Art Smitten is SYN's weekly guide to arts, culture and entertainment in Australia and around the world. With a focus on youth and emerging arts, we're here to showcase culture ahead of the curve. From our base in Naarm/Melbourne, contributors interview, review, and cover the very best of what the world’s second-most liveable city has to offer. Whether it's film, fashion, photography or Fauvism you're into, Art Smitten is the place!
Hosts Christian and Jim sit down with artists Alexia Brehas and Chanelle Nillson to discuss their upcoming joint exhibition ' Rave in Paradise ', Off the Kerb Gallery and Studio. Showing from September 9 at 6pm. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Phil Rouse decides to introduce his production of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui with a very peculiar sight: some slides of Elizabethan text hover above our very skilled ensemble as they are all club dancing to ‘Turn Down for What.’ It’s one of those audacious mixes of the highbrow classical and the lowbrow modern that the theatre world can never get enough of. Arturo Ui (played here by George Banders), the fictional Chicagoan crime lord, is of course Bertolt Brecht’s parodic and blatantly all...
On Thursday night I showed up at La Mama ready to see The Ribcage Collective’s new work of experimental theatre. The Ribcage collective are a collaborative group of young theatre makers from varied theatrical backgrounds. For a second year running they have written, devised and performed works of immersive, sight-specific theatre at La Mama in Carlton. Their previous show was described by ArtsHub as “an intimate theatrical experience enough to reawaken a childhood sense of play”. That sounded pr...
Kevin Smith's Yoga Hosers is one of the most bafflingly entertaining films of the year. A part-time cheesy teen movie, part-time goofy horror flick and full-time American satire of Canada, Nazis, Canadian Nazis, ‘kids today,’ and of course yoga, it never really asks to be taken seriously, just to be enjoyed. It's a follow-up to Smith's previous film, Tusk, with Johnny Depp reprising his role as the eccentric Guy Lapointe. However, it still works as a standalone film. Those who haven't seen the f...
Heavily stylised and endearingly quirky, Girl Asleep could be very easily described as “Wes Anderson does Napoleon Dynamite”, but in reality it’s much, much more than that. Sure it’s full of dorky humour and a kitsch yet meticulous 70s aesthetic, but it’s got a unique and very sweet take on the coming-of-age story. The girl of the film’s title is 14-year-old Greta, who’s just moved to suburban Adelaide and is having trouble fitting in at school. She meets another outcast kid named Elliott and th...
Cattle, contemporaries and canapés, Eddie Perfect’s play; The Beast , promises to touch you inappropriately in all the right places. By challenging a lifestyle that conceals itself behind a facade of authenticity, the show wastes no time in establishing a humorous destabilisation of friendships; stripping characters down to their inauthentic cores. With sensitive subjects used as punchlines to boot, it’s no lie to say that The Beast works to attack and offend, although this may not be a bad thin...
A film that opens with a lens-flared shot of a forest is only ever going to be a particular kind of film, I thought. A twee, wilderness-worshipping kind of film with smug self-contentedness. But Captain Fantastic, written and directed by Matt Ross, is not really that kind of film. Or rather, not entirely that kind of film. Yes, it’s full of obsession over nature and that brand of anti-consumerism that we all learn during our teens that pretty much starts and ends with “stick it to the man” – but...
Hosts Christian and Jim are joined by Chris Hosking, The Ribcage Collective's Co-Artistic Director for their upcoming immersive theatre production. It will be running at La Mama Theatre until September 11th. Tickets and more information available: http://lamama.com.au/2016-winter-program/the-ribcage-collective See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hosts, Jim and Christian, interview actor Francis Greenslade, best known for his televisions roles opposite Shaun Micallef in Mad as Hell and Denise Scott in Winners and Losers. Greenslade is also a seasoned stage actor and speaks about his upcoming role in Red Stitch Theatre's production of You Got Older. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hosts, Thierry and Adalya, are joined by Alex De La Rambelje, one of the magicians in Gentlemen of Deceit. They talk about his performance on Australia's Got Talent and their upcoming shows at the Sydney Opera House on October 15th and 16th. Tickets available here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hosts, Adalya and Thierry, interview actor Belinda Campbell about her role as Macbeth in Wit Incorporated's production of Shakespeare's Macbeth . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hosts, Thierry and Adalya, speak to actor Peter Houghton about Eddie Perfect's new play, The Beast. It's running until September 10th at the Comedy Theatre, 240 Exhibition St, Melbourne. Tickets are available here . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dangerous Liaisons by Little Ones theatre is a theatrical adaption of Pierre Chodelos De Laclos novel. The story takes place in France in the 1700s, It’s a long winding story of revenge and seduction. Two ex lovers have plans for revenge and humiliation; they try to out do each other in an attempt to dominate one another. Little Ones theatre originally staged this in 2014 at MTCs Neon festival, since then it has toured across Australia to Darwin and Brisbane and has won and been nominated for mu...
My Scientology Movie sees BBC presenter, Louis Theroux, attempt to infiltrate the Church of Scientology, an organisation infamous for being shrouded in secrecy. Curiosity about the mysterious inner workings of the church, along with reports of assault committed by leader, David Miscavige, motivate Theroux’s efforts to understand life inside the Church and why it is so confidential. Since first approaching the Church in 2002, Theroux’s pursuit to gain access to the Church and interview Miscavige ...
Hosts Christian and Rachel interview Fairy Turner, the artist behind Disco Bin in the Glow Winter Arts Festival . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hosts, Christian and Rachel, are joined in the studio by Brian Lipson, actor in Two Jews Walk into a Theatre , alongside Gideon Obarzanek. Directed by Lucy Guerin, this improvised art installation of the two men impersonating their fathers will be running until the 28th August at the North Melbourne Town Hall, 521 Queensberry Street. Tickets available here . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Hosts, Christian and Rachel, are joined in the studio by Brian Lipson, actor in Two Jews Walk into a Theatre , alongside Gideon Obarzanek. Directed by Lucy Guerin, this improvised art installation of the two men impersonating their fathers will be running until the 28th August at the North Melbourne Town Hall, 521 Queensberry Street. Tickets available here . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Hosts, Christian and Rachel, are joined by director of Theatre Works' production of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Phil Rouse. Tickets are available at the Theatre Works website . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hosts, Christian and Rachel, interview Tim Chiang, one of twelve finalists for the 2016 Australian National Piano Award. Running from the 5th-10th September, the recitals will be held at the Eastbank Centre in Shepparton. Tickets are available and you can find out more at the website . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
La Mama’s P.O.V. Dave is essentially a film noir play about a retiring press photographer who gets more than he bargained for with his last assignment. It definitely shows that most of playwright/producer Noel Maloney’s background is in screenwriting as he takes on the kind of story and genre that is much more acquainted with the screen than with the stage. Dave’s profession as a merchant of dirty secrets working for his heartless editor, Bronwyn, has finally driven away his beloved wife, Susan ...
There is of course an old adage that comedy equals tragedy, plus time. In the case of Cholai , Arun Roy's black comedy about the Bengali hooch fatalities in 2011, not much time apparently is needed for us to be laughing about the thousands of deaths caused by a bad batch of illegal home liquor. Cholai is the local common name for this strongly addictive, very cheap and very lucrative brew. The Bengali government and law enforcement have been known to turn a blind eye to its distribution, until, ...
The first half of the Melbourne International Film Festival has flown by, and I've already seen some great films like Cosmos, Paterson and The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki. Among the films I've seen, though, there's been a fantastic selection of horror films, and I thought I'd spotlight four of them: three narrative features, all by first-time filmmakers, and a documentary. First up, The Eyes of My Mother. An American film, but with occasional Portuguese dialogue, it's one of the first ...
234 years after Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's novel Les liaisons dangereuses was published, and 31 years after the premier production of its stage adaptation by Christopher Hampton, this new production from Little Ones Theatre comes to Melbourne as a fresh and lively piece of contemporary theatre. Those who've studied the novel will certainly appreciate how director Stephen Nicolazzo has captured the sardonic spirit of the French aristocracy, while newcomers will surely be enticed into discoverin...
Not-so-Raging Bull, Juho Kuosmanen's boxing biopic pulls the gentlest punches it can in telling the story of amateur boxer Olli Mäki, hailing from a small town in Finland and aspiring to not much more. It's warm and personable, and its deliberate type of simplicity is one that more filmmakers should aim for. Affectionately put together, the film has a fantastic grainy black-and-white 16mm aesthetic that perfectly matches its subject. You're immediately drawn into its world when the lovely title ...
First-time filmmakers seem to either stumble on their feet or find those feet immediately and use them to run away with a superb debut. Such is the case with Bi Gan, a poet-turned-director whose Kaili Blues is a simply staggering first feature. The plot - in short, an uncle searching for a nephew - is central to the understanding of the film and yet absolutely irrelevant. It's a tale of repentance and guilt, of soul-searching and memory... all themes explored through the plot, for sure, but it's...
When I read the book [Witold Gombrowicz’s Cosmos ] in preparation for watching the film I was struck by the singular oddness of the writing (albeit a translation) both in style and in content. There were moments when the sheer incessancy of the intricate madness lost me but I battled through and ended up being wholly won over. Three things in particular struck me: the emphasis on the mundane, the staunch surrealism and the never-quite-referencing of the encompassing void of the eponymous cosmos....
Jerzy Skolimowski's career is defined by a healthy disregard for conventional filmmaking. He has always been a punk of the highest order. And it's with total delight that I report that this pedigree is on full display in 11 Minutes. From the beginning, we know we are in the hands of an unhinged master. The menacing pre-titles scrapbook of low-res footage from laptop, phone and security cameras clearly signals his anarchic intent. And it also signals the genre we are being propelled into: the mul...
Red Stitch continues their environmentalist theme for the season in Extinction, written by the powerhouse creative talent Hannie Rayson and directed by the critically acclaimed Nadia Tass. On the International Union for Conservation of Nature and natural resources red list (IUCN), Australia is classed as having 35 of its discovered species extinct. The fraught task of resolving this issue, beneath the ever present spectre of national and international environmental strife, is the primary concern...
Jump First, Ask Later is an urban choreographic portrait of the streets of Fairfield in Western Sydney, the most culturally diverse region Australia. The show features 5 young street dancers moving between their stories and dance sequences. Right from the beginning their physical strength and agility is striking and compelling to watch. The opening sequence is a warm up, but unlike any I’ve every seen – it becomes immediately clear that these are very physically strong and talented performers. T...
Hosts Beth and Adalya are joined in the studio by Rory Kelly, actor in Red Stitch Theatre's production of Trevor. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
