Recent ABR Arts reviews

• Bronwyn Lea reviews Scenes from a Marriage (Queensland Theatre) ★★★★
• Zoltán Szabó reviews Rachel Podger and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Musica Viva) ★★★★
• Tim Byrne reviews Robyn Archer's Que Reste T'il (What Remains?) ★★★★
• Anwen Crawford reviews The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Madman Films) ★★★
• Ian Dickson reviews Three Sisters (Sydney Theatre Company) ★★★
• Rob Holdsworth reviews Roberto Devereux (Melbourne Opera) ★★★★1/2

Liveable palaces

There are some outstanding art exhibitions on offer at present, especially the elegantly installed Mapplethorpe show at the Art Gallery of New South Wales which Helen Ennis will review for ABR Arts (we will also run this in our January–February double issue).

The National Gallery of Victoria has several linked exhibitions at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia. They are: The Highway is a Disco (Del Kathryn Barton); Our Knowing and Not Knowing (Helen Maudsley); Palace of the Republic (Louise Paramor); Ensemble (Mel O’Callaghan); and Transformer (Gareth Sansom). Sophie Knezic is our reviewer.

The NGV exhibitions were launched on 16 November by the Victorian governor, Linda Dessau, who presented like a junior minister in the state government, extolling the ‘liveability’ of Melbourne and the ‘caring’ nature of all art (tell that to Francis Bacon). Her Excellency even tried to revive the old Sydney–Melbourne divide. It was cringe-making. If we must have these expensive vice-regents in their palaces, they should do better than that.