Arj Barker has married, matured, done self-work, and has a new demeanour. Still as assured, expressive, and mobile as ever, he wants to get up, close, and personal. The world is at an interesting place in 2018. He feels: We…
Raewyn Pickering and Urvi Majumdar have popped their Melbourne International Comedy Festival cherry with their debut show, Mispronounced. Both having suffered with names that are equal parts unusual and difficult to pronounce, they take turns to share stories from their…
If you’ve never heard the phrase ‘bury your gays’, you’ve been watching too many hetero movies. Tropes are around in every movie, and there’s an ever-surviving one that results in ending what feels like every lesbian love story by killing…
In June 2017, comedian Wil Anderson was arrested as his plane touched down in the regional city of Wagga Wagga. He was alleged to have ‘behaved disruptively’ during the flight, prompting the Qantas crew to notify the police, although it…
Fleabag is my personal pick of the Melbourne International Comedy Fest 2018. I’d been trying to see this one-woman play by English actress, writer, playwright, and director Phoebe Waller-Bridge well before its Australian debut this year, having come across the …
Two industry tycoons clash over an improbable combination of dairy and cheese to create a blasphemy of pastry at the New York Cake Festival, as told in Cheesecake the Musical. An Irish Cleopatra urges on the proletariat in the communist…
Like horror and noir? Centuries ago, the English invented both. What do Sherlock Holmes, Dorian Gray, Tess d’Urberville, Jane Eyre, Dracula, David Copperfield, and Frankenstein have in common with the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? A great…
Superman vs. Batman is a pretty standard question, but Battle of the Superheroes: The Great Superhero Debate doesn’t stop with the common superheroes. Instead, the humour lies in the plethora of lesser-known superheroes that permeate the various universes. The show…
He’s platinum blonde and all over our televisions. Trim, taut, and terrific, he has a mouth on him that knows no Mute. With the face of a cute boy child, he can charm anyone but has a sting in the…
Run a fingertip along the edge of a wine glass, and listen to the sound gathered in its orb. This is what Oliver Beer does with choral voice and architecture. Beer finds settings where human voice resonates with building space…