Things to do in Melbourne in May

Maybe you’re a lifelong fan of Lego. Maybe you got hooked on Lego Masters. Maybe you’re a huge dinosaur fan and have a shrine to Jeff Goldblum and the original Jurassic Park movies. Whatever your fascination, this new exhibition might be for you. Ryan ‘the Brickman’ McNaught, the only Australian Lego certified “professional”, has announced his next big Lego exhibition set to hit Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.  From April 1 to May 31, you’ll be able to enter an immersive Lego experience set to be the largest Lego experience in Aussie history. Made in partnership with the Jurassic World franchise, this new event will have over 50 large-scale dinosaurs, props, scenes and activities made using over six million Lego bricks.  If you’re familiar with the franchise, you’ll be able to recognise Isla Nublar, the science labs of Jurassic Park, a petting zoo and maybe even pose with life-size Lego dinosaurs. Keep an eye out of the Brachiosaurus, which weighs over two tonnes.  Tickets are on sale from March 11, via this link. Prices start at $25, and there's discounts for concessions and family groups). 

There’s been a lot of hype about Because the Night, Malthouse Theatre’s new production where the audience can freely explore an immersive set while the cast perform around them. “Immersive” really is the word here, and for once the oft overused term doesn’t feel like a gimmick – nor does the intensely detailed open set undermine the integrity of the production. Because the Night is undeniably a work of theatre, but one that approaches the art with a bolt of inspiration that will attract new audiences to the discipline.  It’s apparent from the get go that Because the Night is unlike any production Australian audiences have seen before. The audience are split into three groups, each entering the performance from a different location. Ushers provide each person with a dark robe and Donnie Darko-style black rabbit mask to cover their face – apart from serving to differentiate audience from cast, the costume immediately puts visitors in the right headspace; goodbye Melbourne, hello Elsinore.  If you’ve seen Melbourne’s 2019 season of A Midnight Visit or even been lucky enough to attend Punch Drunk’s Sleep No More in New York, you’ll get the drill. The cast of six – which when we attended was Keegan Joyce (Hamlet), Nicole Nabout (Claudia), Syd Brisbane (Polonius), Ras-Samuel Welda’abzgi (Laertes), Jen Vuletic (Gertrude) and Artemis Ioannides (Ophelia) – are oblivious to the audience as they perform the loosely Hamlet-based story across the winding, labyrinthine set of Elsinore, a 1

The District Docklands gets a glow-up with Imaginaria – a magical "future play experience". In layman's terms, Melbourne, it's a giant, glowing, otherworldy all-ages playground to explore. Imaginaria allows Melburnians to explore fantastic custom-built, interactive structures like a giant inflatable bubble, glowing light maze, and a "cosmic abyss". The whole installation features bespoke sound, light and even scents that are activated as guests explore the dreamscape. In April, the team installed two new installations. One is a talking projection that uses artificial intelligence (kind of like Siri or Alexa) to answer questions and chat to you. The other is a series of interactive sound cylinders that allow you to hear sound in a relatively new way. The experience comes from the imagination of Australian creative Nick Ennis, who has brought it to life thanks to a team of architects, musicians, fashion designers, light projectionists, audio-visual artists, sculptors, stuntmen and circus performers. Ennis says: "We wanted to create a play experience that elevated you out of the digital fog and snapped you into the now." Imaginaria has been extended right through to May 23 at the District Docklands (find it beneath the Melbourne Star). Tickets start at $24. 

Over the last 20 years, Rone has cemented himself as one of Australia’s most successful street artists. He has carved himself a niche in the world of urban art by routinely taking over abandoned places and distressed spaces and filling them with large, despondent portraits of women.  What you might not know is that Rone – real name Tyrone Wright – is from Geelong and he’s returning home for his first survey exhibition. Rone in Geelong presents a comprehensive collection of work spanning his career, from early stencils to photographs that show how he goes about transforming deserted buildings (you can also see one of these spaces recreated in 3D).  Geelong Gallery has also commissioned Rone to transform one of its most significant spaces – the Douglass Room – to reflect the gallery’s architecture, history and collection. Rone will work with interior stylist Carly Spooner to revamp the room, drawing additional inspiration from Venetian palazzos and trompe l’œil paintings (a painting technique that creates the illusion of three dimensions). True to form, the room will also feature an aloof-looking mural of a woman plus a haunting soundtrack by Nick Batterham.  Rone in Geelong was originally planned for winter 2020, but will now run from February 27 to May 16 2021.

For four weeks, Footscray Station's forecourt will be transformed into a bustling night market with food stalls from local restaurants and traders and alfresco dining, live music and entertainment.  The Footscray Night Market will highlight the western suburb's multicultural locals and each week will feature a rotating theme. Week one will showcase an international beer and barbecue line-up, while week two will champion durian, the third week will be a global celebration of European, South American and Caribbean cultures, and the final week will end with the Footscray Music Fest.  The event is free to attend and will run every Friday from Friday, April 16 to Friday, May 7.  Stick around when you're in the area. Check out our guide to Footscray.

The first rule of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is that you don’t talk about Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Safeguarding spoilers is an expected responsibility for anyone who attends the Potter-verse’s first on-stage outing. There’s even a hashtag: #KeepTheSecrets. But in truth (as far as theatre critique is concerned, at least), JK Rowling needn’t have worried. This marathon, five-hour spectacle has a plot so dense and sprawling, so wonderfully, unashamedly elaborate, it would take many thousands of words more than any theatre review to even scratch the surface. While we may have been sworn to secrecy about Cursed Child’s plot, we can reveal that the hype – and rarely has a piece of theatre ever generated such fever-pitched buzz – is entirely deserved. And not just because of the quality of the production. The masterminds behind the show – led by Rowling, playwright Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany – have not merely set out to put on a play, but rather craft a rich and detailed immersive experience. To this end, Melbourne’s Princess Theatre has undergone a top to bottom $6.5 million makeover, transforming its interiors to match a Hogwartsian, Potterfied aesthetic. If this sounds like an unnecessary extravagance, it’s probably an indication this play isn’t for you. The success of Cursed Child, which has smashed box office records on Broadway and the West End, is powered by its unapologetic exclusivity. Those without any prior knowledge of Harry and co will be baf

If you’ve ever watched the films Her or Ex Machina you’ll know how easily the lines between AI and humans can blur and how harrowing that can be.  Scienceworks’ latest exhibition Born or Built? explores how sophisticated robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) have become, how easily they can mimic human beings, and delves into the evolution of technology.   It will also pose challenging ethical and philosophical questions about the future of robots and human interaction to get you thinking. Expect hands-on experiences that enable you to chat with a robot, test its ability to understand your emotional state and be faced with a range of robotic faces to see which one makes you feel the most uncomfortable. You'll also be able to assemble simulated DNA in different configurations and create a human (like in the Sims but a whole lot more technical), and learn about the technologies we can implant or replace in the human body. You’ll also receive a lesson on our history with prosthetics and medical devices, how technology came to dominate the twentieth century and what increasing automation might mean for our future.  This one’s for people of all ages, including kids, and it might make you think twice before you have a go at Siri again. Born or Built? Our Robotic Future is on from April 3, 2021 to January 30, 2022. Pre-sale tickets are on sale now via the website.

Some of the most well-known Australian Impressionist paintings are currently front and centre at the Ian Potter Centre. She-Oak and Sunlight: Australian Impressionism brings together nearly 300 Australian Impressionist paintings from the likes of Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin, Jane Sutherland, Arthur Streeton, Charles Conder, Clara Southern and John Russell. Works featured in the exhibition include what are easily some of the most recognisable Australian paintings, including Tom Roberts' 'Shearing the Rams' and Jane Sutherland's 'Field naturalists'. The exhibition also highlights the works of female artists like Iso Rae, Ina Gregory and Jane Price.  The exhibition will span the range of Impressionist styles seen in Australia, including the works of Melbourne's famous Heidelberg school. She-Oak and Sunlight also features 50 works that were presented in the 1889 exhibition, 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition (named for the size of the artworks, which were largely painted on the lids of cigar boxes).  She-Oak and Sunlight: Australian Impressionism is on at the Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia from April 2 until August 22. Tickets are $26 for general entry. 

You can keep your Oscars, your Golden Globes, your worthy French films. Give us a terrible movie that we can laugh at any day.  And that's exactly what Lido Cinemas is doing, with a monthly screening of notoriously terrible movies on the first Friday of the month. Even better, the event is being hosted by Zachary Ruane, of side-splitting comedy troupe Aunty Donna.  What are these films that are so bad they're good? They include (of course) The Room, the deeply bizarre Tommy Wiseau cult classic about... well, we're not really sure, but it's fantastically terrible. Also on the bill: Batman and Robin (featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Uma Thurman and George Clooney's rubber nipples); Troll 2 (which was clearly meant to be called 'Goblin' but was shoehorned into becoming a sequel for a movie it has nothing to do with); Birdemic (the "CGI" – and we use the term loosely – appears to have been done on MS Paint); and Road House (starring Patrick Swayze, and even though it has 37 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, it's clearly a mistake in this list. Patrick. Swayze.). They are a guaranteed good time (well, a good bad time, you know what we mean). We recommend you take advantage of Lido's alcohol licence and get ready for the best worst movies. 

The weather has long been the go-to topic, especially in Melbourne (talk about four seasons in one day, am I right?). The weather is more than just small talk, however – it is intrinsically linked to the climate and the environment.  Big Weather explores Australia's weather – and specifically the knowledge, stories and perspectives on the weather as told by First Nations artists. The exhibition showcases works from Indigenous artists that are related to the weather, including representations of ancestral rain, hail and storm spirits; works exploring climate change-induced extreme weather events; and the place of animals and how they're affected by the environment and weather. The exhibition is laid out by theme, with one room representing fire, one representing water and flooding, one representing air and wind, and so on. Curator Hannah Presley created the exhibition during last summer's devastating bushfires (remember those?), and it was originally slated to open in March 2020 as a direct response to the fires. But Presley says the themes of the show are just as relevant now.  "This conversation is actually timeless," she says. "We've all had this quiet time, and we're thinking about things a little differently. We want to feel grounded and safe, and that is part of how Indigenous people feel connected to country." Presley wants visitors to the exhibition to think differently about the weather and about climate change, learning from the Traditional Owners of the land and the