"There’s a touch of Waiting for Godot too, as events go round in repetitious loops and imagery is repeated. Audience participation hovers as a perpetual threat." ALANNA MACLEAN reviews Thom Pain (based on nothing).
To read books or not to read? That is the question, says book reviewer COLIN STEELE who is reviewing three books about, well, books! Looking after them, looking out for them and loving them in libraries.
"It is the casting of the legendary Nancye Hayes as the Dowager Empress, a role that could have been written for her, that makes this production one not to be missed." BILL STEPHENS reviews Anastasia, playing at the Sydney Lyric Theatre.
"If you were made to study it in school or if you simply enjoy the play, this production won’t disappoint. There are elements as good as you will get anywhere." JOE WOODWARD reviews Bell Shakespeare's production of Julius Caesar.
"These musicians are exceptional... artists of professional standard, playing challenging music at an advanced level." SARAH BYRNE reviews the Australian Youth Orchestra's Voyage of Discovery concert.
KERRY-ANNE COUSINS reviews John Brack x Noel McKenna: A face in the mirror, at the National Portrait Gallery.
MEREDITH HINCHLIFFE reviews end to end – Collected Works: from the Australian Pottery Collection, Bemboka, which is showing at the Watson Arts Centre.
"This quality, high-energy, fun and funny production of boy-band bangers and girl power was well deserving of the rowdy wolf whistles and enthusiastic standing ovation it received." SAMARA PURNELL's been to see & Juliet.
Arts editor HELEN MUSA reviews the opening concert of the 60th National Folk Festival at Exhibition Park.
Female writers are currently dominating the Australian crime fiction scene, with more women writing crime, psychological thrillers, and domestic noir than men, writes reviewer ANNA CREER.
"Oedipus the King teeters between the realistic and the formal, or ritualistic, and it is here that Michael Smith as director may have gone a step too far," writes reviewer HELEN MUSA.
MEREDITH HINCHLIFFE reviews end to end, an exhibition of the craft of Louis Grant, curated by Consuelo Cavaniglia.
"Canberra Choral Society’s Our Stories gave its audience an unusual collection of material and much to reflect upon," says reviewer ALANNA MACLEAN.
HELEN MUSA reviews Autumn Days, ArtSound Radio Theatre, an afternoon of monologues and short play readings, mostly by Canberra writers.
LEN POWER reviews Romance Sublime! a performance by soprano Lorina Gore and pianist Anthony Smith.
"There are few musicals in the repertoire so well suited to the dramatic staging offered by Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, and this one lives up to the hype." Arts editor HELEN MUSA reviews Handa Opera's production of Phantom of the Opera.
NICK HORN reviews The Devil’s Violin, a performance by the Australian Chamber Orchestra led by guest violinist Ilya Gringolts.
"This piano recital journeyed across five centuries of Spanish music, from transcriptions on Sephardim music to the fiery spirit of modern Spanish composers." ROB KENNEDY reviews a recital by pianist Marcela Fiorillo.
"You know you’re in for something a little out of the ordinary when you’re greeted at the concert venue by the original, giant and creepy AF doll from Squid Games," writes reviewer SARAH BYRNE.
