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Bold, brazen and unapologetic comes this interrogation of sex and sex education from the perspective of three naïve Year 12 students. On the cusp of final exams, larger than life Anna (Louisa Cusumano) is writing erotic fiction and publishing it online. It concerns a charged lesbian relationship between a young woman and a monster (read into that vampire), who ravages her. Among those reading it are her besties, Immi (Mia Tuco) and Rheya (Miela Anich). Photos by Darren

Melodic, witty, satiric and joyfully absurd, dramatist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan collaborated on 14 comic operas between 1871 and 1896. Among the best known are H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. Music from these, I am pleased to say, was prominent in Opera Australia’s glorious celebration. Gilbert and Sullivan pioneered and perfected the patter song, highlighted by highly rhythmic, tongue twisting, rapid-fire lyrics. That was on s

Tessa Ensler (Sheridan Harbridge) is a successful criminal defence barrister. She knows the tricks of the trade and defends her clients – many alleged sexual offenders – vehemently. She relishes the game … circling witnesses until she is ready to pounce, having lulled them into a false sense of security. She is good … very good. Those who know her, know how she operates and what is coming. The witnesses are mere lambs to the slaughter. Tessa chose law after she did

Almost a decade after it first appeared in Australia, Cirque du Soleil’s magnificent show KOOZA, an ode to traditional circus, returns with distinction. Cirque du Soleil has rewritten what is possible in the art form. KOOZA combines extraordinary artistry, phenomenal acrobatic performance, captivating clowning and theatrical excellence. Cirque remains cutting edge circus – the best of the best. I speak of the acts, the staging, the costumes, the make-up and the original

Once is a sparkling, witty, lyrical tale about a couple who fall quickly and deeply in love, but whose individual circumstances (read complications) see them hold back. Their connection is music and the title refers to a once in a lifetime encounter, complete with magnetism, vulnerability and healing. Based on the 2006 movie by John Carney, it concerns a struggling Irish busker on the verge of giving up and an effervescent Czech woman. Photos by Natalie Edge Photography

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. MUST gives us a searing representation thereof with its production of George Orwell’s dystopian drama Animal Farm, adapted for a contemporary audience by Tatty Hennessy. Orwell’s work was first published in 1945 and Hennessy was commissioned to adapt it in 2021, with its first professional production only last year. Photos by Elena Ruefenacht Given the current instability in the world, its saliency certainly isn’t l

The founding father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud described love as a state of temporary psychosis. Arguably that definition applies to the central figure in Finding Emily, which is set in Manchester. Owen Brompton (Spike Fearn) works as a sound engineer at a student union bar at fictional Manchester City University. One raucous night he meets and immediately feels connected to a young woman dressed in a fairy outfit. She is a university student named Emily (Sadie Soveral

A slick Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) actioner, the story involves the shadowy world of high finance. The formula goes like this: the risks may be great, but the rewards are even greater. The yarn unfolds through the eyes of an attractive, highly confident, young lawyer. Rachel Wild (Eliza Gonzalez) works between the moral and the immoral, the black and the white – in other words, in the grey. She is an expensive hired gun with access to a crack tea

A beaut way for the young to be introduced to opera in the company of loved ones. That is the key to the success of The Magic Pudding: The Opera, an operatic adaptation of Norman Lindsay’s 1918 children’s classic. The story concerns thievery of a cantankerous magic pudding named Albert. Photos by Casey Horsfield and Charlie Kinross He is a walking, talking pudding that can seemingly change flavours at will and keeps on keeping on – in other words, he never runs out. The