Things to do in Sydney today

Love, for all its risks, is rarely framed as something unsettling or dangerous. Desire, hope and care are often gathered together in pursuit of joy. Though sometimes what emerges is darker: love can shift your sense of self, clouded by danger, deceit and dread. The River, directed by Margaret Thanos, explores the space between desire and deceit in an evocative introspection on love. Written by Tony Award-winning playwright Jez Butterworth, the production forces the audience to confront not only what love reveals, but what it conceals. What is the premise of The River? The Man (Ewen Leslie) and The Woman (Miranda Otto) spend a weekend together at his remote cabin by a river. He is eager to share a particular fishing expedition with her – one that can only happen at night, with no moon. As the play unfolds, what begins as ripples of a tender, romantic escape becomes more uncertain – an estuary sifting through contradiction, manipulation and honesty. The production never fully decides what it wants to be – a romance, a tragedy, or something in between. While these questions linger, Thanos’s creative vision allows the ambiguities to become an asset, giving the audience space to remain in the uneasy territory between desire and distrust, where each confession feels both revelatory and suspect. Rather than resolving its tensions, the production lets them pool and deepen, leaving the audience suspended – albeit a little too long – in its murky emotional currents. Who are the cast...

The glitz and glamour of the cinema's golden age was gilded with the grunt work of working actresses. Their complex lives were replaced with one-dimensional characters and sound bites (some things don’t change). Anton Burge’s Bette & Joan pulls away the façade of the silver screen to delve deeper into one of the biggest Hollywood rivalries of the twentieth century – between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. In its Australian premiere, directed by Liesel Badorrek, this show balances the vulnerability and venom. What is the premise of Bette & Joan? Loosely based on their real lives, the play is set in the early sixties, with almost-out-of-work actresses, Bette Davis (Jeanette Cronin) and Joan Crawford (Lucia Mastrantone) in the middle of the production of What Happened to Baby Jane?. Both actresses are long past the Hollywood heyday of the thirties and have been provided an opportunity not only to relive the successes of their past but to also critique and challenge the role of older women in the film industry. But the success of this film is probably the only idea Joan and Bette will admit they are in agreement on. The pair’s bitter rivalry stems from their early days of work, and follows the pair through their films, marriages, parenthood and into production. What appears at first to be verbal sparring from two people who seem to be completely different is revealed to be a more thought-provoking exploration of the values and people who shaped them. The production excels in...

After a cancellation the previous evening due to the raging storm and winds, the opening night of The Phantom of the Opera was looking dire. But magically at the stroke of 6pm, when the team of Opera Australia’s Handa Opera rolled out the red carpet, the rain dissipated and a warm setting sun floated over Sydney Harbour. The Phantom still has magic left up his sleeve after all. Phantom of the Opera on Sydney Harbour represents that age-old maxim, “The show must go on”. And go on The Phantom of the Opera shall! Rain, wind, or sun, the show is at the mercy of nature, but overcoming the natural challenges from Mother Nature makes it all the more thrilling to witness. Every outdoor spectacle presented by Handa Opera is consistently infused with decadence, and this restaging of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classic is no different. This is a highbrow spectacle at its most luxurious. What type of show is The Phantom of the Opera? The musical version of the mysteriously masked Phantom living beneath the Paris Opera House has captivated audiences around the world for 40 years. His obsession with the young Christine Daaé and subsequent devious nurturing of her talents has played to more than 160 million people in 58 territories and 205 cities in 21 languages.  As a character, Christine is at the mercy of the men she’s surrounded by. Be it the Phantom’s obsessive love, her saviour in the shape of Raoul, Vicomte De Chagny, or the whims of the new owners of the Paris Opera House, Monsieur...

It seems that across time, the pursuit of creative expression has often been, in itself, an act of rebellion and self-sacrifice. Writers and artists rarely live lives of stability or wealth, and yet, in humanity’s most uncertain and desperate moments, it is to poetry, theatre and art that we turn to make sense of the world. The relentless act of writing, of shaping and sharing one’s perspective on life, still carries a quiet defiance, even in a technological age where everyone has a keyboard and an opinion. It is perhaps for this reason that My Brilliant Career continues to resonate today. Since its publication in 1901, the novel has been adapted across multiple forms, including film and stage, with a television adaptation currently in development by Netflix. Now, it’s on at Sydney Theatre Company’s Roslyn Packer Theatre. What is the premise of My Brilliant Career? This award-winning iteration of My Brilliant Career, which debuted at Melbourne Theatre Company in 2024, is a musical theatre adaptation with a book by Sheridan Harbridge and Dean Bryant, music by Mathew Frank, and lyrics by Bryant. It follows Sybylla Melvyn (Kala Gare, SIX the musical), a fiercely independent young woman growing up in rural Australia in the 1800s. Chafing against the limitations placed on her as a woman – particularly the expectation that she should marry for security – Sybylla dreams instead of becoming a writer and forging a life of her own making. As she navigates family hardship, social...

As any horror fan will tell you – from Dracula to this year’s Oscar-winner Sinners – the art of bloodsucking is all about stealth. But the real masters of the craft? You’ll find them at the Australian Museum’s fascinating new exhibition, Bloodsuckers: Nature’s Vampires. Opening on April 2, this showcase dives into the fascinating world of creatures that live on blood – think mosquitoes, ticks, leeches, fleas, bed bugs, vampire bats and even those strange-looking ancient fish called lampreys. In fact, around 30,000 species on Earth are hematophagous i.e. they rely on blood to survive. Wild, right? Developed by the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada, this award-winning exhibition unpacks the science behind these often misunderstood creatures – and the myths they’ve inspired. Through immersive displays, you’ll discover how these animals have evolved to pierce, slice and slurp their way through the animal kingdom, plus the surprising role some play in modern medicine. You can get hands-on with interactive installations, microscopes and even a mozzie swarm simulator (yikes!). And if you’re feeling squeamish, don’t stress – there are no live animals or real blood involved. Equal parts creepy and captivating, it’s a must-see for curious minds aged eight and up. From April 2 to October 11, 2026 at the Australian Museum. Pre-booked tickets are priced lower than same-day bookings. Get all the details here.  Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news,...