Melbourne has truly established itself as Australia’s food and drink capital. This autumn the city was the first outside of New York and London to host The World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards, and then the Australian Distilled Spirits Awards followed…
Kate Mulvaney gives us a Richard unlike any seen before in the world in Bell Shakespeare’s Richard III. (And that’s not just because it’s a woman playing a man.) In a marathon effort of physical and psychological dexterity, including a…
Meat, meat, and more meat. Hosted at the Melbourne Showgrounds, the multi-day festival was jam packed with meat lovers from all walks of life. Okay, so it was 90% men collectively dressed in a sea of flannel and denim. Luckily,…
I left the best ’til last. As my final show of Melbourne International Comedy Festival, I saw Canadian ‘gentleman elf’ Deanne Smith (good friend of 2017 Barry winner Hannah Gadsby) in her latest show, Post-Joke Era. Openly lesbian, Deanne’s onto all…
As both a craft beer obsessive and food lover, I can safely say I’ve eaten and sipped some pretty clever things. But while I’ve enjoyed plenty of dishes crafted from beer, I’d never tried (or even heard of) food being…
Phill Jupitus has finally got himself back to Australia, after a 30 year absence. I missed seeing him last time, as I had not yet been born, but I’m mighty glad I got to see him in his new show…
Take a peek behind the mask of France’s medieval heroine Joan of Arc with the Australian premiere of Joan. Co-creators of The Rabble, Kate Davis and Emma Valente, use aesthetics of black-and-white silent films to put Joan of Arc in…
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival show Cooking For No One showcases Carlo Ritchie’s lovelorn laments. The man is confident, competent, and his stories of failed romance very funny. Ritchie is suave, urbane and coolly mesmerising. His delivery is calm and measured, and he…
Jennifer Wong kookily stands before us with her cardboard box ‘cassette player’ beside her, in her one-woman standup show How To English Harder. Her quirky little Melbourne International Comedy Festival show pokes fun at the lucrative field of foreigners learning…
Who doesn’t like a good paella? (Is there even such a thing as a bad paella?) This year, the Queen Victoria Market is playing host to the 57th Concurs Internacional de Paella Valenciana Pacific Semi Finals. When I learned that this…