Alison Croggon

Rising’s first week is proof that the Melbourne festival is now fully grounded in the diversity of the city’s culture, with complementary international acts.

The new Malthouse adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s The Birds powerfully conveys the estrangement of the familiar that is the essence of horror.

Perth Festival delivers some big-hitting shows, including the breathtaking Mahabharata and a revolutionary Portuguese dance work.

Two new works from some of Australia’s most acclaimed theatre artists interrogate in sharp and insightful ways the performance of gender and the damage it inflicts.

Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is a nuanced departure from the blueprint created by Elia Kazan’s classic film.

With Richard Bell and Deborah Cheetham Fraillon featuring in its public artworks, a ‘future-forward’ drag show and other events, First Nations artists are the headline act at this year’s Rising.

Homo Pentecostus is a complex and moving exploration of the relationships between religion and spiritual and sexual experience.

Three poems by Alison Croggon

Marrugeku and the West Australian Opera are the undeniable stars of this last Perth Festival under Iain Grandage’s stewardship.

In a sublime theatrical poem for Chamber Made, cellist Zoë Barry details her experiences of being struck by lightning.

The latest staging of two short Caryl Churchill plays is an example of the artform at its best, offering moments of exquisite theatre.

This year’s WOMADelaide was the biggest so far – and the festival still holds moments of undeniable magic.

Tasmania’s Mona Foma explores the possibilities of a decentralised festival, offering hope in the fractures of modern life.

As a feminist interrogation of Tolstoy’s classic, Anna K is a disappointingly cosmetic treatment.

In its second year, Illuminate Adelaide is putting the art into spectacle.

The Melbourne Theatre Company’s SLAP. BANG. KISS. is a step behind the radical generation it is speaking to.

Alison Croggon The campaign to destroy the arts

Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth highlights how easily human beings can be lured into catastrophic delusion.

Moulin Rouge reinvents the jukebox musical with a mix of sentimentality and grit that eluded Baz Luhrmann’s film.

The MTC’s production of  As You Like It is burdened by heavy direction and a preponderance of song.