Alison Croggon

Rising’s first week is proof that the Melbourne festival is now fully grounded in the diversity of the city’s culture, with complementary international acts.

The new Malthouse adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s The Birds powerfully conveys the estrangement of the familiar that is the essence of horror.

Brett Sheehy’s penultimate Adelaide Festival is an array of powerful performances, from its stunning opera centrepiece to a primeval flamenco.

Perth Festival delivers some big-hitting shows, including the breathtaking Mahabharata and a revolutionary Portuguese dance work.

Two new works from some of Australia’s most acclaimed theatre artists interrogate in sharp and insightful ways the performance of gender and the damage it inflicts.

MTC offers a rare opportunity to enjoy the brilliance of Suzan-Lori Parks’s work, with a devastating production of her Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Topdog/Underdog.

Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is a nuanced departure from the blueprint created by Elia Kazan’s classic film.

With Richard Bell and Deborah Cheetham Fraillon featuring in its public artworks, a ‘future-forward’ drag show and other events, First Nations artists are the headline act at this year’s Rising.

Homo Pentecostus is a complex and moving exploration of the relationships between religion and spiritual and sexual experience.

“A body suffering in sleep or sleepless, dreams that do not wake you but remain in daytime, steel feathers stippling your skin, the prick of vinegar or roses, a cloud that blurs the rooftops and meets you with dread or the edge of beauty or something …”

In this first full program under new director Ruth Mackenzie, the Adelaide Festival delivers the range and depth of works to thrill its audiences, and its newest offerings are clear highlights.

Marrugeku and the West Australian Opera are the undeniable stars of this last Perth Festival under Iain Grandage’s stewardship.

South-East Asia’s most significant literary event, the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, is a chance to not only nurture local writers but also to reflect on global issues.

In a sublime theatrical poem for Chamber Made, cellist Zoë Barry details her experiences of being struck by lightning.

The latest staging of two short Caryl Churchill plays is an example of the artform at its best, offering moments of exquisite theatre.

The ‘perpetual revolution’ of Mexican Modernist art is on full display at the Art Gallery of  South Australia, including the mischief, joy and pain of Frida Kahlo’s iconic work.

Florentina Holzinger’s ecstatic dance work TANZ is a standout in Melbourne’s winter Rising festival. It is a wild, confronting meditation on care, permission and desire.

This year’s WOMADelaide was the biggest so far – and the festival still holds moments of undeniable magic.

The Adelaide Festival holds both the deft idealism of Remote Theater Project’s Grey Rock and Kip Williams’ misguided follow-up to The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Tasmania’s Mona Foma explores the possibilities of a decentralised festival, offering hope in the fractures of modern life.

The future of Twitter under Elon Musk is deeply uncertain, leaving its tight-knit communities of users searching for new platforms to talk across boundaries and encounter new ideas.

Dennis Kelly’s solo play Girls & Boys relies on a simplistic framing of violence and misogyny that undermines a powerful performance.

As a feminist interrogation of Tolstoy’s classic, Anna K is a disappointingly cosmetic treatment.

In its second year, Illuminate Adelaide is putting the art into spectacle.

After two years of setbacks, Rising is finally reaching exhilarating heights with two powerful dance performances from Mette Ingvartsen and Marrugeku.

The Melbourne Theatre Company’s SLAP. BANG. KISS. is a step behind the radical generation it is speaking to.

“For state and religious authorities, art has often been the enemy. It’s easy to see why. Art tends to be anti-authoritarian. It argues against the simplistic. It opens possibilities. It values freedom. It imagines. Worst of all, it destabilises …”

This year’s Adelaide Festival is headlined by Barrie Kosky’s latest opera, but among the most affecting shows are the most modest.

Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth highlights how easily human beings can be lured into catastrophic delusion.

Moulin Rouge reinvents the jukebox musical with a mix of sentimentality and grit that eluded Baz Luhrmann’s film.

The MTC’s production of  As You Like It is burdened by heavy direction and a preponderance of song.

Isklander is an interactive online thriller that puts the audience at the centre of its plot.

Florian Zeller’s farce The Truth is let down by a Melbourne Theatre Company production that stumbles behind its supple text.

A remount of Back to Back Theatre’s Food Court, one of the few shows seen before Rising was shuttered, is a masterpiece of violence and poignancy.

Despite a snap lockdown, Melbourne’s newest festival, Rising, marks a revolution in how an arts festival can be conceived and how it can serve a city.

The real star of Because the Night – the immersive theatre show that has taken over Melbourne’s Malthouse – is the production’s mega-installation set.

MTC’s Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes may look familiar on the surface, but this intelligent play contains a devastating portrayal of erasure.

A foundering relationship between the author and her sister prompts a painful reflection on upbringing, British colonialism and the patriarchy, and examines how their entrenched structures can become the ties that divide.

From turgid opera to contemporary dance in bowling alleys, this year’s Adelaide Festival runs the gamut from dull to delightful.

The problems that plague Australian arts and culture long predate 2020, but this year's crises have thrown them into vivid relief.

Ben Wheatley’s new adaptation of Rebecca opts for safe nostalgia over du Maurier’s conflicted subtext.

Covid-19 containment measures have led to unprecedented shutdowns in the arts sector, with small companies and independent artists in the greatest jeopardy.

Despite some shaky moments, Benjamin Law’s Torch the Place is filled with humour and heart, and breathes new life into the Australian tradition of naturalism.

Though it never quite coheres, The Feather in the Web takes some sharp digs at contemporary society and is bolstered by an excellent cast.

While Australian artists face challenging times, brilliant work is still being staged.

Both riotously funny and achingly true, Apocalypse Meow: Crisis Is Born confirms Meow Meow as one of the world’s finest cabaret artists.

Although it has moments of genuine power that convey the inhumane conditions faced by asylum seekers, The Audition never quite coheres.

Acerbic and powerful, The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes exposes the exploitation of people with disability, and continues Back to Back Theatre’s tradition of making groundbreaking work.

Relying on more than sleight of hand and psychological manipulation, mentalist Scott Silven elicits wonder and delight from his audiences by connecting them through his performances.

One of three plays by Anchuli Felicia King to feature on Australian stages this year, Golden Shield engages intelligently with the digital world and shows great heart. It’s a triumph.

Although Stanisław Lem’s classic novel Solaris provides rich source material for a stage adaptation, there’s a disappointing banality to Malthouse Theatre’s production.

Although Melbourne Theatre Company’s Storm Boy is lushly produced, Colin Thiele’s story is showing its age – particularly in the face of a global climate emergency.

Love and Shit, an exhilarating double bill by Patricia Cornelius at fortyfivedownstairs, expose the uncomfortable realities of Australia’s underclass. In doing so, these plays remind us how vital theatre can be.

Despite a bizarre narrative that at times seems nonsensical, the first Australian production of David Bowie’s musical, Lazarus, is gloriously camp. And of course, there’s no denying the power of Bowie’s songs.

With an energetic cast and Peter Evans’ strong direction, Bell Shakespeare’s production of The Miser proves that Molière’s satire is still right on the money.