Culture

It’s not the ghost of the poet or his sad wife in the tower by the rushing water that we are looking for: sensation, awareness, presence. No, that’s circumstantial. It’s a bird, a rare bird we are hoping to spot to rewrite the truth of being there. We are searching for the ageless bird that opened its own cage and now opens the cages of other birds. The uncaging bird that won’t be trapped in a bird guide or a poem. 

An emotionally honest image by Finnish photographer Elina Brotherus inspired Pixy Liao to step away from her upbringing and explore her creative options.

Amid a rich menu of work at this year’s Sydney Festival, the new opera Antarctica is a standout.

Frances O’Connor’s fabulist biopic literalises the connections between Emily Brontë’s life and her masterpiece Wuthering Heights, reducing both.

Tomás Saraceno’s exhibition at the Museum of Old and New Art, Oceans of Air, finds beauty in ecological trauma.

Author David Sedaris, in Australia next month to promote his new essay collection Happy-Go-Lucky, finds humour in his intense touring schedule, connections with fans and his own success.

There was nothing to it, really. We were in his kitchen having dinner when he asked me why I was looking at him like I wanted to kill him. That was exactly what he said: ‘Why are you looking at me like you want to kill me?’ I had to break it off right there and then. There was no other way. He was sure it had something to do with his kid. I said, ‘It has nothing to do with your kid’, but he wasn’t convinced.

Jonah Hill’s astonishing Netflix documentary about his psychiatrist, Phil Stutz, opens up the possibilities of the talking cure.

A stalwart of Australian theatre for more than 40 years, Susie Dee has forged a reputation as a passionate and accomplished director who’s not afraid to take risks.