Travis Johnson

There is a lot happening on Sydney's stages each and every month. But how do you even know where to start? Thankfully, our critics are out road-testing musicals, plays, operas, dance, cabaret and more all year round. Here are their recommendations. Want more culture? Check out the best art exhibitions in Sydney.

Among South Australia's many eclectic and exciting events, Adelaide Fringe stands proudly as the biggest festival of the calendar year, not to mention the largest arts festival in the Southern Hemisphere. In 2023, it made history as the first-ever Aussie festival to sell more than one million tickets, and has only gotten bigger since. Running from February 21 to March 23, the 2025 program features more than 6,000 global artists performing across 500 venues in an impressive 1,400-plus shows. Spanning from Whyalla across the state to Naracoorte and beyond, you can expect an incredible mix of cabaret, theatre, comedy, circus, music, visual arts, workshops and interactive experiences.  As always, The Garden of Unearthly Delights and Gluttony, have transformed Adelaide’s eastern parklands into buzzing hubs full of food, music and eclectic energy. Crowd favourites from 2024, including Sleeps Hill Tunnel and The Dome, will also return for an extended season, while 2025 brings hundreds of new shows to discover. Lucky for you, we’ve found all the best ones for you to book at Adelaide Fringe this year. Adelaide Fringe 2025: Everything you need to know before you go

Every January, Sydney Festival arrives to kick off the city's arts and culture calendar with a massive helping of shows, gigs and immersive experiences. In 2025, we have an eclectic grab bag of more than 130 things to choose from, including critically-acclaimed productions from overseas (such as a subversive spaghetti western performed in “white face”) and wild new work from local artists (including the premiere of an unauthorised opera about Siegfried and Roy) in addition to some phenomenal live music in beautiful spaces. So, what are the performances that you absolutely cannot miss? And which ones will we still be ranting about for years to come? Time Out Sydney's squadron of independent critics are on the case, and they’re out there seeing as many shows as they possibly can this January. You can see our 13 top picks for the best shows to see during Syd Fest '25 over here, and check out our rolling list of festival reviews below. (Note: These “mini reviews” are shorter than the critical commentary that we typically publish, but they still offer honest, rigorous observations and critiques from reliable theatre enthusiasts and live music veterans.)

Has it really been only 70 years? It seems like only yesterday that the Sydney Film Festival (SFF) began as a small event at the University of Sydney, but look at it now – a world class event, boasting hundreds of screenings, dozens of high-profile guests, events and Q&A sessions, all crammed into the scant 12 days between June 7 and June 18. On such an anniversary, a sense of the weight of history is perhaps unavoidable, as we contemplate not only the fresh films on the slate, but the lifespan of the festival itself – from its humble beginnings to its current status as one of the premiere events on the international film circuit.  It’s certainly on the mind of festival director Nashen Moodley, now in his twelfth year at the helm. Still, he assures us that some things never change. We have so many films from Cannes. Which is always a great boost to the line-up. “The approach is always the same,” he tells us. “It's looking for the best possible films from around the world. We start pretty early, with a search beginning around August of the previous year. And I think that yeah, that's very much the way we've gone about it, just looking at as much as we can. And of course, it was really important to have a great opening night film this year, and that we managed to do at a very late moment – an uncomfortably late moment – we have The New Boy.” The latest work from director Warwick Thornton is a more than worthy candidate for the opening slot, pairing the Sweet Country director wi

In late 1991 and early 1992 in Perth, Western Australia, you couldn’t walk into a pub, club, bar, or record shop without coming across a photocopied petition that demanded Nirvana, who would play their first Australian gig at Sydney’s Phoenician Club on January 24, 1992, add the city to their inaugural (and, as it turned out, only) Australian tour. The Perth show had been cancelled due to Kurt Cobain’s ill-health, and the sandgropers were incensed. I know – I was one of them. Pages from that petition are now on display in the Powerhouse Museum as part of the new exhibition, Unpopular, which charts the exploits of music promoter Steve “Pav” Pavlovic. The names have been carefully covered to anonymise the angry Westies, which is a shame; if my name isn’t on there, the names of people I know certainly are. It’s not the biggest ticket item on display – that’d be the 1959 Martin D-18E guitar Cobain played on MTV Unplugged, on loan from Rode Microphones founder Peter Freedman – but it’s personal, tactile, and evidence of the hands-on, grassroots approach that Pav took when he has bringing over the likes of Mudhoney, Hole, and Fugazi back in the day. “I was doing things that I love,” Pav explains of his fan-first philosophy. “And at that point in time I loved those bands and it was exciting to me and I had the opportunity to do it, so I did it.” Photograph: Powerhouse/Zan Wimberley Pav was only 25 years old when he toured Nirvana, and by sheer luck the Australian tour coincided with

If the upcoming 2023 STC slate seems overwhelming, perhaps it’s because of this: this is the first full season announcement since the beginning of the pandemic.  Until now, the vagaries of the Covid crisis had made forward planning a challenging prospect at best, but now  STC can unveil a spectacular selection of works: 16 productions encompassing six world premieres and four new commissions. Theatremakers and writers of the caliber of Wesley Enoch, Andrew Upton, Anchuli Felicia King, Aleshea Harris, and Ella Hickson all have upcoming productions under the STC banner, attracting spectacular casts that include Sigrid Thornton, Don Hany, Zahra Newman, John Bell, Justine Clarke and – returning to the stage following a 25-year absence – Claudia Karvan. It’s going to be a bumper year for theatre fans. It's an eclectic selection, with bold new works standing shoulder to shoulder with revered classics, and yet there are themes to be discerned. Speaking to us on the eve of the program launch, STC artistic director Kip Williams explains that while his choices in 2021 reflected themes of community in response to the lockdowns and the Covid crisis, this year a different theme has emerged. “In this particular season I've been looking at creating a collection of plays that allow an audience to enter into a different world,” he tells us. “For a society that has largely been held in a contained space for a long time, we want to be transported. We want to go outside of ourselves. We don't wa

William Shakespeare knew a thing or two about productions being interrupted by outbreaks of pandemic proportions, and so too does Bell Shakespeare. But after a couple of fraught years thanks to Covid, a triumphant 2022 season marked a return to form – headlined by a new pop-musical spin on A Midsummer Night's Dream. And 2023 promises an even more impressive slate of productions – along with an important anniversary. “Next year is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio,” Bell Shakespeare’s artistic director Peter Evans explains. “Without which we wouldn’t have some of Shakespeare’s most-loved plays, including Macbeth and Twelfth Night. It felt like the right time to restage these blockbuster works.” In addition to the aforementioned works, Bell will be mounting a minimalist, stripped back production of Romeo and Juliet designed to showcase the company’s new home base, The Neilson Nutshell at Pier 2/3 in the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct, and starring Rose Riley and Jacob Warner, who featured as Ophelia and Horatio, respectively, in this year’s Hamlet. Read on for full details. Bell Shakespeare: 2023 Season Supplied/Bell Shakespeare | Hazem Shammas for Macbeth Macbeth Sydney Mar 1 – Apr 2 Canberra Apr 15 – Apr 22 Melbourne Apr 28 – May 14 Directed by Peter Evans, this production of one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies sees Hazem Shammas (The Twelve, Safe Harbour) as Macbeth, the valorous Scottish general whose ambition will be his undoing, and Jessica Tovey (The Miser,

Having astounded audiences and critics alike with his bold take on Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Sydney Theatre Company’s artistic director Kip Williams and the creative team behind Dorian, including leading video technology and production company TDC, return to the realm of Victorian supernatural literature with his latest directorial offering, Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Whereas Dorian Gray was a one-performer affair, with actor Eryn Jean Norvill playing 26 different characters and interacting with video recordings of herself in various guises in real time, Jekyll and Hyde splits two actors across three roles between them: Ewen Leslie, reuniting with Williams after their impressive recent staging of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and Matthew Backer, who appeared in Williams’ Cloud Nine. Between them, the pair play the saintly Jekyll; the sinister Hyde; and Utterson, Jekyll’s friend and confidante, and the point of view character in Robert Louis Stevenson’s source novella (exactly who plays who is left for audiences to discover). Williams will again employ the innovative cine-theatre live video techniques that have become synonymous with his work, and which made Dorian Gray into a nationally (and soon to be internationally) touring hit (next stop: Broadway). Many theatregoers are wondering, how is he going to top it?  Photograph: STC/Daniel Boud “I've always been fascinated by the novella,” Williams explains. “And I was struck by how different the no

Everyone has a long list of podcasts they’ve been meaning to get around to, but haven’t quite found the time as yet. Well, with Sydney’s lockdown looking to last considerably longer than anyone expected, there has never been a better time to dig into that audio To Do pile. Even better, podcasts are compatible with other lockdown activities, like upping your wine subscription frequency, vaguely working out to compensate, alphabetising your regrets, and staring into the middle distance. So, the next time you’re doing any (or all) of those, slip one of these gems on in the background and forget about it. Unravel True Crime: Juanita Featuring investigative work from some of our finest journalists, all five seasons of the ABC’s Unravel podcast are well worth a spin. Each digs deep into a different unsolved Australian crime. The latest is a must for Sydneysiders, as it deals with the disappearance of journalist and activist Juanita Nielsen in 1975. A vocal proponent of tenants’ rights and heritage preservation, Nielsen vanished in the middle of a high-profile stoush with organised crime figures over real estate development in King’s Cross. This series picks at the underbelly of the city's crime, corruption, politics and bloody murder – just the thing to make you glad you can’t go outside. TJ This American Life If you’ve got a short attention span but still love a good story, look no further. Hosted by beloved American broadcaster Ira Glass, the podcast tackles a different theme e

It’s a bit of a grim time in Sydney with the city in lockdown and its cultural life flatlined. But things can always be worse: you could fall prey to a serial killer, or get sucked into a bizarre cult, or any number of grim fates that are the province of the true crime genre. It’s all bit nasty, but we can’t pretend we’re not fascinated by the macabre and malevolent things that real people do to other real people. The ratings don’t lie, after all: true crime is a booming business. Perhaps it’s comforting to know that, no matter how bad your iso situation, things could be demonstrably worse. Perhaps it’s simply that we’re all a lot more morbid than we like to let on. Here, then, are some truly frightful and fascinating true crime series for you to sink your teeth into.

In 2019, comic juggernaut Marvel ruled the world, raking in US$2.8 billion globally with their big-screen offering Avengers: Endgame. Capping two decades worth of storytelling in the MCU, it became one of the most-watched movies in history. Flash forward a year and global lockdowns managed what Thanos could not, by taking out the heroes we know and love. Scarlett Johansson's swansong Black Widow was pulled from release schedules as cinemas shut worldwide. Skip to now, and on the eve of it finally bowing in Australian cinemas, Sydney and other cities find thesmelves shuttered once more.  But don’t despair. If you’re itching for some super-powered action, you can always go straight to the source. These 11 awesome comics are all available on Comixology, but make sure to check if your friendly neighbourhood comic shop is delivering – they’ll appreciate the business in these uncertain times. And yes, that was a Spiderman reference. RECOMMENDED: The 100 best horror movies you can stream right now.

Art Month in Sydney is about much more than exhibitions – although there are certainly a lot of them. The program extends to talks, tours, open studios, performances, workshops and classes too. Artistic director Emma O’Neill has curated a fantastic array of events across the city for the annual festival, which was started by gallerists and heavyweight art dealers Vasili Kaliman and Michael Reid in 2010 in response to the growing public interest in art. Below are some of our highlights, including events that expand the footprint well into April, if you're the sort of person that swings into cool gigs fashionably late.  Art Month Sydney runs through March and into April. See also, our hit list of best art to see this month.

Call it “One Flew Over the Old Bird’s Nest”, if you like. Following its hugely successful debut with Melbourne Theatre Company in 2023, veteran comedian and Working Dog mainstay Tom Gleisner’s (The Castle, ABC television's Utopia) catchy new musical comedy set in a nursing home (and seasoned with a dash of tears, as expected) is now Sydney Theatre Company’s latest and very welcome offering. Directed by Dean Bryant (Dear Evan Hansen) with music by Katie Weston, Bloom is an across-the-board crowd-pleaser, the kind of popular four-quadrant gem that’s almost impossible to dislike. It even has a few pointed comments to make about the fraught state of aged care in Australia, but these never overwhelm the palpable sense of fun. What more could you want? We get two fish out of water (or Randle McMurphys, if you will) for the price of one here, both arriving at the understaffed, underfunded (and, as it eventuates, underestimated) Pine Grove Aged Care facility on the same day. One is new resident (or possibly inmate?) Rose (played by Evelyn Krape, reprising her role from the Melbourne run) – a feisty-to-the-point-of-prickly old dame, age has not wearied Rose, but it did lead to an accidental fire that made her an unwilling candidate for permanent care. The other is stoner/slacker/music student Finn (Sloan Sudiro), who was drawn here by the promise of a free room and board in exchange for some light duties. The duties turn out to be anything but light, as the frazzled staff – including

Arguably, Ensemble Theatre’s production of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie deserves a better audience than it got on opening night.  At a key point in the play, well-meaning faded golden boy Jim O’Connor (Tom Rodgers) accidentally breaks a tiny glass unicorn, part of the titular collection of knick-knacks that shy, anxious Laura Wingfield (Bridie McKim) is obsessed with.  It’s a moment laden with meaning and pathos. Laura – who was left with a limp by a childhood illness, and is so shy and awkward that she dropped out of secretary school rather than face day after day of simply sitting in class with other people – is finally, tentatively, making a connection with Jim, her high school crush. Unbeknownst to her, the future of her family depends on this connection. The meeting has been engineered by her younger brother, Tom (Danny Ball), and mother, Amanda (Blazey Best). Marrying off Laura will free Tom, who works in a shoe warehouse to support the family, to run off and find the adventure he craves in the merchant marines. It will also elevate Amanda from the crushing poverty she’s endured since her estranged husband, whose faded photo dominates the stark set, ran off years ago.  But Laura is far too fragile for such a burden – she’s as delicate as the glass unicorn that Jim so carelessly crushes. And the quiet, crystal moment in the aftermath of that tiny, terrible accident was itself shattered when some halfwit in the first few rows stage-whispered, clear as a bell in

If you’re of a certain age, you have history (HIStory, perhaps?) with Michael Jackson. I remember getting ‘Thriller’ on cassette as a kid. ‘Dangerous’ was one of the first CDs I ever owned. I remember seeing the extended music video for ‘Thriller’ on VHS, which came packaged with a behind-the-scenes documentary. One woman, cornered for a quick vox pop at one of the filming locations, asserted that she loved Jackson because he was “down to earth”, which is darkly hilarious in hindsight.  Down to earth? The press called him “wacko Jacko” – we all did. He slept in a hyperbaric chamber. He owned the Elephant Man’s skeleton. His skin kept getting paler, his nose thinner. What a weird guy! Was any of it true? Hard to say. Even today, when a careless tweet is like a drop of blood in a shark tank to fans and journos alike, the media furor around Michael Jackson stands as one of the most frenetic in living memory, eclipsing the likes of Beatlemania. Jackson wasn’t bigger than God, he was God to a lot of people – the King of Pop, the first Black artist to smash through the MTV colour barrier, an artist, an icon, a living legend. Then came the allegations of child sexual abuse, which first began in August 1993, and continue to this day. For those who were still on the fence, the documentary Leaving Neverland, released in 2019, saw many more fans abandon Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 50. And so, it makes sense that MJ the Musical would set Jackson’s relationship with the media

Henry V (stylized as Henry 5 in this production) is inarguably one of William Shakespeare’s most martial works. First performed somewhere between 1599 and 1605, there’s debate over whether the play is a deliberate act of nationalistic propaganda – certainly, its initial staging came at a time of English military adventurism, particularly in Ireland and against the Spanish. And Shakespeare, who benefited from royal approval from both Elizabeth I and James I, knew which side of the bread his butter was on. It’s always been popular in times of war – Sir Laurence Olivier’s 1944 film adaptation came mere months after the Allied invasion of Normandy, and leans into the stirring patriotism, the blood and the thunder. The text itself is deliciously ambiguous – occasionally frustratingly so in a time when, culturally, audiences demand straight lines and clear demarcations of morality. Kicking off Bell Shakespeare’s 2025 season, this latest production bucks that trend. Former Associate Artistic Director Marion Potts returns to the company after a 15-year absence to direct this carefully concentrated version. It excises many characters and subplots (farewell, Pistol and the lads from the Boar’s Head) and, of course, keeps the sinew-stiffening and blood-summoning speeches, but leans into the cost of war, taking pains to underscore the horrors. It's 1415 or thereabouts, and newly crowned King Henry (newcomer JK Kazzi), having been convinced in a very funny scene of his claim to certain la

Set in Madrid, the narrative action of Song Of First Desire occupies two distinct time frames. In the present day, acerbic twins Luis (Jorge Muriel) and Julia (Kerry Fox) are dealing with the mental decline of their ageing mother, Camelia (Sarah Peirse).  Meanwhile, in 1968, where Spain is under the fascist Franco regime, police commander Carlos (Muriel again) and his wife Carmen (Fox again) find their preparations for their daughter’s wedding disrupted when the latter encounters Margarita (Peirse, and you can see the pattern by now, surely), a woman who seems to know them from the past. “The past” in this case is the play’s third temporal setting: the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 and the White Terror that followed, in which Franco’s Nationalists enacted bloody purges and reprisals on the Spanish people, replete with mass extrajudicial executions and the torture of suspected dissidents. None of the on-stage action takes place in that period, but everything we see is rooted there – the sins of the past cast a heavy pall over the characters and the substance of the play itself, which deals with generational trauma, family secrets, incest, perversity, colonialism, and the rhyming nature of history, both personal and political. These are familiar themes for acclaimed Australian playwright Andrew Bovell. His 2008 play When the Rain Stopped Falling covers similar territory, and employs a comparably twisty approach to chronology. Song Of First Desire sees Bovell reteaming with dir

Perhaps it’s unpatriotic to suggest it, but I’d argue that Australia has produced strikingly few immortal works of art, particularly narrative art. But, we’ll always have Picnic at Hanging Rock – which can make a strong claim for being the most important Australian artistic work of the 20th century, and one that still casts a shadow over the 21st.  The novel by Joan Lindsay first saw the light of day in 1967, but it was Peter Weir’s 1975 film adaptation – a haunting and subtle work and the ne plus ultra of Australian Gothic – that really struck a chord with audiences. This year marks the film’s 50th anniversary, which seems to be the reason behind this haunting new production for Sydney Theatre Company’s 2025 season, the latest of numerous stage adaptations.  STC Resident Director Ian Michael (Constellations, Stolen) and playwright Tom Wright (whose adaptation was first staged by Malthouse Theatre and Black Swan Theatre in 2016) are certainly betting on Picnic at Hanging Rock’s cultural staying power. This Picnic is in no way naturalistic, but it certainly evokes a sense of the uncanny Both Lindsay’s novel and Weir’s film are elliptical and meditative, posing questions rather than offering answers. This production is perhaps more opaque than either, taking an experimental direction that ramps up the themes of horror and suspense. This works a treat in the early movements of the play, keeping the audience off kilter, forcing us to engage with a conceptual realm where time, sp

Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer-winning black comedy has come to Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre – slouching in through the door, bottle in hand and a cigarette dangling from its fingers, simmering with rage and love and resentment and sorrow and disappointment – and all the other emotions, and emotional scars – that belonging to a big, messed-up family can leave you burdened with.  Debuting in Chicago in 2007, August: Osage County went on to conquer Broadway and the West End before Hollywood took a swing at it in 2013. The story is set in Oklahoma, the playwright’s home state, but the tradition it’s drawing on is Southern Gothic – or maybe it’s Midwestern Tragic? There’s a bit of William Faulkner in the mix, maybe a bit of Truman Capote and Harper Lee. There’s a touch of Shakespeare, too – specifically King Lear, which also features three daughters caught in a dynastic struggle after their father abdicates.  Alcoholic former poet Beverly Weston (John Howard, superb in a one-scene appearance) is missing, presumed drunk, which prompts his three daughters to return home to care for their acerbic, pill-addled mother, Violet (a brilliantly bitter Pamela Rabe). There’s the dutiful Ivy (Amy Mathews); the wild child youngest, Karen (Anna Samson) who brings her fast-talking, sleazily charming fiancé, Steve (Rohan Nichol); and prickly eldest daughter Barbara (Tamsin Carroll) along with her college professor husband, Bill (Bert LaBonté), and precocious teen daughter, Jean (Esther Williams). Also bac

Well, that rabble rouser Jesus Christ is at it again. Stirring up the people of Judea, angering Caiaphas and the Pharisees, encouraging a revolt against the occupying Roman government – although Governor Pontius Pilate doesn’t seem particularly fussed. Still, even among his own followers there’s dissent in the ranks – his bestie, Judas, seems particularly ticked off. Jesus better watch his sandaled step – and hey, that’s an awfully big Cross taking up a lot of real estate on the stage? I have to assume you’re familiar to at least some degree with the general drift of Jesus Christ Superstar; after all, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s rock opera is based on one of the most popular books ever published, the Bible – or at least, parts of the New Testament. First staged on Broadway in 1971 (although it was a concept album first, the composers having had trouble finding anyone who would stump up cash for an arguably-blasphemous take on the story of Christ) it was the longest-running West End production of all time until Webber’s own Cats outpaced it in 1989.  It is a spectacular interpretation... passionate, creative, and immensely impressive Now, of course, it’s a classic of the stage, with revivals occurring regularly. Here in Australia, we’ve had Jon English as Judas (1972), John Farnham as Jesus (1992), and even rock ‘n’ roll nerd Tim Minchin as the former in the 2012 Arena Tour (technically not an Aussie production, but Minchin certainly is). Indeed, it was the Australian

Golden Blood is now playing at Arts Centre Melbourne as part of Melbourne Theatre Company's 2024 season. Read on for our critic's review of the recent Sydney season. Girl (played by Merlynn Tong, who is also the playwright) is 14. She dreams of moving to Australia. She wants to be a veterinarian, and to help all the marsupials she’s read about. The plush koala she clings to is a salve and a symbol of her ambitions.  Boy (Charles Wu, Miss Peony) is 21. He dreams of wealth – vast wealth. He wants to be a gangster. Maybe he already is one. He wants to attain the respect he’s seen his fellow criminals command. His father’s parang (a large knife, not unlike a machete) is a salve and a symbol of his ambitions. To be clear, Girl and Boy are siblings. Their alcoholic mother’s death has brought them back together, Boy having left the family home years ago for reasons we’ll later learn. Boy promises to protect Girl. In his way, he does – but being dirt poor in Singapore’s criminal demimonde is a tough row to hoe.  Bringing with it a strong sense of self, place, and culture... it’s a remarkable work. Golden Blood comes to Melbourne Theatre Company after a Sydney Theatre Company season and an acclaimed indie premiere season with Griffin Theatre (the company behind the winner of Best Play in the inaugural Time Out Sydney Arts & Culture Awards) in 2022, bringing with it a strong sense of self, place, and culture.  It’s a remarkable work. Over the course of its brisk 90 minutes, we follow B

[Content note: this review discusses themes of suicide and mental health issues. If you need support, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14, or find more options at healthdirect.gov.au.] I suspect anyone reading this is either a huge fan of Dear Evan Hansen, or you’re not. The middle ground is sparsely populated. If you’re part of the former cohort, it’s because the show is beloved in musical theatre circles and revered by critics. It’s a new classic in the canon, and we don’t get those too often. Premiering on Broadway in 2016, it was an instant hit, and at the 71st Tony Awards it handily scooped up six out of nine nominations, including Best Musical, Best Book for Steven Levenson, Best Score for Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Best Actor for Ben Platt, and Best Featured Actress for Rachel Bay Jones. It’s now making its Australian debut at the Roslyn Packer Theatre ahead of a national tour, and its reputation ensures an audience is built in – expect tickets to go fast. If you’re part of the latter, that’s probably down to the widely derided 2021 screen adaptation, which saw Platt, at the age of 27, reprise the title role, a move that drew scathing criticism – largely because he very much did not look like a teenager, especially alongside his age-appropriate co-stars. The film tanked, and the play closed shortly thereafter (in fairness, the pandemic didn’t help). Perfectly cast, perfectly mounted, perfectly polished...and surprisingly complex in its themes I was in the latter group.

If Sydney’s stages are anything to go by, gothic literature is all the rage. Just as we’ve closed the book on the final chapter of Kip Williams’ thematic cine-theatre trilogy with STC, the national tour of Shake & Stir Theatre Co’s new adaptation of Frankenstein has arrived at the Theatre Royal. This new take on Mary Shelley’s none-more-seminal 1818 novel continues to divide critics, and for this writer, it brings to mind a couple of other notable literary adaptations, specifically two key moments. One is from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings where, upon being offered the One Ring by Frodo, Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel muses that she would become “…beautiful and terrible”. You could say that this version of Frankenstein is both of those things. The other is from David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, based on the graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke – after his goons fail to kill Viggo Mortensen’s regular fella murder machine, mob boss William Hurt muses, “How do you f**k that up?” So far, an answer has not been forthcoming. It all starts so promisingly, too, as the prow of a ship looms towards the audience through a dense fog, and we’re dropped into the novel’s Arctic-set framing device – an element rarely explored in most adaptations outside of Kenneth Branagh’s muddled and histrionic 1994 film (this production owes many debts to Branagh’s). There, explorer Captain Robert Walton (Nick James) finds anguished scientist Victor Frankenstein (Darcy Brown), near death

Girl (played by Merlynn Tong, who is also the playwright) is 14. She dreams of moving to Australia. She wants to be a veterinarian, and to help all the marsupials she’s read about. The plush koala she clings to is a salve and a symbol of her ambitions.  Boy (Charles Wu, Miss Peony) is 21. He dreams of wealth – vast wealth. He wants to be a gangster. Maybe he already is one. He wants to attain the respect he’s seen his fellow criminals command. His father’s parang (a large knife, not unlike a machete) is a salve and a symbol of his ambitions. To be clear, Girl and Boy are siblings. Their alcoholic mother’s death has brought them back together, Boy having left the family home years ago for reasons we’ll later learn. Boy promises to protect Girl. In his way, he does – but being dirt poor in Singapore’s criminal demimonde is a tough row to hoe.  Bringing with it a strong sense of self, place, and culture... it’s a remarkable work. Golden Blood comes to Sydney Theatre Company following an acclaimed indie premiere season with Griffin Theatre (the company behind the winner of Best Play in the inaugural Time Out Sydney Arts & Culture Awards) in 2022 (read our critic’s review for that staging over here), bringing with it a strong sense of self, place, and culture.  It’s a remarkable work. Over the course of its brisk 90 minutes, we follow Boy and Girl across several years; time jumps are demarcated by flashes of red digital numerals depicting the siblings’ ages on designer Michael Ha

Sydney Theatre Company (STC) has unveiled a spectacular slate of their 2025 season – the last under the stewardship of outgoing artistic director Kip Williams. Offering a mix of classic works, literary adaptations and bold new voices, the coming year promises a wealth of pleasures for dedicated theatregoers and new aficionados alike. It’s the end of an era for STC, as Williams hands over the reins after eight seasons, and for his final go-round he’s put together a genuinely impressive selection – no mean feat considering the superb quality of the company’s work over the course of his tenure. We checked in with Williams to get his take on each of STC’s upcoming productions. 4000 Miles (Wharf 1 Theatre, Feb 3-Mar 23) By Amy Herzog; Directed by Kenneth Moraleda Nancy Hayes and Shiv Palekar play a grandmother and grandson, respectively, who find themselves unlikely roommates after the former shows up on the latter’s doorstep, having abandoned a cross-country bike trip. 4000 Miles is a warm, poignant comedy about cross-generational connection. Kip Williams says: “Amy Herzog's finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. These are really works that get the ways in which humans struggle to communicate, and the paths offered to us to be able to find a greater understanding of one another.” Picnic at Hanging Rock (Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, Feb 17-Apr 5) By Tom Wright after Joan Lindsay; Directed by Ian Michael Olivia De Jonge, Kirsty Marillier, Lorinda Merrypor and Masego Pitso star in t

Zahra Newman is Dracula. Indeed, Zahra Newman is everyone in Dracula. The hugely talented actor portrays all 23 characters that appear in  Sydney Theatre Company’s epic staging of Bram Stoker’s classic horror novel. It is, of course, the third and final chapter in outgoing artistic director Kip Williams’ gothic literature adaptations, following on from The Picture of Dorian Gray and Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde. As in both those productions, Dracula has been interpreted through the lens of the writer-director’s groundbreaking cine-theatre technique, which employs live and pre-recorded video – plus, good old-fashioned smoke and mirrors – to enable one actor to play multiple parts on stage, simultaneously.  That level of queer subversion has been at play across the entire trilogy, and that's...alive in this adaptation of Dracula It’d just be a good party trick if it wasn’t so profoundly effective, evoking contemplation on the notion of identity, conflicted or otherwise, that connects all the entries in his gothic trilogy. Here, it enables Newman to play the Count (depicted here with a shock of red hair), his virginal victim Lucy Westenra, scholarly vampire hunter Abraham van Helsing, madman Renfield, and more. Identities and genders become blurred and refracted. “One of the thematics of the trilogy has been an interrogation of an individual's relationship to their own identity,” Williams notes. “And gender and sexuality are profound parts of any human's expression

Starring a couple of Hollywood’s brightest young things alongside some iconic Aussie landmarks, the breezy R-rated rom-com of the summer, Anyone But You shines a light on Sydney’s most romantic locations. When Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney and Top Gun: Maverick actor Glen Powell touched down in Sydney (the city, mind you) in February 2023, they caused quite the stir. Now, audiences are finally on the cusp of seeing what all the fuss was about. Loosely based on Shakespeare’s 16th-century comedy Much Ado About Nothing, the movie follows our American stars to a destination wedding in Australia. Director and romantic comedy veteran Will Gluck (Easy A, Friends with Benefits) has wanted to showcase Sydney (the city) on film since 2017, when he was making the first of the two computer animated Peter Rabbit films here – and with Anyone But You, he’s gotten his wish.  Photograph: Supplied/Sony Pictures “I kind of fell in love with Australia, as did my family. So I wanted Anyone But You to be my love letter to Sydney – one of the most beautiful, welcoming, glorious places in the world,” he said. “All these things that I wrote, I never actually thought that they would let us do,” Gluck admitted. “Like landing a helicopter at the Sydney Opera House, and I had Glen jump out multiple times, during daytime and at night, or putting Sydney and Glen on a buoy in the middle of Sydney Harbour for five nights straight.” In the vein of Time Out’s ‘City on Screen’ series, let’s take a behind-the-s

With waves of folks let go from the hospitality industry in one fell swoop, it’s hard to look past those devastating headlines. But it’s not just our cafes, bars and restaurants that have shut up shop indefinitely. The arts are smarting too, with music venues, in particular, falling silent. Festivals and gigs have been cancelled for the foreseeable future. Venues and music rooms are shuttered with no concrete return date. Jobbing musos have seen their day gigs in hospitality, retail and the service industry disappear in a puff of hand sanitiser too as the lockdown kicks in. Still, musicians are a resourceful lot, and many have pivoted remarkably quickly to the notion of live-streaming gigs to a now-housebound audience. Isol-Aid, a two-day virtual festival organised by Melbourne artist Rhiannon Atkinson-Howatt, was a recent example hosted on Instagram. Some 74 artists including Stella Donnelly, Angie McMahon, Didirri, and Julia Jacklin played 20-minute sets from their respective homes, tagging the next artist on the roster so fans could follow along. Isol-Aid is the biggest cyber-festival to take place since the virus outbreak, but many more of varying scales are sure to follow, with smaller sets already cropping up. On a global level, Sofa King Fest is aggregating live gig stream from around the world, with the likes of Willie Nelson, Melissa Etheridge, Cypress Hill, and more playing for homebound, and Mary’s Group curating the Australian contingent for the site. Locally, Sur