Reviews

Here’s a tight, bright theatrical farce that should brighten anyone’s Christmas viewing. What the actual story is about, or who the main characters are, or what or where is Hamlington Hall... I’d guess there’s not a single member of the packed audience at the opening night who could tell you. To them it didn’t matter: they’d had a jolly good laugh.

As a poet, I have never attended an event with my art critic hat on and had the uncontrollable need to express myself poetically by what was unfolding before me, but last night, hearing Maria Callas at the Arts Centre, as I wrote in my notebook in the dark, the poetic lines were just falling out of me, and as I write this review the next morning, I can still see her image and hear her voice. It’s as if my mind believes that I really did witness Maria, like she arrived to me in a dream, her ghost came to me, to us, at the Arts Centre.

Showing Up, the latest film written and directed by Kelly Reichardt, is an apt film to view at the beginning of the Perth Festival at the Somerville outdoor cinema.

It deals with ordinary people who create art and the everyday mundanity of their lifestyles and necessary collaborations to get their art to an audience.

Lizzy, portrayed with grounded realism by Michelle Williams, sculpts ceramic figurines to express herself just as her father (played adeptly by Judd Hirsch) uses more functional pottery to put his voice out into the world.

This year’s Brisbane Music Festival is the sixth to fulfil its aim of bringing us “music that dances, breathes, uplifts, haunts and stimulates”. And the Gala that started the Festival’s Part 2 event certainly lived up to the promise. The new loft-style space in the heart of Brisbane’s CBD is the perfect venue to immerse yourself in Artistic Director, Alex Raineri’s eclectic mix of music style, instruments and performers – showcasing all the talent that Brisbane has to offer, plus some friends from interstate and overseas.