Umberto Clerici conducts Queensland Symphony Orchestra in The Rite of Spring, with Circa, photographed by Sam Muller Queensland Symphony Orchestra's 2025 Season Opening Gala, The Rite of Spring, was an exhilarating start to the year. The concert was conducted by Chief Conductor Umberto Clerici, with the eponymous piece by Stravinsky presented in an exciting collaboration... Continue Reading →
Review: Ode to Women: A Peace Play (The Curators Theatre)
Ode to Women: A Peace Play, photographed by Naz Mulla The Curators Theatre returns in 2025 with Ode to Women: A Peace Play, a bedazzled and broad-reaching ensemble piece that ruminates on the cost of war for those beyond the fighting. Ode to Women is the first in the Post Dramatic Troy Disorder trilogy that... Continue Reading →
Review: Dreams & Stories (Queensland Symphony Orchestra)
William Barton performing with Queensland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Katharina Wincor. Photographed by Darren Thomas. Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Dreams & Stories concert brought together an interesting range of pieces and composers, from guest soloist William Barton to John Williams, Sculthorpe, Mendelssohn, and Stravinsky. Part of the orchestra’s Music on Sundays series, Dreams & Stories was... Continue Reading →
Review: Love Lies Bleeding (Ad Astra)
Carla Haynes, Helen Howard, and Greg Gesch, photographed by Barbara Lowing Ad Astra end their 2024 season with a poignant and thought-provoking drama asking big questions about life, death, and the space in between. Written by American novelist and playwright Don DeLillo, who also directed the 2005 premiere production at Boise Contemporary Theater, Love Lies... Continue Reading →
Review: Cleansed (The X Collective)
Cast of The X Collective's Cleansed Content note: Please be advised this production contains, and this review refers to, simulations of drug use, extreme sexual & physical violence, incest, and suicide. The X Collective close their 2024 season with Sarah Kane's confronting and brutal play Cleansed. Directed by Wayne McPhee, with assistant direction and design by... Continue Reading →
Review: AI May (Embodi Theatre & PIP Theatre)
Clarise Ooi, photographed by Naz Mulla Embodi Theatre has premiered a new bilingual play at PIP Theatre, exploring the intersections of human emotion and artificial intelligence. Written and directed by Amy Chien-Yu Wang, with dramaturgy by Helen Strube, AI May is a bittersweet story of loss and love centred on the tensions between an immigrant... Continue Reading →
Review: Adrift (Counterpilot, Metro Arts & Brisbane Festival)
Audience of Adrift, photographed by Morgan Roberts Counterpilot brought their oceanic participatory theatre experience Adrift back to Metro Arts as part of Brisbane Festival, submerging audiences in the storytelling through audio-based instruction and immersion. Before entering the theatre, we were each fitted with an individual wristband, headphones, and a vest. Voices whispered in the headphones,... Continue Reading →
Review: Kitchen Studio (Elizabeth Willing, Metro Arts & Brisbane Festival)
Kitchen Studio is a gallery installation and series of activations at Metro Arts, West End, devised by artist Elizabeth Willing and presented as part of Brisbane Festival. The immersive, multisensory activations utilised small audience numbers and video design by Chris Howlett to be instructive and contemplative, delivering five "courses" that encouraged participants to consider the... Continue Reading →
Review: Camerata, Lou Bennett & Lior: Ngapa William Cooper (Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra, Brisbane Festival & QPAC)
Camerata, Lior, and Dr Lou Bennett AM perform Ngapa William Cooper, photographed by Alex Jamieson Camerata – Queensland's Chamber Orchestra collaborated with singer-songwriters Lior and Dr Lou Bennett AM on a deeply moving concert, presented for one night only as part of Brisbane Festival. The first half of the concert featured songs by Lior and... Continue Reading →
Review: Young Bodies / Somebody’s (Yeah Nah Theatre)
After two successful staged readings earlier in the year, Yeah Nah Theatre presents their debut mainstage production at Backdock Arts, directed by Mik Hosking and produced by Campbell Lindsay. Written by Sydney playwright Miranda Michalowski, Young Bodies/Somebody’s premiered at Flight Path Theatre in 2022 and is a coming of age play about sisterhood, secrets, and... Continue Reading →
Review: Eucalyptus – The Opera
Desiree Frahn as Ellen, photographed by Billie Wilson-Coffey Eucalyptus – The Opera made its world premiere as part of Brisbane Festival, adapted from Murray Bail’s Miles Franklin Award-winning Australian Gothic novel. Ellen has been raised by her protective father, Holland, on a large property in New South Wales. Alongside his only child, Holland has dedicated... Continue Reading →
Review: Volcano (Luke Murphy’s Attic Projects, Brisbane Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse, Channel Nine)
Luke Murphy and Will Thompson perform Volcano, photographed by Emilija Jefremova Luke Murphy has brought his colossal, episodic dance theatre work Volcano to the Brisbane Powerhouse as part of Brisbane Festival 2024, and it is everything you could want from a festival work – big on ambition and impact, flawlessly delivered, and resisting convention and... Continue Reading →