The Death Of Peter Pan

Set in the most romantic of times and in the most romanticised of places – 1920s Paris, Eton and Oxford – The Death Of Peter Pan is an emotionally stirring biographic tale of repressed...
arts feature
The Place Beyond The Pines Posted 9 May 2013 @ 10:54am 308 views 0 comments The most impressive thing about actor Ryan Gosling is not his dreamy blue eyes, or the internet memes he has spawned; it’s the way he switches effortlessly from high budget romances to small, gritty independent movies, refusing to rest on his good looks, constantly surprising audiences at every turn. In 2010 Gosling won acclaim for his emotional role in Derek Cianfrance’s low budget Blue...
Spring Breakers Posted 7 May 2013 @ 1:03pm 615 views 0 comments Until recently, Harmony Korine has been the underdog of a fiercely independent, provocative subculture of American cinema, along with filmmakers like Vincent Gallo and Larry Clark. A skater, painter, author and photographer, his films have been decidedly on the experimental and performance-art end of the spectrum – apart perhaps from the very verité Kids, which he wrote when he was 19....
Camille Rewinds Posted 1 May 2013 @ 6:13am 161 views 0 comments Camille Rewinds - or Camille Redouble, for the Francophiles amongst us - takes a somewhat well-worn but intriguing trope and gives it an appealing Gallic twist. What if you could go back and change the direction of your life? It's a fantasy that has been tackled in film and literature countless times; Back to the Future comes immediately to mind, as does Francis Ford Coppola's Peggy...
About Tommy Posted 24 Apr 2013 @ 10:28am 238 views 0 comments Despite the mandate of UN Peacekeeping missions, the reality is a far cry from the ideology. Danish playwright Thor Bjorn Krebs tackles this issue along with many others in About Tommy, a documentary-style theatre performance. Set between the turmoil and trauma Balkan wars and the safety and security of the lounge rooms of those bearing witness via the media,About Tommy examines the...
Beached Posted 24 Apr 2013 @ 9:45am 233 views 0 comments In an article published in The Age last week, journalist Amy Corderoy reported that a study conducted by researchers at Deakin University discovered morbid obesity had increased by 68 per cent between 1997 and 2008. Although the 1500 studied were from Geelong, study leader Julie Pasco, the head of the epidemiology unit for musculoskeletal and metabolic disorders at Deakin University,...
Hollywood Costume Posted 18 Apr 2013 @ 2:29pm 297 views 0 comments When you have Academy Award-winning costume designer Lindy Hemming on the phone – whose work on the Batsuit from The Dark Knight trilogy and Daniel Craig’s bespoke suit in Casino Royale is soon to be displayed as part of ACMI’s upcoming Hollywood Costume exhibition – it’s important to ask her the hard-hitting questions. So who is sexier, Batman or James Bond? “...
Warm Bodies Posted 17 Apr 2013 @ 4:31pm 239 views 0 comments There’s a scene in Warm Bodies where our protagonist, known only as R, is trying to work out how to strike up a conversation with his new acquaintance, Julie. He hasn’t had a girl over in a while and is kind of struggling for an opening line. In voiceover, we hear him pleading with himself: “Don’t be creepy, don’t be creepy, don’t be creepy.” It’s a scene that’s relatable for anyone over 13 with...
Song Posted 11 Apr 2013 @ 10:18pm 272 views 0 comments Collaborations usually begin with mutual respect and a desire to work together. That can be the easy bit; harder is working out “what should we do?” Artistic Director of Ranters Theatre Adriano Cortese and James Tyson, a theatre and dance curator in Cardiff, already had a previous working relationship. “He’s presented our work a number of times and he just happens to also write music,” explains...
Assassins Posted 11 Apr 2013 @ 12:16pm 330 views 0 comments There are many ways for a suitor to woo a potential love interest. You could send gifts, write poetry or you could attempt to assassinate a President. John Hinckley Jr developed a fascination with American actor Jodie Foster after she played a child prostitute in the film Taxi Driver. Wanting to win her affection, and finding that stalking her failed to do the trick, he hatched a plan to...
A Clockwork Orange Posted 10 Apr 2013 @ 11:32am 519 views 0 comments At age 14, Alexandra Spencer-Jones was given a copy of Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange by her “naughty” high school teacher. Burgess’s novel tells the story of 14-year-old Alex DeLarge, the notional leader of a band of droogs whose violent escapades are told through DeLarge’s idiosyncratic ‘nadsat’ dialect (derived by Burgess from the Russian language with which he was...
The Funny Tonne : Some Shitty Thoughts After Seeing 76 Shows So Far Posted 9 Apr 2013 @ 1:09pm 746 views 1 comment A month ago, I applied to be a contestant in the Funny Tonne – a comedy festival initiative where three of us race to see as many shows at MICF as we can. Whoever has the emptiest life and most spare time – wins. Just like most things in my life, I sort of jokingly applied, threw in a dick joke, and nek minnit I’ve been accepted. For every show I see, I also agreed to film a short 10-15...
Supanova Posted 9 Apr 2013 @ 12:25pm 242 views 0 comments 15-year-old Daniel Zachariou would think his adult self has the best job in the world. Zachariou’s job, as it has been for the past decade, is organising the annual fan convention Supanova.  A celebration of popular culture, encompassing TV & film, geekery, gaming and gadgetry, collectibles, comics, cosplay and more, Supanova first opened in Sydney back in 2002 and had 6,000 through the...
Hyde Park On Hudson Posted 4 Apr 2013 @ 5:24pm 187 views 0 comments Over the past few years, Bill Murray has become something of an urban legend. There have been numerous stories in the media about the 62-year-old actor turning up at house parties full of university students, singing karaoke in a small booth with strangers, or reading poetry to construction workers (Google that one). The night before this interview, the actor was spotted dancing up a storm at a...
Wil Anderson Posted 2 Apr 2013 @ 9:59pm 635 views 0 comments “In my shows the last couple of years, I talk about changing my mind about things. It’s that sort of thing like Julia Gillard and what she did as a lawyer and what Tony Abbott said 20 years ago. Fuck, 20 years ago I thought Wham! was the best band in the world,” laughs Wil Anderson, in what would become such an absorbing conversation that in writing about Anderson rather than quoting...
Start. Options. Exit Posted 2 Apr 2013 @ 5:13pm 830 views 0 comments Nearing 30 shoot days, several thousand dollas and a lot of favours later, Start. Options. Exit is almost done shooting. Ahead of Chris Mitchell and Yoav Lester, co-directors of this indie black comedy, lies the simultaneously mind-numbing and thrilling duty of the notorious editing process. With cameos from Chopper and Ron Jeremy, a mysterious ageing prostitute surrogate mother played by the...
Rose McGowan Posted 2 Apr 2013 @ 11:44am 1 view 0 comments From sadistic teen queen Courtney in the ‘90s flick Jawbreaker, through to her recent turn in the TV show Enchanted, Rose McGowan often seems to play characters who are a little bit dark, and a little bit, well…evil. McGowan is consistently drawn to parts like these – not because she likes to play mean, but because she sees the potential for comedy in the most evil of characters. “When...
Jack The Giant Slayer Posted 28 Mar 2013 @ 10:59am 186 views 0 comments Nicholas Hoult is wearing some kind of 12th century knight-meets-modern-day-hoodie get-up, while Ewan McGregor and Eddie Marsan are dressed in full knight armour, sans the helmets. In-between takes, they’re joking about something I can’t quite hear, but when the cameras roll, the trio – standing on a giant man-made beanstalk leaf – are shooting arrows into mid-air. I’m one of a lucky few on...
Michael Rosenbaum Posted 27 Mar 2013 @ 12:01pm 362 views 0 comments For the better part of a decade he was the universally recognised Lex Luthor, one of the most enduring villains in the DC Comics universe known for his brilliant strategic mind as much as his penchant for brutality. He also voice The Flash in several cartoon series – Justice League, Justice League Unlimitedand Teen Titans among them. Then there was the short lived ...
Neon: Festival Of Independent Theatre Posted 21 Mar 2013 @ 9:26pm 236 views 0 comments The Melbourne Theatre Company is launching a bold new festival of independent shows, Neon, kicking off at the Southbank Theatre in May. The centrepiece is five original works from five smaller companies – the Daniel Schlusser Ensemble, Fraught Outfit, The Hayloft Project, THE RABBLE, and Sisters Grimm – each with a ten-day season in the Lawler. MTC Artistic Director Brett Sheehy had a desire to...
Penelope Posted 20 Mar 2013 @ 3:44pm 438 views 0 comments In Homer’s Odyssey, Penelope is the faithful wife of Odysseus, waiting for her husband to return as she fends off the attention of numerous suitors. In his own work, Penelope, Irish playwright Enda Walsh puts a twisted, modern spin on the story. Penelope sits in a pool house, watching a group of men parade beneath her as they compete for her affection, observing for the safe distance of...
Monster Body Posted 20 Mar 2013 @ 3:28pm 449 views 0 comments Dance Massive is going to be exactly that – freaking massive. As part of the overwhelming lineup for the two-week affair, Monster Body is a provocative and confronting performance. Atlanta Eke – Melbourne choreographer and performer known for her influential work throughout Australia and Europe – first created the piece and performed it as part of Next Wave in May of last year. It has...
MICF Daily - Wednesday March 20 Posted 20 Mar 2013 @ 8:26am 904 views 0 comments We are one week and counting until the Melbourne International Comedy Festival gets underway, and with the festival so close we have one last long-form edition of MICF Daily. Today's show is the MICF Daily Festival Preview - a guide to what's trending, who's flying over, and what's popular at this year's Comedy Festival. Mike is joined by festival experts Lisa Clark and Nick Mason to give...
Group Show Posted 19 Mar 2013 @ 10:21am 431 views 0 comments Theatre can take you to all kinds of new places, but the newest production by independent theatre company MKA aims to transport you to five very different worlds. Group Show presents the work of five emerging Australian playwrights, and each play represents a wildly different flight of imagination. From repressed ‘50s cocktail parties to fleeting glances at train stations to wild group sex, each...
Skeleton Posted 14 Mar 2013 @ 11:19am 230 views 0 comments Dance Massive is awash with edgy and innovative works and Larissa MCGowan’s Skeleton a stunning example of the festival’s ethos. Death and the extremes of the body collide (literally and metaphorically) with all manner of nostalgic pop culture icons, pushing the limits of the human form to astonishing and sometimes devastating ends. Having just premiered at the Adelaide Fringe, ...
Trybe Posted 13 Mar 2013 @ 11:20am 368 views 0 comments In Trybe, a multidisciplinary theatre performance devised by Anthony Breslin, colours become characters and performers who become part of an enormous painted canvas. Described as an ‘opera in paint’, the narrative of the show focuses on Breslin, the artist, wrestling with an idea for a mammoth painting in the privacy of his studio. As he surrenders control, the colours he wishes to use come...
247 Days Posted 13 Mar 2013 @ 10:47am 410 views 0 comments “The idea of 247 Days started upon my arrival in the country,” remembers Chunky Move Artistic Director Anouk van Dijk. “That was about 247 days from the opening night.” Those 247 days are almost over as van Dijk's second production with Chunky Move prepares to premiere Melbourne's Dance Massive festival.   “It's been great so far,” states van Dijk when asked to reflect on her time at Chunky...
MICF Daily - Wednesday March 13 Posted 13 Mar 2013 @ 10:14am 543 views 0 comments As the Melbourne International Comedy Festival gets closer and closer, we get more and more excited here on MICF Daily, your inside track to all things Comedy Festival. Today on MICF Daily, host Mike Brown speaks with New Zealand's FanFiction Comedy group about lessons learnt at last year's Comedy Festival, the intensity of making a documentary while performing shows, and the weirdness of...
Other Desert Cities Posted 8 Mar 2013 @ 5:36am 436 views 0 comments The MTC loves a BIG play, those sprawling American family dramas, big ideas, big arguments, big egos, in the vein of August: Osage County or Death Of A Salesman. Other Desert Cities, written by Jon Robin Baitz (creator of the US television show Brothers & Sisters – but don’t let that put you off) falls directly into this mould, a family drama and political drama...
Action/Response Posted 7 Mar 2013 @ 6:28am 373 views 0 comments The third biannual Dance Massive initiative is set to launch across Melbourne from Tuesday March 12, led by a consortium including Arts House, Dancehouse and the Malthouse Theatre. Supported by the Australian Council for the Arts and Arts Victoria, Dance Massive 2013 features a large number of artists presenting distinctive contemporary dance works around Melbourne. One of them is Action/...
MICF Daily - Wednesday March 6 Posted 6 Mar 2013 @ 12:57pm 660 views 0 comments Autumn is here, which means another year of laughter with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. This year Beat brings to you MICF Daily - your inside track to everything Comedy Festival. Hosted by Funny Tonne winner Mike Brown, this daily audio show brings you interviews with the festival's finest comedians plus breaking news on everything happening from the Town Hall and...