The Canberra arts scene is really pumping this coming week, if HELEN MUSA’s latest Artsweek column is any guide. 

Gravity & Other Myths brings their ambitious show The Mirror to the Canberra Theatre, April 10-12. Think acrobatics, cutting-edge technology and nostalgic song, delivered by the outstanding thumping beats and pop mashups of musician Ekrem Eli Phoenix.

Canberra Writer’s Festival and the NFSA present Steven Spielberg’s 1985 take on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prizewinning novel, The Color Purple, followed by a discussion with guest Santilla Chingaipe, and Qin Qin from Canberra Writers Festival. Arc Cinema, April 13.

Applications for 2026 National Library of Australia Fellowships and Creative Arts Fellowships are now open at library.gov.au until May 5.

Stage

• Shakespeare’s Henry 5 is famous as one of Shakespeare’s most patriotic plays. Bell Shakespeare presents the work at The Playhouse, April 10-20.
• Three circus comedians, Jamie Bretman, Jack Coleman and Morgan Wilson transform rubbish bins to become cars, trenches, charity rocket ships even musical instruments. Trash Test Dummies, The Q, Queanbeyan, April 12-13.
• Are You Lonesome Tonight, from Opera Queensland, celebrates all that opera and country music have in common. Audiences are invited to come in jeans and boots or tuxedos and ball gowns. The B, Queanbeyan, April 15.
• Nina Stevenson’s Pied Piper Productions is staging High School Musical 2 Jr, Canberra College Performing Arts Centre, Woden, April 15-23.

Galleries

• Tuggeranong Arts Centre has three new exhibitions opening on April 11: Lynne Flemons’ Meander, awarded by TAC for the 2023 Lanyon Prize; Walking with the Gardener, embroidery and prints by Peter McLean and Sharon Peoples; and Networks Australia artists’ Pixel and Thread.
• Our Story: Aboriginal Chinese People in Australia, National Museum of Australia, April 10-January 27. Free.
• Bodies Beyond the Skin by Isabella Capezio, at Platform, Manuka, April 11-25.
• The Immersive World of Thom Roberts is the first solo exhibition for contemporary Australian artist Thom Roberts, National Portrait Gallery, April 12-July 20, free.

Concerts

• The Australian Bee Gees Show is a tribute act featuring Queanbeyan-born founder Michael Clift, as Barry Gibb. The B, Queanbeyan, April 10.
• Selby & Friends celebrates French composer Maurice Ravel in in the 150th anniversary year of his birth with Joyeux Anniversaire, Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Barton, April 11.
• Salut! Baroque will perform a multicultural mix contrasting the familiarity of a Bach Chorale Prelude with Scottish, English and Irish folk melodies, Moldavian dances written in a Turkish idiom, and Spanish guitar music with West-African influences. Wesley Uniting Church, April 11.
• Australian alt-folkies The Audreys are here with their new album Ruin and Repair, The Street Theatre, April 11.
• Sandy Evans is bringing her new quartet Sax Koto to Tuggeranong Arts Centre on April 12.
• Llewellyn Choir’s main work for its Palm Sunday concert will be Invictus: A Passion, by British composer Howard Goodall. Wesley Music Centre, April 13.
• Canberra Symphony Orchestra’s chamber concert, Water & Spirit, features free-flowing music for flute, piano and cello, Albert Hall, April 13.
• The next Merry Muse will feature Strathmannan in Concert. Canberra Irish Club, Weston, April 13.
• Grammy-nominated countertenor Reginald Mobley joins Paul Grabowsky on piano to present Mobley’s album Because. The Street Theatre, April 16.
• Wesley Lunchtime concert series welcomes back young pianist Charles Huang to perform Beethoven’s Les Adieux Op 81a and his Sonata No. 27, Op. 90, Wesley Music Centre, April 16.