Things to do in Sydney today

This year’s NAIDOC Week theme celebrates the achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to their community, families, and our nation. In this free exhibition, visitors can see the work of leading female practitioners in their fields of weaving and shell stringing. The innovative works highlight the unbroken practices of First Nations women who have carried their knowledge through the generations for at least 65,000 years. The exhibition includes intricate body wear, which has been skilfully crafted by harvesting and processing organic and contemporary feathers, fibres and shells. It also features domestic fishing implements made from organic material.Artists featured in the exhibition include Lena Yarinkura, Dulcie Greeno, Maryann Sebasio, Muriel Maynard, Ais Bero, Lola Greeno, Mavis Warrngilna Ganambarr and Rosemary Gamajun Mamuniny.

This is the final exhibition in a series of three yearly shows from Artspace, exploring "the body in public." The first edition explored the sexualised body in the public sphere and the second focused specifically on feminist, queer and anti-racist perspectives on the body. The final chapter is all about the future and "the body as detached from or encompassing much more than mere physical form." That sounds like a pretty vague concept, and the exhibition has an appropriately sprawling and unruly selection of artworks, including sculpture, performance, installation and video works. Scattered around the appropriately flesh-toned rooms the works look at the future of bodies as mutations, cyborgs, neon genitals, internet avatars, and in one work as overgrown terrifying minions merchandise.   Like the first two, it's curated by Talia Linz and Alexie Glass-Kantor. The artists they've picked this time around are: Kelly Akashi, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Badlands, Archie Barry, Kate Cooper, Hannah Donnelly, Cécile B. Evans, Doreen Garner, Angela Goh, Celia Hempton, Jess Johnson, Oliver Laric, Rachel Maclean, Jan Nelson, Patricia Piccinini, Jon Rafman, Tabita Rezaire, Jacolby Satterwhite, Yves Scherer and Francis Upritchard.

Some artists might try to look past the rust, grime and dilapidation of the urban environments they're capturing. Not Joshua Smith. In his first solo exhibition, he takes cities at their most honest – falling apart, covered in unfashionable graffiti – and creates aesthetically intriguing miniature models of buildings and shopfronts, complete with overflowing dumpsters and colourful signage. The streetscapes on show at the Australian Design Centre include some recognisable Sydney structures that aren’t the focal point for most postcards or ad campaigns. There’s a mouse-sized version of the now closed Olympia Milk Bar in Stanmore, the bright blue Karim building that’s wedged in a sliver of Wentworth Street, and the mad window display of the ginseng shop in Haymarket. You’ll also encounter another milk bar, this time from Joshua's home town Adelaide and a Bodega from Brooklyn, New York. These intricate creations recognise the identity of cities through their architecture, but also probe questions about urban design and how decay and history might be woven into future development. To explore these concepts further, head to the discussion night on August 22 for insights from urban designers, architects and city planners.

The foyer installation at White Rabbit always sets the tone for each exhibition, but the one that greets visitors to Supernatural is a pretty big statement. Hanging high above the gallery are ten life-like nude figures. They have the body of a man, but from the chest up they’re dragonflies, complete with four wings and bulbous eyes. The sculptures, called ‘Deviation’, are modelled on the artist Li Shan’s own body (apart from the dragonfly bits, obviously), and are designed to “eliminate the human superiority complex”: we don’t have 360-degree vision, can’t fly, and definitely can’t fly backwards. Why do we think we’re superior? The rest of the exhibition isn’t so much about biological transformation, but more about the way our world has transformed over the thousands of years that humans have dominated. And of course, given the exhibition’s title, there’s a touch of the supernatural about it all. Highlights include: Huang Zhen’s wire sculptures on the second floor, made to resemble the Wuyi Mountains from his home province of Fujian; Xiao Yu’s transformative bamboo sculptures, Zhu Jinshi’s dramatic oil painting which uses thick slabs of paint to form mountains; Chen Wei's urban landscape photography; Qiu Anxiong's whimsical 3D animation; and Ai Weiwei’s ‘Oil Spill’, featuring glossy black porcelain disks that look like droplets of oil. And make sure you head up to the top floor (some people may forget that you need to take the lift to see the full exhibition) where Yang

It was near impossible to get a ticket to the Hayes Theatre production of Calamity Jane as soon as it opened. Thanks to hilarious and immersive staging, and a brilliantly funny performance from Virginia Gay, the show attracted rave reviews and word of mouth so strong that the entire season sold out in just a few days. Thankfully Belvoir is bringing the show back to their bigger theatre with its original cast. Read our four-star review of the original Hayes Theatre season: Musical theatre is almost embarrassingly sincere. While there are exceptions, on the whole its resolutely innocent humour and reverence for even the corniest, most dated classics can make it hard to get on board the all-singing, all-dancing, all-feeling train. One of the worst examples of the genre is Calamity Jane, the cringe-worthy little sister to Annie Get Your Gun. Originally a movie musical vehicle for Doris Day back in 1953 it’s a sweet little Western about a real-life rough and tumble woman, though the musical removes any remaining traces of grit from her story; she learns to become more of a “lady” so she can be happy in love. It’s toothless and meandering and too cute for words; while it was adapted for the stage in the early 1960s, not even Broadway, the natural home of musical theatre cheese, has ever put Calamity Jane in one of its theatres. Thankfully, Richard Carroll’s new production of the show (which was originally conceived as a staged reading as part of the Neglected Musicals series

Ever wanted to see a real human body, from the inside out? This new exhibition coming to the Byron Kennedy Hall features 20 real, perfectly preserved human bodies and 200 anatomical specimens, alongside scientific descriptions and philosophical questions about what it means to be homo sapiens. Visitors can explore ten galleries of anatomical artefacts and plastinates that help explain how humans breathe, eat, think, grow more humans and ultimately die. Real Bodies: The Exhibition aims to connect audiences to a deeper sense of what it means to be alive, asking what we’re made of and why we’re here. Read more about Real Bodies: The Exhibition in our news story.

The Australian theatrical canon has a new epic, and it’s focused on women. Adapted from Ruth Park’s literary trilogy, The Harp in the South works a treat on stage, leading with the heart to tell a saga of love, loss and family that begins in emigration from Ireland, but belongs proudly to Surry Hills. Adapted from Missus, The Harp in the South and Poor Man’s Orange into a two-part theatrical event by Kate Mulvany – whose wit is as quick as Park’s and her empathy just as potent – the plays, spanning the 1920s through to the 1940s, are a close look at generational cycles through the eyes of women. We watch young Margaret Kilker (Rose Riley), an Australian-born child of Irish immigrants (Heather Mitchell and Bruce Spence) fall in love with Hughie Darcy (Ben O’Toole), a young man from a similar background, both trying to make a new life for themselves. Hughie asks Margaret to walk through a house of horrors with him – and so off we go.   We meet them again when they’re older (now played by Anita Hegh and Jack Finsterer) and follow their daughters, the soulful Roie (Riley) and precocious Dolour (Contessa Treffone), as they grow up and begin to know their own hearts. We see how poverty, finely drawn here in the former slums of Surry Hills, is a cycle that continues through generations – and how women are stymied by society for their weakness, but still cultivate their own considerable strength.  Margaret, nicknamed ‘Missus’, is formidable, and so is her mother Eny (Mitchell), a

Read about The Book of Mormon's $40 ticket lottery. In 2011, when The Book of Mormon first opened in New York City, it was a risky bet. It’s notoriously difficult for original shows to survive on Broadway – roughly four out of five shows fail to turn a profit – and a parody of religious fervour, packed with anarchic, puerile humour, written by ‘the South Park guys’, Trey Parker and Matt Stone? Not a sure thing. Their co-writer, Robert Lopez, had won a Tony and a Grammy Award for his subversive puppet musical Avenue Q, but repeat success wasn’t guaranteed. But as we now know, it was an immediate hit. Not even celebrities were guaranteed tickets, and prices skyrocketed to meet demand. Its cast recording was the highest-charting musical album in over forty years, until Hamilton smashed all records. Its two lead actors – Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad – booked sitcoms and Disney movies. In the seven years since, Robert Lopez has not only won the EGOT (the full complement of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards) in the shortest amount of time for any recipient, he’s the only person in the world to EGOT twice. The show has toured all over the US, has a long-running production in the West End, and recently opened in Sweden. So is it worth all of the fuss? Does it still hold up in 2018? The answer is yes. We follow two young Mormon missionaries, Type-A Narcissist Elder Price (Ryan Bondy) and Elder Cunningham (AJ Holmes), a mess with a geeky streak, as they’re paired up for their tw

Before Oz Comic Con brings a weekend of cosplay and comic book madness to Sydney’s shores, head to Steam Mill Lane in Darling Square to let your sci-fi, fantasy and research dreams run wild. Geek Week will set up in the lane from September 24-30 with workshops, movie nights, music and nerd-friendly products that’ll have you supercharged for Oz Comic Con weekend. Book in for a movie and burger night at 8Bit for a screening of The Last Starfighter and watch a fellow video game expert defend the world from an alien onslaught on September 25. The following night, they’re keeping the wonderfully awkward ’80s classics going with Weird Science, where two high school nerds use the magic of early Macintosh computers to create ‘the perfect woman’ to make them look cool. Get serious on September 27 with a cryptocurrency talk that’ll teach you the basics of jumping on the online currency train and how best to invest your real-life moolah. Registration is free and comes with a complimentary drink from Belles Hot Chicken where it’s being held from 7pm. There’ll more to explore in the Darling Square laneway from September 28-30, with geek-inspired stalls, a sneaker cleaning set-up and discount offers at selected retailers.

The foyer installation at White Rabbit always sets the tone for each exhibition, but the one that greets visitors to Supernatural is a pretty big statement. Hanging high above the gallery are ten life-like nude figures. They have the body of a man, but from the chest up they’re dragonflies, complete with four wings and bulbous eyes. The sculptures, called ‘Deviation’, are modelled on the artist Li Shan’s own body (apart from the dragonfly bits, obviously), and are designed to “eliminate the human superiority complex”: we don’t have 360-degree vision, can’t fly, and definitely can’t fly backwards. Why do we think we’re superior? The rest of the exhibition isn’t so much about biological transformation, but more about the way our world has transformed over the thousands of years that humans have dominated. And of course, given the exhibition’s title, there’s a touch of the supernatural about it all. Highlights include: Huang Zhen’s wire sculptures on the second floor, made to resemble the Wuyi Mountains from his home province of Fujian; Xiao Yu’s transformative bamboo sculptures, Zhu Jinshi’s dramatic oil painting which uses thick slabs of paint to form mountains; Chen Wei's urban landscape photography; Qiu Anxiong's whimsical 3D animation; and Ai Weiwei’s ‘Oil Spill’, featuring glossy black porcelain disks that look like droplets of oil. And make sure you head up to the top floor (some people may forget that you need to take the lift to see the full exhibition) where Yang

Solotel venues are giving you an opportunity to support drought affected farmers next time you're out for dinner. All you have to do is order an empty entrée plate for $5, or a main plate for $10 when you dine at participating venues in Sydney. When you do, Solotel will match every dollar with a donation to Rural Aid.Hospitality empires rely on the quality of produce they source from farmers for their venues, and chef Matt Moran is used to having access to the cream of the crop from Australia's food bowls. “Having access to the very best produce in Australia has been a joy, but the drought conditions that now shroud our countryside are having a devastating effect on our rural suppliers. As both a chef and a very proud fourth-generation farmer, this is heart-wrenching…. It’s time for us to step up and help them.” says Moran.  Sydney is a town devoted to dining, and given $5 is less that you'll pay for a side of chips most places, giving back has never been easier or more convenient.Participating venues include Aria Sydney, Aria Brisbane, Bea at Barangaroo House, Chiswick Woollahra, Chiswick at the Gallery, Paddo Inn, North Bondi Fish, Opera Bar and Chophouse.

There are few musical theatre songs that have attained the anthem status bestowed upon ‘Don’t Cry for Me Argentina’. Most composers dream of creating just one tune so universally hummable – the kind that keeps the money rolling in in the form of royalty cheques long after the composer has passed on. Andrew Lloyd Webber, who penned that earworm for his 1978 musical-cum-rock opera, Evita, is responsible for a handful of them. So it’s quite a moment when, at the start of Evita’s second act, Australia’s own Tina Arena steps forward on the balcony of the Casa Rosada as Argentina’s controversial first lady, Eva Perón, to deliver the song. The clarity and warmth of her voice is astonishing as she, along with the Opera Australia orchestra, weaves a musical tale of triumph and yearning. And, of course, it’s glorious. Wrenching. The kind of singing that makes you hold your breath, anticipating the next phrase. The stuff that musical theatre dreams are made of. Eva is declaring her love to the working-class people of Argentina, who’ve just elected her husband to power. She appears to be pouring her heart out and seducing the nation. And then, something unexpected happens. She turns away from the crowd, her whole demeanour changes – the spell of seduction is broken – and she sings nefariously to her husband: “Just listen to that, the voice of Argentina. We are adored, we are loved.” That cynicism and winking eye is a large part of the appeal of Evita, which tracks the meteoric rise o

The picturesque Southern Highlands is less than a two-hour drive or scenic rail journey away from Sydney. If you head there from September 18-October 1, you'll find the central town of Bowral buzzing with excited horticultural tourists seeking out the biggest floral event in the region. The town prepares for Tulip Time each year by planting more than 75,000 tulip bulbs and 15,000 flowering annuals in the gated grounds of Corbett Gardens, plus an additional 40,000 across the surrounding suburbs. Each year's display is an impressively colour-coordinated affair, and there’s always a choir of extra events and activities, with markets on the weekends, daily performances by local school groups, kids’ workshops and the quaint street parade of vintage cars, marching bands and floats that rings in each tulip season. The green space is right in the town centre, close to the train station and myriad of cafés and boutique stores that line Merrigang Street. Garden opening hours are 9am-4pm weekdays and until 5pm on the weekends, with entry at the gate for $12.