Adelaide Festival board masks censorship as cohesion.

One Nation supporter Dawn Fraser a curious media go-to for her opinion she’s “never seen so much hatred and division” in Australia. To be fair, she was well ahead of the curve.

No notes.

I yarn with expat Australian writer and director Simon Stone about his life and career ahead of his Korean-language The Cherry Orchard coming to Adelaide Festival. Stone says he is “obsessed with Korean culture” and its “embrace of peculiarity and weirdness”. www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/j...

“Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” www.theage.com.au/politics/fed...

“As we’re in a so-called ceasefire, here is where we set the ground for the journey of the next 10 years, so that it is truly the anti-apartheid civil rights movement of our time.” I talk to Khalid Abdalla about his one-man play Nowhere, coming to Sydney Festival www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

I interviewed French theatre maker and choral storyteller Caroline Guiela Nguyen about her play Lacrima, a tale of a bridal gown and the unseen sweat of lacemakers and embroiderers, coming to Sydney and Perth festivals, for Limelight magazine's Jan/Feb issue: limelight-arts.com.au/features/cho...

This year, playwright Jordan Shea threw down a challenge: how many Australian voices are yet to be heard on main stages? I preview the 2026 seasons for Limelight's Jan/Feb issue, searching for homegrown voices and those rare playwright debuts in the big spaces: limelight-arts.com.au/features/sea...

A preview here of the Namatjira room at the 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial opening at the National Gallery of Australia. A collaboration including 57 artists from Namatjira's family and community, it features a beautiful glasshouse reproduction of Namatjira's house, which still stands today.

It’s the eyes that greet you first as you pop out of the elevator on the second floor of the National Gallery of Australia. Instantly, I was smitten. Who was she, among these luminaries. I needed to know.

I took a walk with actor and novelist Bryan Brown around his beloved Balmain. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was restrained, injected with a fatal overdose and dismembered. Trump tries to rationalise this act saying Khashoggi was "extremely controversial" and dismissing the outlet asking the question as "fake news". Wake up, America. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

They cheered the horse and booed the consul. #WhitlamDismissal www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqes...

Finally, after the collapse in new Oz drama … Fed Govt to introduce a Bill to “mandate streaming services with more than one million Australian subscribers … to invest at least 10 per cent of their total expenditure for Australia – or 7.5 per cent of their revenue – on new local … programs”.

I had a yarn with Madeline Li, midway through her three-month Australian tour of 26 venues as Juliet for Bell Shakespeare. “She’s a young woman who’s vulnerable and very emotional but look at the language and you see the strength that underwrites all of that ...” www.smh.com.au/culture/thea...

“We carry ceremony with us that keeps that fire alive and keeps us connected and grounded.” I caught up with yidaki master William Barton & choreographer and former Bangarra leader Stephen Page during rehearsals for their first collaboration, at Sydney Dance Company www.smh.com.au/culture/danc...

Bernie Sanders: “The establishment want you to believe you are powerless, but that is a lie.” youtu.be/W2wbSUQxp48?...

Took a walk with ABC host Hamish Macdonald around Parramatta and we talked about him getting married, being type A, and learning to deal with intolerance www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

“I’m very passionate about having a First Nations storyline in such a huge show with such a huge reach.” In Sunday Life today I profile Tuuli Narkle about her life, Noongar ancestry and ongoing role as Evie in NCIS: Sydney as well as Mary in Mystery Road: Origin. www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/li...

Just seen Dangerously Modern at Art Gallery of NSW, presenting the art of 50 Australian women artists who pursued their passions in Europe between 1890 and 1940 Here, I talk to the curators about Bessie Davidson and Agnes Goodsir and their works made against the odds artguide.com.au/cultural-exc...

Great to catch up with Uncle Kutcha Edwards for a yarn ahead of his debut with the Sydney Symphony at the Opera House. The concert, Ngarli-Wangu (Our Song) takes Edwards’s poem My Favourite Drop as inspiration, featuring river-themed landscapes and soundscapes. www.smh.com.au/culture/musi...

Ahead of her first season launch as artistic director of the State Theatre Company of South Australia, I talk to artistic director Petra Kalive about her life, career and community ethos www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/thea... via @thesaturdaypaper.com.au

Speaking of local content, when is Bluesky going to introduce regional topics? We need a trending chart to keep us informed of Australia's biggest arsehats and bitter disappointments of the day.

"The FANGs [Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google] don’t pay tax in Australia. They commission very little content. ... they’re not dissimilar to the crown-of-thorns starfish ... bleaching Australian content from our screens.” Agree. Zero Oz content on HBO Max, too. mumbrella.com.au/michael-cord...

Given her own father-daughter road story, actor and playwright Kate Mulvany seemed destined to adapt D'Arcy Niland's classic novel The Shiralee for Sydney Theatre Company. I profile Mulvany about her life and career for Limelight's October issue [subscriber]. limelight-arts.com.au/features/cro...

The deputy editor speaks overland.org.au/2025/09/no-g...

Had a yarn with NZ artist Lisa Reihana, whose works welcome visitors entering Ngununggula in the Southern Highlands and Sydney Contemporary at Carriageworks. "I try to demonstrate caring for others," she says, her survey at Bowral collecting her stunning recent video art. artguide.com.au?p=219231

On motherhood, career and rejection: my profile of Philippa Northeast, from The Newsreader and Territory to the ABC’s new drama The Family Next Door and her upcoming lead in a Netflix remake of an iconic Australian story. In today’s Sunday Life magazine. www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/li...

He eschewed “the lie” of naturalism on stage and saw artificiality as “more honest”. Visionary theatre and opera director Robert Wilson has died aged 83. In 2015, he was ever the showman when I interviewed him, and he spoke of divas Gaga, Dietrich and Abramović. www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/d...

“I always want a painting or drawing I do to have a little energy and a sense of self." Pleasure to spend time with rule-breaking artist Janet Dawson at her first state museum retrospective, at age 90, at Art Gallery of NSW. My interview for Art Guide Australia: artguide.com.au/resisting-ru...

🔥 Rosie O’Donnell, an American, responds to Trump threatening to revoke her citizenship — showing he is coming for anyone who opposes him eventually: “You are everything that is wrong with 🇺🇸… King Joffrey with a tangerine spray tan. I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”

Took a walk with choreographer Stephen Page and we spoke of grief, creativity and renewal as well as plans to make a feature film about his late brother, composer David Page www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

“As an older woman, courage starts to wobble,” Marta Dusseldorp tells me in this interview ahead of her Tassie-noir romp Bay of Fires season two on the ABC. “I want to keep my courage until the very end, and I’m finding right now I’m having to remind myself of that.” www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/li...

Light as life: I review Bangarra Dance Theatre’s new show Illume last night at the Opera House, ahead of its national tour www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/j...

In Janenne Eaton’s art lies an implicit critique of our over-reliance on digital technology, a musing on the collision of our physical and virtual worlds. I talk to the Melbourne artist for Art Guide Australia artguide.com.au/janenne-eato...

Marina Otero drew on her breakdown to create Kill Me, her show about “madness for love” (or, as she puts it, “locura por amor”), coming to Melbourne’s Rising festival. I spoke to Otero in Madrid for @australia.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Michael B Tretow 1944-2025. Svensk kulturkanon. ❤️

Serial empath: I talk to director and lighting designer Alexander Berlage about his life and career, his take on Almodovar and his upcoming Aphrodite limelight-arts.com.au/features/ale... [subscriber]

Dutton: “We know our values, we know our beliefs and we will always stick to them.” Well, there’s your review, then. No soul searching there. Pity he couldn’t show Indigenous people the same respect he shows defence personnel. #ausvotes

From cruel Violet to optimistic Winnie, clinging to small comforts: I talk to actor Pamela Rabe about her two stage characters thus far this year, dealing with life’s blows in very different ways. In Limelight magazine, ahead of Happy Days at Sydney Theatre Co limelight-arts.com.au/features/wal...

I yarn with Bruce Johnson McLean about his new advisory role at the Sydney Biennale, the APY Art Centre media brouhaha and freedom of expression, for Art Guide Australia. "The fact a lot of artists are having freedoms taken away from them is disheartening at the least." artguide.com.au?p=210716

Great shame a Melbourne cinema caved on screening No Other Land. Important doco on life for the Palestinians on the West Bank. Available on digital and highly recommend www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ap...

On belonging and non-Indigenous Australians being “balanda”: I talk to writer Kate Grenville for @australia.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

I visited Mitch Cairns in his studio to discuss his ideas, his eschewing of visible brush strokes, his restless legs and his reading, for Art Guide Australia. artguide.com.au?p=210491

James Tylor's black-and-white photographs of landscapes on Country include large holes cut to reveal an “absolute black shadow”, symbolising gaps in the historical record as a result of the systemic removal of Indigenous people from Country. My piece @ Art Guide Australia artguide.com.au?p=210147

A joy to write this piece about joy, after interviewing playwright and actor Dalara Williams and her grandmother Norma Ingram about life in Redfern from the 60s through now. Big Girls Don't Cry opens at Belvoir St Theatre next week. www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/m...

Meet Evan Anzoo, a five-year-old boy in South Sudan who died when Elon Musk shut down USAID and the boy lost access to his HIV meds. Musk says no one has died because of the aid shutdown, but that's because he didn't look. RIP, Evan, you deserved better. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Elon Musk says that no one has died because he slashed humanitarian aid. I went to South Sudan to check if that's true. It's not. Meet Peter, Achol and Evan, ages 10, 8 and 5. The reckless actions of the world's richest men are killing the world's poorest kids www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

I know media companies are scrounging for advertising revenue these days, but blowing Clive Palmer's Bugle of Bigotry is quite the debasement.