There’s arts events everywhere! This week’s Arts in the City column, by HELEN MUSA, proves the point. 

Comedian and cabaret star Reuben Kaye brings his new show, Apocalypstik, to The Playhouse on April 26. The show features stories of Reuben’s mother, grandfather and his uncle Helmut, who was a bank robber, pornographer and musician in West Berlin. Kaye grew up in an artistic household where his father was a painter and sculptor, his mother a dancer and filmmaker and his grandmother, a Collins Street couturier.

The next Mother Tongue event at Smith’s Alternative April 29 will feature Vikas Sharma. In a performance will include poetry, spoken word and feature a song in Hindi.

On April 26 the NFSA screens Breaker Morant and For the Honour of Australia , as well as Persepolis, black-and-white animated adaptation of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel that follows a young girl who grows up during the Iranian Revolution.

The next Centre for Classical Studies Seminar will see Elizabeth Minchin talking about evaluating workplace relationships in the Iliad. Research School of Social Sciences, ANU, 1.23, May 1.

Stage

• ACTHub is holding a 12 Hour Hub-Athon featuring multiple plays and over 20 actors. It’s a fundraiser for the theatre. 14 Spinifex St Kingston, April 24.
• Joe Woodward and Daramalan Theatre Company are presenting Festival of Performance, a program of short films and nine one-act plays by Eugene Ionesco, Edward Albee and Anton Chekhov, as well as new works by students and staff. Daramalan College, Dickson April 27 – May 11.
• The Australian Dance Party’s Dance Week presentation, Co-Lab:24, Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre, April 30 and May 1.

Concerts

• Canberra International Music Festival opens with Lior’s poignant work, Compassion, orchestrated by Nigel Westlake, which sees Lior singing life-affirming words taken from Arabic and Jewish prayers. Snow Concert Hall, May 1.
• Melbourne Afro-Cuban band, Ausecuma Beats, bring Australia, Senegal and Mali together in a new album, Dakar Bamako. Ainslie Arts Centre on April 26.
• Shannon Noll’s That’s What I’m Talking About 20th anniversary tour, Canberra Theatre, April 26.
• Dept of Rock All Stars’ first gig, Cheeky Division, presents The Shadies, Absent Ace Tone, Adventure St and APS Band The Duds, Smiths Alternative, April 27. 
• MusicACT’s professional development program kicks off with the first a new Q&A event series, a conversation with Gretta Ray at Gang Gang Cafe, Downer, April 28.
• In Gardens of Spain for the Wednesday Lunchtime series presents soprano Sarahlouise Owen and pianist Natalia Tkachenko performing popular classical and less well-known Spanish songs. Wesley Music Centre, May 1.
• Geoff’s Jazz at Smiths features the John Harkins Quartet from Sydney with top young tenor player, Aidan Wong. Smith’s Alternative May 1.

Galleries

• Michele England’s Il Faut Cultiver Notre Jardin (We must tend our garden) is now open at ANCA Gallery, Dickson. Creative workshops will be held by the artist at the gallery on April 27, May 5 and May 11.
• Toni Hassan’s new show, Trust Me, is a multimedia exploration of her personal and collective geography of her life-altering experience of cancer diagnosis and treatment in 2023. Hassan offers paintings, a video work, photographs, found-object installations and textiles using reclaimed materials, to bring to light the nature of her adventure and the visual culture of hospital care. CCAS Manuka, Manuka, April 26-May 5.
• Canberra Potters are extending Moraig McKenna’s current exhibition, Surfacing, at Watson Arts Centre, until May 5.