Culture
Previews, reviews and interviews
Life is Beautiful and Bleak ‘Sami in Paradise’ at Belvoir Street Theatre
'Sami in Paradise' takes Nikolai Erdman’s comedy 'The Suicide' – written in late 1920s Stalinist Russia – and turns it into a laugh-out-loud tragedy of refugee life.
Ready Player One The games people play
In Steven Spielberg’s 'Ready Player One', the teenage Watts (Tye Sheridan) is locked into a contest for control of an expansive virtual reality platform, the OASIS.
Man with a Blue Cornflower A refuge in Paris for the music of The Apartments
When the lights of hope had gone out, a man in Paris was offering me a rope. And I would use that rope and climb out of the hole I found myself in.
Henry Rollins: Something and Nothing Ghosts in the Machine
A few weeks previous Rollins best friend Joe Cole was shot to death right in front of him... The Rollins I meet is not much more than a gun blast himself.
Perfume Genius Factory Theatre, Marrickville 2.03.18
“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art,” writes Oscar Wilde. Perfume Genius’ Mike Hadreas manages both.
Into the Wild Artistic Director Eamon Flack’s vision for Belvoir
Australia is such a knotty, pent-up, uptight society. Any way we have to release those things we should go for.
Solid Air Rayyane Tabet and the secret history of the Opera House
It’s hard to know what to call Tabet’s work: a performance monologue, an installation of found objects, an historical detective story, a love letter, a séance?
Primal Scream Adena Jacobs, director of ‘The Howling Girls’
September 11 hysteria... five teenage girls report extreme symptoms of debris caught in their throat and being unable to swallow or even breathe.
In Defence of Thinking Ann Mossop and the UNSW Centre for Ideas
Public searches for truth often occur on the internet, where they’re hampered by hidden algorithms for groupthink, bullying opinions, and constant distractions. We need a more even playing field.
Mary Magdalene ‘Eat Pray Love’ meets Jesus at the multiplex
“I can’t marry,” says Mary. “I’m not made for that life.”
Cathode Ray Comfort The demise of Asian video stores
Most of these video stores are gone now in Sydney; in the age of streaming, even my 65-year-old mum uses YouTube on her phone to get the latest Taiwanese variety shows.
In the Zone Sam Doctor’s images from Fukushima
“It’s like when parents have a missing child and they keep the bedroom in the same way.”