Here’s Arts in the City, HELEN MUSA’s weekly look at arts news around the town.

“A delicious piece of nonsense” is how Free Rain Theatre describes its spring production, Lend Me a Tenor, coming in a production by Cate Clelland at ACT Hub, Kingston, September 17-27. In the play, by Ken Ludwig, a provincial opera company has secured a world-famous tenor to sing the starring role in Pagliacci for one evening. What could possibly go wrong?

The feathers, they promise, will fly as Brisbane physical theatre company Circa present Duckpond presents its take on Swan Lake, complete with a sequinned flipper-wearing duck army and a burlesque black swan. The Playhouse, September 18-20.

The Bendigo Bank Braidwood and Bungendore have chipped in $590,000 to make sure Stage 1 of the Braidwood Heritage Centre is completed, joining Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council, which has already donated $188,945 to cover the development application fees and section 64 contributions for the project. 

It’s the second week of the Festival of New Works at The Courtyard Studio, September 19-21. First up is I Watched Someone Die on TikTok, a 60-minute live dissection of what happens when we’re not able to be left to our own devices. That’s followed by Takatāpui, in which Māori “anti-disciplinary artist” Daley Rangi dons a killer pair of heels and takes to the mic to grapple with the complexities of identity with levity, asking how microaggressions turn macro.

Artist Elliott Fox’s exhibition of sculptures, paintings and prints, Saint Grey, pays tribute to the world’s second fastest land mammal, the greyhound, asking how the animal’s sensitivity has made it susceptible to exploitation and abuse, especially by the racing industry. The Q Gallery, Ainslie shops, September 12-25.

Senior policy-maker Greg Smith will speak on The Australian State in the 21st Century, asking whether it is “match fit” to meet the likely challenges of the 21st century. Manning Clark House, Tasmania Circle, Forrest, September 18.

The woodwinds group from the Band of the Royal Military College, Duntroon will showcase all the RMC Band’s woodwind ensembles performing a variety of contemporary and classical works. Wesley Music Centre, Forrest, September 17.