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Four clean cut young lads who met at school in South Australia and were influenced by their music teacher, cabaret performer Michael Griffiths, have come a long way. Eleven years on, The 60 Four, as they are known, now tour Australia regularly and appear on cruise ships, playing hits of the ‘60s and ‘70s to appreciative audiences. And in August 2026, they will be entertaining at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the first time. I speak of 26-year-old Ben Francis, Jack C

Adult entertainment at its glorious, risqué, musical and side-splitting best. That is what you are in for when you enter the house of debauchery that is Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett. Leaving little to the imagination, it is slick, sexy, salacious and oh so much fun. It is a superbly orchestrated show for the broad minded. I refer to a series of cabaret acts with a live band and original songs and anthems performed by the mistress of ceremonies Bernie Dieter. In fact

I couldn’t be more excited about a new work, which is really something special. This is the Cinderella story like you have never seen it before – taken from the stepmother’s perspective. She didn’t exactly have the perfect upbringing. Bad things happened to her. She tried to turn things around. For a while it looked like she had, but then jealousy and paranoia got in the way, which sealed her fate. Photos (except that of Ania Reynolds) by Sarah Clarke The idea for Mara

A fresh banana duct-taped to the wall. Is that art? Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan created controversy with his ‘nana, named Comedian and regarded as conceptual art, which debuted at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019. The controversy was hardly surprising, but it triggered an intense debate about the definition of art. In fact, that year three iterations of Comedian sold for between US$120,000 and US$150,000 a piece. Then, in November 2024, a version of the work was sol

Three outlandish, revelatory stories told to an unseen voice, who pushes those in the proverbial hot seat to go on, to say more. At first these tall tales appear unrelated and yet, as more and more is revealed, the threads start to weave together. They intersect and congeal. The yarns capture our attention and imagination from the get go. Photos by Darren Gill Head | Thorax | Abdomen is an intense, psychosexual thriller, tragic and darkly comedic. Here is but the star

Michael Jackson’s manipulative and physically and emotionally abusive father Joseph looms large in this glossy biopic on the rise of the global superstar. It charts the formation of Michael as the centrepiece of the Jackson Five, literally whipped into shape by strict disciplinarian Joe. The movie showcases the influence of agents, producers and record executives in the making of the Michael Jackson “brand”. In amongst the songs and videos that made Jackson a household na

Awkward and strained interpersonal relationships are explored by noted independent American filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, in what is termed a triptych . It is a word that defines a work of art divided into three. And so it is that less than a handful of key characters feature in each vignette and the camera’s intense glare focuses on the nature of their interactions. Jeff (Adam Driver) is driving his car in snow-laden New Jersey, with his sister Emily (Mayim Bialik) alongs

Jana Wendt was a highly accomplished TV current and public affairs presenter and journalist, who dominated our screens from the eighties to the mid noughties. Think programs such as Sixty Minutes, A Current Affair and Sunday, all of which she fronted. Although her name is in the title of this darkly comedic play, she only gets a look in towards the end of proceedings. The piece is about socio-economic inequality. Photos by Darren Gill Three old friends get together for

Fuze is a tense, high octane thriller. It centres on a daring bank robbery, carried out while the centre of London is in lockdown after an unexploded WWII bomb is unearthed on a construction site. Leading the team to try to defuse the ordinance is heroic Afghanistan veteran Major Will Tranter (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Far from straight-forward in the first instance, the situation is complicated when he discovers a timed trigger. The police operation to clear the area is