impending loss. And this is what gives this exhibition pull. Whether lured here by the politics of nuclear waste, or attracted to a well-framed glimpse into distant, ordinary things, there is enough to satisfy either visitor. The Pine Street showing of Manuwangku: Under the Nuclear Cloud is now finished, but the exhibition is being restaged at Customs House May 4 to July 8, 2012 as part of the Head On Photo Festival. More details on the show are available here. Photo by Jagath Dheerasekara. Note: Pine Street Gallery is not wheelchair accessible.
It can be assumed that whoever started the old wives' tale warning against pairing whisky and oysters just wanted to keep the secret to themselves. The Wild Rover — and those who have ventured through the bar's green door — know better. The Surry Hills bar is so into oysters it's bringing back its entire week of celebrations dedicated to them for a third year. Its famous lamb sausage roll will be forgotten for the week with a special menu that gives oysters the limelight — and from Monday, October 28 through to Saturday, November 2, you'll be able to slurp down a dozen fresh oysters for $15 (which is just $1.25 a pop). For the week, the bar will be serving up a special list of whisky-heavy cocktails all featuring Talisker. The exact drinks have no yet been released, but are expected to be posted on the event page imminently. The mollusc-filled week will also kick off with an oyster and whisky tasting from 6.30–8pm on Monday, October 28. For $30, you'll be able to taste your way through five different Talisker whiskies and slurp down some oysters while chatting to NSW oyster farmer Paul Ryder. Then, the week will wrap up with a two nights of live tunes with The Flying Seamen on Friday, November 1 and Saturday, November 2.
Creators Modular and Carriageworks have spun together a Vivid Sydney event of seriously epic proportions. Between Friday 6 and Monday 9 June, Carriageworks will be transformed into a music-art-food extravaganza, to be headlined by The Pet Shop Boys in the only Australian shows of their 2013/14 multimedia Electric tour. Plus, there'll be a one-off appearance from bizarre yet beautiful experimenters Liars, and a full-day showcase presented by LA indie label Wild Records, whose current darlings include Gizzelle, The Delta Bombers and Luis and the Wildfires. Innovative culinary delights will be provided by Sydney favourite Porteno in pop-up mode — Friday to Sunday from 5pm and Monday from midday. We had a good ol' chat with the lads from Porteno ahead of the weekend, head over here for a sneak peek at the event with rock and roll chefs Ben Milgate and Elvis Abrahanowicz. https://youtube.com/watch?v=gn-ofIAbv-w
