The Stage Show

In her memoir Oh Miriam!, the British-Australian actress, writer and comedian Miriam Margolyes shares hugely entertaining stories from her life with her trademark wit and disarming candour. This year she brought those stories — and more — to the stage, touring her show Oh Miriam! right across Australia. Former prime minister Paul Keating was one of the great parliamentary performers. His ruthless...

Legendary photographer William Yang has spent decades transforming his photography into captivating live theatre via the medium of the slide show. In his latest performance, Milestone, which is coming to the Sydney Festival and Asia TOPA, Yang shares a lifetime of stories, from his boyhood in Cairns, to his various 'coming-outs', to the freedom — and fear — of life as a gay man in Sydney in the 19...

In 1997, Australian dancer Marc Brew's life was changed forever by a devastating car accident that left him paralysed from the chest down. He tells his story in the deeply personal An Accident / A Life. Over the past 27 years, Brew has redefined the possibilities of dance, captivating audiences worldwide with performances and choreography that challenge the boundaries of the art form. On Top Shelf...

The nine-time Tony Award nominee Bartlett Sher has this year directed Robert Downey Jr's Broadway debut and a London revival of Cole Porter's 1948 musical Kiss Me, Kate. Kiss Me, Kate is based upon Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, so how palatable is this controversial musical to a 21st century audience? Also, Wanderings is a new play that delves into the lives of a transgender son and his m...

Peter and the Starcatcher, by the American writer Rick Elice (Jersey Boys, Water for Elephants), is a Tony Award-winning play inspired by J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan stories. It reveals how Peter, the Lost Boys, and Captain Hook came to find themselves in Neverland, and it puts a new character named Molly at the centre of the action. Also, the big sound of a cappella Sacred Harp singing will ring out...

Some theatre people constantly surprise you, and their names alone can spur you to buy a ticket. Sheridan Harbridge is one such artist. She blew audiences away in Suzie Miller's Prima Facie, and she's now a writer or director on four upcoming productions: My Brilliant Career, Life in Plastic, A Model Murder and Phar Lap: The Musical. Also, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs pay tribute to Rodgers and Hamm...

In the 40 years since their history-making perfect score that earned them a gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympic Games, figure skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean have toured the globe presenting ice dancing spectaculars. Now, the pair plan to hang up their skates for good, following a farewell tour they are calling Torvill & Dean: Our Last Dance. This year, one of the greatest shows o...

Death is not a very funny subject. Yet, comedian, writer and musician Eric Idle has spent 60 years showing us the funny side of our all-too-fleeting lives. The Monty Python member is now touring Australia with his show Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, Live! He's also written a new book about the creation of his musical, Spamalot. Also, as we, as a society, adjust to the ways in which artifi...

Mina Morita is on a mission to inspire a new crop of Australian theatre directors and to open our stages to a wider range of audiences and artists. She's in Australia to lead a program called Staging the World, and she's directing the Australian premiere season of Yoga Play at the National Theatre of Parramatta and La Boite Theatre. Also, theatre maker Wang Chong's acclaimed one-man show Made in C...

The very first Australian production of the smash-hit coming-of-age musical Dear Evan Hansen has just opened in Sydney. The Broadway production won six Tony Awards, including one for the show's book writer, Steven Levenson. Steven also wrote the screenplay for Tick, Tick… Boom! — a musical film inspired by the life of Jonathan Larson (Rent).  Also, Mary Coustas is the creator of the big-haired, ou...

In the 1980s a young jazz pianist named David Bates ran away with a cabaret band to the other side of the world. A chance encounter with the now-iconic Spiegeltent gave him an idea — if he bought this unloved structure it had the potential to breathe new life into cabaret and variety acts for the 21st century. Bates is the creator of the legendary La Clique, which has been thrilling audiences worl...

Step into a hidden vault where the secrets of professional magicians are kept under lock and key. Your guide, magician Nicholas J Johnson, reveals the mysteries of the WG Alma Conjuring Collection, exploring why we’re so captivated by illusions—even when we know it’s all a trick. Also, we explore how Patrick White's suburban satire A Cheery Soul resonates in 2024, and what would the music of rule-...

Do you remember your last day of high school? It's a key moment for many of us, as we step out of our teenage lives and into the world of adulthood. Matthew Whittet's play Seventeen explores this transition in a unique way that has transfixed audiences around the globe.

Roz Hervey has enjoyed a 30-plus-year career as a dancer, choreographer, director and producer. So, how does she respond when life throws her a challenge which will certainly bring those adventures to a halt? In the face of a recent diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease (MND), Roz has continue throwing all of her energies into the arts. Also, we ask the multi-award-winning English director and choreo...

Over the past 200 years, theatre has often been a lightning rod for social and political upheaval in the United States. Even the plays of William Shakespeare have been the subject of violent debate. This surprising history is examined in two recent books by James Shapiro: Shakespeare in a Divided America and The Playbook. Also, Trent Dalton's Love Stories, based on conversations with strangers on...

The American playwright Suzan-Lori Parks started writing plays on the advice of a very famous mentor: the celebrated writer and civil rights activist, James Baldwin. Suzan-Lori won a Pulitzer Prize for her 2001 play Topdog/Underdog , a revival of which also won a Tony Award. It's now on stage in Australia for the first time. Also, Marina Prior and Michael Cormick, two superstars of Australian musi...

Noni Hazlehurst is one of Australia's best-loved and most enduring performers. Loved by generations of children as a presenter on Play School, she leaves the world of teddy bears and storybooks far behind in the brutal play, Mother. Almost ten years after originating the role of Christie in Daniel Keene's one-person play, Noni is reprising her award-winning performance at Arts Centre Melbourne.

Our series began with comedy and it ends with tragedy. In this episode, we interpret the bitter ends met by some of Shakespeare's most famous characters and ask why tragedies still exercise such force over our imaginations. Wherefore, Shakespeare? is a series that explores the dilemmas, conflicts, and controversies in Shakespeare's major plays. In our sixth and final episode, we're joined by Profe...

The work of William Shakespeare has helped to define — and problematise — notions of English identity. It has also had an impact on the English language itself. Wherefore, Shakespeare? is a series that explores the dilemmas, conflicts, and controversies in Shakespeare's major plays. In our fifth episode, we look at the intersections of Shakespeare and nationalism. We're joined by Professor Jane Mo...

While some critics believe that plays like Othello and The Merchant of Venice are inherently racist, others argue that they simply portray, perhaps even criticise, the racist attitudes of the time. Wherefore, Shakespeare? is a series that explores the dilemmas, conflicts, and controversies in Shakespeare's major plays. In our fourth instalment, we interrogate Shakespeare's portrayal of race. We al...

William Shakespeare's plays feature witchcraft, murder, ghosts and bloody revenge. Are his displays of blood and gore simply meant to entertain us or do they have more to say about the human condition? Wherefore, Shakespeare? is a series that explores the dilemmas, conflicts, and controversies in Shakespeare's major plays. In our third instalment, we enter Shakespeare's house of horror. We're join...

What does it mean to defy the conventions and test the boundaries of gender? These are questions posed by some of Shakespeare's most famous characters. Wherefore, Shakespeare? is a series that explores the dilemmas, conflicts, and controversies in Shakespeare's major plays. In our second instalment, we place gender in the spotlight. We're joined by Professor Jane Montgomery Griffiths, an acclaimed...

Wherefore, Shakespeare? is a new series that explores the dilemmas, conflicts, and controversies in Shakespeare's major plays. In our first instalment, we tackle Shakespeare's comedies. Are they funny? And if they are, how is our sense of humour different from what tickled the fancies of the Elizabethan audience? We're joined by Peter Evans, artistic director of Bell Shakespeare, Professor Jane Mo...

Nicci Wilks is a sharp and very physical actor and circus performer who has collaborated with major figures in Australian theatre, including Patricia Cornelius, Angus Cerini and Susie Dee. Her new show traces the life of a rodeo clown. The surprisingly heart-wrenching one-person show, called Rodeo Clown, is at this year's Darwin Festival. Also, having lost the support of their host university, the...

The Welsh playwright Gary Owen writes authentic portrayals of working people living tough lives with wit, passion and dignity. Right now, three of his plays are being staged in Australia. Romeo and Julie and Iphigenia in Splott are both at Red Stitch and his reworking of The Cherry Orchard is at the Old Fitz Theatre in Sydney. Also, rising Australian playwright Benjamin Nichol delivers two blister...