Arts and culture
Bob, Robbie & Robert
It’s fifty years they tell us since the creation of Utzon’s Opera House and it’s strange to think how this…
Dazzled by her gift
If you have never seen Bernadette Robinson give yourself a treat and see her current one man show, Divas. It’s…
Magniloquent horror
The experience of watching Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy, his film with Cate Blanchett as the nun running an orphange…
Shakespeare in black and white
Sarah Karim-Cooper first came to public attention at the cosmetics counter. Her book on makeup in Renaissance theater, Cosmetics in Shakespearean…
Kundera’s last laugh
So now Milan Kundera is gone at the age of 94. It’s easy to forget the tremendous weight, the sheer…
The Sound of Freedom, a revolutionary act
During times of universal deceit, wrote George Orwell, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. Our time can certainly be…
Stop trying to make high culture funky
Clive Myrie, now probably the top face of the BBC, and host of their television coverage of the Proms, had…
How the Unbearable Lightness of Being enthralled a generation
If during the 80s and 90s you were any kind of book lover, Milan Kundera – who died this week…
How to build the bomb
Graham Greene used to say that none of the great literary works he had read as an adult had the…
In praise of Milan Kundera
The Czech-born writer Milan Kundera has died, at the age of 94. Four years ago, Toby Young wrote this tribute…
Keeping Ralph on his toes
It would have been interesting to hear Barrie Kosky and Kip Williams talk about the theatre on Tuesday night. In…
An icy restraint
The world has seemed like a procession of deaths lately. Generally, of those in old age. Of all of them,…
In praise of encyclopedias
Simon Winchester recalls the time — he was not yet three — when, stepping into his rubber boot, he was…
Captivating marvels
It’s fascinating to hear that one of the greater theatre directors we have produced, Neil Armfield, is directing Anthony LaPaglia…
Literary festivals are no fun
This is the season when literary festivals start to happen all over the UK. From the highlands of Scotland to…
Jenny Boyd goes beyond the muse
The beautiful muse to great male artists is a tricky figure, omnipresent in history but a bad fit for our…
Innocent pertness
There are times when anyone might decide to throw in scanning the range of literature and art and music and…
Readers of Ulysses have a right to be smug
Happy Bloomsday everybody. Today, 16 June, is the day on which the events of James Joyce’s epic novel, Ulysses, is set…
Always Sunny: going where others wouldn’t dare
Few would believe me If I said that a show about a group of politically incorrect, sociopathic, and narcissistic alcoholics…
A staggering performance
It would be wrong to belittle the Rembrandt exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria because the emphasis is on…
The case for conservative comedy
Australia and the UK have a long, storied history of comedy. It has produced some great performers. However, one must…
What the Smiths’ critics don’t get
It’s forty years since the Smiths released their first single ‘Hand In Glove’. We’ve already seen a slew of articles…
Progressive censorship is headed down the same path as the ‘Rushdie bounty hunters’
Salman Rushdie did not die. Attempts to murder the author have been numerous, but Hadi Matar is the one charged…
A campy and colourful role
It’s good to report that the latest revival of The Rocky Horror Show with Jason Donovan as Frank-N-Furter is true…
The redemption of reputation
Scandal-hit celebrities Johnny Depp and Martha Stewart have coincidentally – yet decisively – proved my working PR theory (of several…
