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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
The citizens of Kettering, Tasmania might well feel ambivalent about Foxtel's new drama The Kettering Incident, budgeted at $14 million and shot on location. A small coastal town just south of Hobart, Kettering looks like an attractive spot for a weekend getaway, but the same cannot be said of ...
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How fortunate was Rudolph Johann Joseph Rainer, Archduke of Austria. In his short life (he died at forty-three), he enjoyed the privileges of empire and the high positions that accrued to his noble state – including the ecclesiastical roles of cardinal and archbishop. Yet we would hardly remember ...
Monash's new performance art space, Eloquent singers galore, Australian World Orchestra turns five, Seraphim Trio plays Schubert, Tristan and Isolde in Tassie, 2010 and all that, and giveaways from Seraphim Trio and Universal Music ...
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The ending of the BBC 'mockumentary' sitcom, The Office (2001–03) was suitably cathartic. Its supporting protagonists, Tim Canterbury (Martin Freeman) and Dawn Tinsley (Lucy Davis), walked off into the sunset hand in hand to Yazoo's synth love-ballad 'Only You', and its central character ...
... (read more)Jeremy Rose and The Earshift Orchestra: Iron in the Blood ★★★★ (Universal Music)
Iron in the Blood is jazz musician Jeremy Rose's ambitious and heartfelt tribute to Robert Hughes's The Fatal Shore (1986). Although some academic historians may demur, The Fatal Shore remains a crucial book for understanding the brutality of Australia's colonial origins ...
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High-Rise has been a long time coming to the cinema screen. J.G. Ballard's novel of the same name has been slated for adaptation almost since it was published in 1975: director Nicolas Roeg (Walkabout, The Man Who Fell to Earth) was provisionally attached to the project in the late 1970s ...
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In 1852 Richard Wagner issued instructions to opera houses planning to stage Tannhäuser. It had closed after only four performances when it opened in Dresden in 1845 – conducted by the composer without most of the scenery, delayed in transport – but was now attracting wide attention. His essay ...
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As the director of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Dr. Wang Xiaoying states, this Black Swan/National Theatre of China production collaboration is 'an ancient Chinese story, written by a classic German playwright, performed by an Australian troupe', and is a 'collision and fusion of different cultures' ...
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Saul at the Adelaide Festival, Which Way Home, Laughter and Tears, Gandel Philanthropy Funding for Multicultural Arts Victoria, Brahms and Bendix-Balgley at the ASO, Nijinsky, and a giveaway from Victorian Opera and Circus Oz ...
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Everyone loves a youth orchestra. All that young talent and enthusiasm oozing from the stage energises and captivates. An audience comprising a good number of proud parents and friends lends a sense of heightened anticipation ...
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