Counting and Cracking: how a three-hour Sri Lankan war epic became one of the great Australian plays
Five years since its debut, this gripping intergenerational story is still going in Australia and heads to New York this year. So why do we love S Shakthidharan’s play so much?
One Single Action review – two dancers in powerful, disturbing synergy
Lucy Guerin’s experimental, whip-smart choreography focuses on a singular endeavour that will linger in the mind
‘I haven’t been to school’: the superstar magician who has performed since she was six
‘There is a constant fear’: could you cook, paint and sing while running on a treadmill?
Carolina Bianchi was drugged and assaulted a decade ago. Now she drugs herself on stage, night after night
March 2024
Rising festival 2024: theatre-maker to be drugged unconscious in ‘deeply unnerving’ show about date rape
A Brazilian artist will have her body manipulated while passed out, in a lauded work about sexual violence that headlines Melbourne’s winter festival
June 2023
Dead Haitians have no problem travelling to Australia – but living ones do
10,000 people playing 10,000 kazoos: Melbourne’s ‘stupid and delightful’ world record-breaking event
This review – effluent satire of art and money belongs in the sewer
Tanz review: nudity, vomit and walkouts – yet this bloody ballet is beautiful, too
Love, charisma, generosity: the extraordinary life of Uncle Kutcha Edwards
Euphoria review – Cate Blanchett voices a tiger in this visually beautiful takedown of capitalism, but where’s the fury?
May 2023
‘I don’t care, I know I look good’: Dan Daw on kink, disability and ‘powerful crip joy’
The Australian dancer set out to create his ideal sub-dom experience on stage. Could it help audiences express their desires in the world outside of sex?
March 2023
10,000 kazoos and body-horror ballet: Rising festival 2023 invites Melbourne to get involved
The winter festival will feature an immersive First Nations exhibition in an old grand ballroom, and a participatory performance by a virtuoso recorder player
March 2022
Third time lucky? Melbourne’s Rising festival announces 2022 lineup after two years of delays
Arts festival was cancelled in 2020 and 2021, but organisers have high hopes for this year, which will see 801 artists, musicians and theatre companies present 84 projects
June 2021
We should be used to arts events being cancelled by now, but in Melbourne it still stings
Elizabeth Flux
The Rivers Sing is one of the few remnants of Rising festival to survive the city’s fourth lockdown. It’s bittersweet to experience it through a screen
May 2021
Australian arts in focus
Rising festival ‘hits pause’ the day after opening as Melbourne enters lockdown
Organisers of the hotly anticipated arts festival, which has already been cancelled once, say they are not making any ‘knee-jerk decisions’
March 2021
'Don’t bring your best clothes': Melbourne's Rising festival promises you will get your hands dirty
The city’s new 12-night arts festival will finally launch in May, taking over Melbourne’s rivers, parks and even Flinders St Station’s hidden ballroom
