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Welcome to ABR Arts, home to some of Australia's best arts journalism. We review film, theatre, opera, music, television, art exhibitions – and more. Reviews remain open for one week before being paywalled.
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Recent reviews
In 1905 a Danish prince was elected to the throne of Norway. The King’s Choice begins with grainy archival footage of the arrival of the new royal family. The streets are lined with people. The cheering crowd scenes segue into a different kind of rally, and then Adolf Hitler’s familiar ...
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In this fortnight's Update: Angels in America, Will Yeoman curates the 2018 Perth Writers' Festival, Towards Eternity, OzPod 2017, Thaïs in Melbourne, Public art in Southbank, Adelaide International Youth Film Festival, Under Your Spell, Celebrating Studio Ghibli, Babi Yar commemorative concert, and giveaways from fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and Transmission Films ...
There was a time not that long ago when the arts pages of quality daily newspapers were regarded as essential reading as much for those inside the arts industry as outside it. Just as these newspapers were themselves papers of record, their arts pages existed primarily to record and sustain ...
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Kristin is a renowned art historian who has built a glittering career in the face of misogyny, developing an expertise that spans Renaissance frescoes and African tribal headdress. All the while she has remained true to the ideals of her activist youth: anti-establishment, anti-capitalist ...
... (read more)The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man (Malthouse Theatre) ★★★
It’s a provocative idea: disability as superpower. Can we imagine Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, as some sort mutant hero whose disfigurement is a gift? This is what the latest Malthouse production seems to be suggesting in its variation on the true story of a man with severe deformities ...
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Of all Richard Wagner’s operatic works, it is Parsifal that divides audiences most. As with the Ring, its ambiguity lends itself to multiple interpretations. The music has been praised and admired by the greatest of critics and musicians, including those who heard it when it was ...
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‘The past is never dead. It’s not even past.’ William Faulkner’s much-quoted line from Requiem for a Nun (1951) could be the subtitle for Diane Samuels’s play Kindertransport, first performed in London by the Soho Theatre Company in 1993, which has just opened at the ...
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Rupert Murdoch is one of those towering but flawed figures of power beloved of dramatists. Shakespeare would have used him, if he’d had a time machine. David Williamson had a go in his play Rupert (2013), and he is reported to be writing a screenplay for a US television mini-series ...
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In this fortnight's Update: The 2017 Archibald Prize winner, Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues, VCA's new Director John Cattapan, Love Your Bookshop Day, Switzerland, David Robertson, STCSA's Macbeth, A Feast of Music, Bollywood and beyond, The Perfume Garden, Latin American Film Festival, and giveaways from Black Swan State Theatre Company, State Theatre Company of South Australia, Studio Canal, and Transmission Films ...
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Since 2011 many senior Australian musicians from international orchestras have gathered each year to form the Australian World Orchestra. This year’s project included a national tour of a chamber ensemble of eight (AWO Chamber 8), with masterclasses and lessons to young ...
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