The Art Gallery of South Australia has unveiled a major new acquisition and launched its exhibition line-up for 2024 – including a Radical Textiles display featuring items ranging from William Morris tapestries to Kylie Minogue’s gold hotpants.
Theatre
Wicked Good Productions’ Dead Man’s Cell Phone is an imaginative and wickedly entertaining exploration of modern human connections.
Arts & Culture
SA Arts & Culture news in brief: American glass artist’s Botanic Garden exhibition hailed as a coup for Adelaide, 2023 Guildhouse Fellow and inaugural SA Literary Fellows announced, and the Adelaide Film Festival invites film submissions for 2024.
WOMADelaide has revealed another 38 acts for 2024 – including a new show by the company behind feather-filled aerial spectacle Place des Anges – with significant changes also planned to the site after concerns this year about overcrowding.
The sounds of nature inspire a further Poet’s Corner contribution this week from Dinali Virasinghe.
We may be none the wiser about Napoleon the man, but Ridley Scott’s mastery in mounting battlefield extravaganzas is unsurpassed.
Lookups for the word “authentic” are routinely heavy on Merriam-Webster’s website but were boosted to new heights throughout the year, while our Macquarie Dictionary goes with “cozzie livs”.
The Hindley Street nightclub and bar founded a decade ago is on the market, with current owners looking to divest both the business and branding.
PHOTO GALLERY: Photographic artist Alex Frayne is well known for his images capturing Adelaide noir and the myriad moods of South Australian landscapes, but his latest adventure has seen him embracing the ‘crazy energy’ of Los Angeles.
Kristian Winther offered one of the more challenging programs a violinist could ever take on, but his artistry seemingly knew no limit in a remarkable UKARIA concert with pianist Aura Go.
The assassination of John F Kennedy sparked an outpouring of grief all over the world – including in Adelaide. A special local event marking the 60th anniversary of the tragedy will feature heartfelt letters and music sent by mourners to his widow.
SA arts & culture news in brief: Australian String Quartet reveals its 2024 season – including a weekend of music in the Barossa, prospective members sought for state Artists at Work Taskforce looking into work insecurity and income inequality, and an Adelaide gallery to close its doors.
We check in with the final group of artists from Adelaide Contemporary Experimental’s annual studio program.
The 2024 Adelaide Festival will feature returning favourites such as Barrie Kosky, Laurie Anderson, Angélique Kidjo, Stephen Page and Akram Khan, as well as introducing a new generation of rising stars from Australia and around the world.
An outsider penetrates the inner circle of an eccentric aristocratic family in this uneven drama that veers from posh Bacchanalian revelry to something darker.
Dinali Virasinghe ponders the mystery embodied and evoked by both clouds and art in two contributions for this week’s Poet’s Corner.
Carrick Hill’s contemporary new pavilion is opening its doors to views of the city, sea and Springfield manor house.
Now the year’s almost up, we check in with some of the artists from Adelaide Contemporary Experimental’s annual studio program.
Film & TV
This heartfelt, small-budget Adelaide film with an edge follows the odd-couple road trip of an Iraqi refugee taxi driver and an elderly woman who can’t quite remember where she needs to go.
Dance
Australian Dance Theatre is celebrating the work of emerging artists with a bold triptych of new pieces exploring themes including the brain’s response to trauma, and language as a tool of colonial oppression.
Setting The Marriage of Figaro in the Houses of Parliament might sound anathema to lovers of this opera, but the comedy it brings is thoroughly up-to-date and worthy of a TV sitcom. This State Opera SA production is brilliant.
A former state government minister has been appointed the new chair of JamFactory, as the 50-year-old craft centre plans to expand its central Adelaide site.
The 2023 Flinders Drama Centre graduate showcase introduces exciting emerging creatives who are expected to soon become familiar faces in the Adelaide theatre scene.
In celebration of the 10-year anniversary of her memoir Welcome to Your New Life, Anna Goldsworthy has penned the script for a charmingly hectic stage play that captures the myriad emotions of first-time motherhood.
Local
Hindley St heavy music haunt Enigma Bar will call last drinks on Friday before closing its doors after 24 years.
Books & Poetry
This week’s Poet’s Corner shares a further contribution from Robert Martland in South Australia.
Our books columnist delves into an eclectic selection this month: two excellent new literary novels by Charlotte Wood and Lucy Treloar set in isolated rural Australia, the moving life story of ‘The Fonz’, and Kaz Cooke’s companion to menopause.
Brendan Goh’s first attempt at stand-up left him despairing that he wasn’t ‘Kathy Griffin funny’, but after finding the courage to try again and tell his own story, the Malaysian-born gay comedian has found his groove.
These ‘local lesbians’, as they call themselves, use humour, sensitivity and an iconic songbook to tell true stories of queer love from around the globe.
A literary whodunnit about who wrote what that inserts a handsome newcomer into the family of a famous writer whose inspiration has dried up since the death of his son.
A fresh and comprehensive new narrative reveals how the Adelaide art scene post-World War II was an incubator of progressive ideas and talent, despite often being dismissed or disparaged in the wider mainstream history of Australian art.
Theatre
Thought-provoking and emotionally charged, ‘night, Mother explores the complexity of a mother/daughter relationship and the emotional ravages of suppressing family truth.
Books & Poetry
The short story is being celebrated this week in an Adelaide-based festival featuring Australian and international authors including Laura Jean McKay, Hannah Kent, and Cate Kennedy.
SA arts & culture news in brief: Award-winning theatre-maker announced as new artistic director of Brink Productions, ACE farewells its AD, Clare Watson unveils her first season for Windmill Theatre, and postcard-sized artworks for sale in unique fundraising exhibition.
The irreplaceable beauty of live theatre is highlighted in this refreshing new take on British playwright Sarah Kane’s heart-wrenching exploration of mental illness and the yearning for human connection.
Attending her first Picnic in the Park at Feast Festival was like a homecoming for Tish Naughton. Now, 16 years later, she is spearheading a push to breathe new life into South Australia’s annual queer arts and culture celebration.
Two of the key figures involved in Ireland’s post-pandemic pilot of a universal basic income for artists are in Adelaide this week to discuss the scheme, prompting the question: Could it also be a viable way to help Australian artists and cultural workers forge sustainable careers?
The 2023 Adelaide Film Festival has officially closed with a 13 per cent increase in box office sales over last year, as shooting begins in SA on a new movie starring Marta Dusseldorp that will have its Australian premiere at the 2024 festival.
Nostalgia ruled at the second iteration of Harvest Rock as the rain stayed away and the family-friendly, accessible festival delivered two days of world-class live music with top-notch drops and bites. The only disappointment was the lack of local acts.
The power of the musical brain is explored in this new Scott Hicks film bringing together musicians David Helfgott, Ben Folds, Daniel Johns and Simon Tedeschi.
In this contemporary dance piece on freedom in the modern age, the performers aren’t the only ones facing the scrutinising glare of the spotlight.
The ASO’s cathedral series could not have come a better time, and particularly this one called ‘Glory’. With conflict and tensions around the world, those seeking a moment of sanctity were amply rewarded.
Local
Adelaideans planning on seeing Fridayz Live at the Entertainment Centre on Sunday, November 12, will experience extended set times across the line-up to replace one famous Aussie face.
Film & TV
Another pair of Australian filmmaking brothers has come up with a smart and funny horror movie – this one set in the world of late-night talk shows.
Silly, profound, vulgar and mysterious, ‘On the Go’ is alive with the contradictions and chaos of a cruel and beautiful world.
In I Swallowed a Moon Made of Iron, Canadian performer Njo Kong Kie honours the haunting poetry of late Chinese worker-poet Xiu Lizhi through a song cycle that causes audiences to question the human costs of modern global capitalism.
A moving story about on the life of Vietnamese-Australian musician Dung Nguyen, with himself at the centre of the performance, 1988 leaves an indelible impression.
Colonialism, pop culture and family legacy are all part of the story shared through the first major survey exhibition of work by Vincent Namatjira, an artist who enjoys placing powerful people outside their comfort zone.
