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Darren Yap has been a part of some huge moments in Australian performing arts history, from acting in Miss Saigon to being on the directorial team for the Sydney 2000 closing ceremony. Now he's using his talents to bringing new Asian Australian work to the stage. Also, we meet artists behind a surge of Asian Australian plays on our mainstages right now and Neil Armfield joins us to pay tribute to the English theatre director Peter Brook, famous for his reinvention of contemporary theatre.
British author Benjamin Myers says he likes to be on the margins as a writer and his latest novel, The Perfect Golden Circle, is about the crop circles that appeared in 1989 in the English countryside and explores the type of people who created them. Also Ceridwen Dovey and Eliza Bell explain their genre-bending book, Mothertongues and Noongar author, Claire G Coleman's mysterious and unsettling book, Enclave, set in a walled Australian city.
It’s time to Get up, stand up, show up- the theme for NAIDOC week 2022. Stop Everything presents highlights celebrating the depth of talent from First Nations creatives working in music, television and theatre. BL is joined by BARKAA, a Malyangapa Barkindji woman from Western New South Wales signed to Briggs’ Bad Apples Music label to talk about the Blak Matriarchy she belongs to. BL + BW dig into the ABC show, All My Friends are Racist with co stars, Davey Thomson and Tuuli Narkle and award winning screenwriter, Kodie Bedford, discusses the AMC+ original series Firebite, a supernatural series set in an underground mining town in central Australia where First Nations vampire slayers battle a colony of white vampires. Show notes: BARKAA: https://www.barkaa.com.au/ Stop Everything with BARKAA: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/stop-everything/barkaa-blak-matriarchy/13636952 Stop Everything with Davey Thomson and Tuuli Narkle: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/stop-everything/all-my-friends-are-racist/13503708 Stop Everything with Kodie Bedford: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/stop-everything/kodie-bedford-joe-rogan/13749530
For NAIDOC Week we're joined by Warren H. Williams, co-creator & star of a unique and stunningly shot new crime series, True Colours, NITV's first foray into longform drama, and filmmaker Larissa Behrendt, who talks about Warriors on the Field, a celebration of Indigenous Australia and its long-standing history and connection with Australian football. Two exciting directors from Finland will also be along.....Juho Kuosmanen and Mikko Myllylahti, for a conversation about Finnish storytelling and their new films, the Cannes winning Compartment No. 6 (Juho Kuosmanen), and The Woodcutter Story (Mikko Myllylahti), both set to screen in Australia. Plus, Sunil and a very special guest are on the red carpet for the premiere of Thor: Love and Thunder and put some questions to Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth.
Richard Bell is one of the few individual artists curated into Documenta 15, the highly-anticipated global survey of contemporary art. This year, for the first time, it’s been dominated by artists and collectives from the Global South. But the historic takeover has been eclipsed by a media storm ignited by what appears to be a Jewish caricature in a mural painted by Indonesian artist group Taring Padi, since taken down. Queensland-born sculptor Sebastian di Mauro who now calls Delaware home, discusses his obsession with materiality and his new exhibition featuring appliquéd army blankets based on the arcane imagery on American dollar notes. And we discover the little-known painter Edward Brezinski who lived on the fringes of the hyperactive 1980s New York art scene that produced Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. His desperate bid for fame is charted in the new documentary Make Me Famous which also offers a fascinating insight into the ecosystem of the art business.
Our oldest modern dance company, the Australian Dance Theatre, has been delighting and challenging audiences for nearly 60 years. Now Wiradjuri dancer and choreographer Daniel Riley is at the helm, becoming the first Indigenous man to lead the company. Also, we meet the winner of this year's Keir Choreographic Award, Tra Mi Dinh, and Wesley Enoch's joyous musical The Sunshine Club returns to the Queensland Theatre stage after 23 years.
For NAIDOC Week, three Aboriginal writers who are grappling with the past: Anita Heiss takes the 1852 Gundagai flood as the starting point for her novel Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray, Tony Birch explores his family history in Dark as Last Night and SJ Norman's, Permafrost, a collection of haunted short stories.
He’s been at the top of Stop Everything!’s interview wish list for awhile and we got him: Taika Waititi talks to Ben Law about his latest film for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor: Love and Thunder, the follow up to Thor: Ragnarok. Podcaster Helen Zaltzman catches up with BW to talk about The Allusionist’s upcoming tour of Australia and Auckland, and her recap podcast, Veronica Mars Investigations. We also take a look at how celebs and the Internet have been reacting to the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe V Wade. Show notes: Roe V Wade overturned: an explainer: https://www.npr.org/2022/06/24/1107396510/roe-v-wade-is-overturned Musical artists at Glastonbury react to Roe V Wade decision: https://www.instagram.com/p/CfTMnUFvOuM Margaret Atwood on Roe V Wade: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/supreme-court-roe-handmaids-tale-abortion-margaret-atwood/629833/ Jia Tolentino on Roe V Wade overturned: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/04/we-are-not-going-back-to-the-time-before-roe-we-are-going-somewhere-worse The Allusionist Australia + Auckland tour: https://www.theallusionist.org/events The Allusionist The Egg’s Warning: https://www.theallusionist.org/allusionist/kinderegg Veronica Mars Investigations: https://vmipod.com/ Helen Zaltzman and Kristen Bell on Bullseye: https://www.npr.org/2022/02/07/1078982975/kristen-bell Helen Zaltzman on Home Cooking: https://homecooking.show/episodes/14
We meet Mandy Walker, the pioneering Australian cinematographer who shot Baz Luhrmann's epic film Elvis. TV writer Wenlei Ma is along with an analysis of where streaming services, particularly Netflix, have gone wrong recently and what they can do to remain relevant in the current landscape, and L.A. based Aussie actor Claudia O'Doherty speaks to us about her career and latest role on a quirky series about class and capitalism called Killing It.
A conversation with artist Daniel Boyd whose work has focussed on reframing Eurocentric images from Australia's past. Plus, Sally Ryan discusses her latest commission, a giant oil painting of Jesus, Mary and Joseph for St Mary’s cathedral in Sydney. She says it's her hardest painting yet. And, returning artefacts taken from Kunwinjku and Gagadju artists in Arnhem Land in the early 1900s.
As the ABC celebrates its 90th birthday, we delve into our archives to revisit key moments in Australian performing arts history, including Laurence Olivier on tour, Nureyev and Fonteyn dancing into Australian hearts and Indigenous theatre taking centre stage. Also, Ian McKellen makes his Australian debut, Dorothy Hewett revolutionises Australian playwriting, Philip Glass writes a piece for organ and didgeridoo and Joan Sutherland records a stupendous La Traviata in a 17th-century Italian theatre.
American author Madeline Miller has found a new audience for her prize winning novel Circe on #BookTok and now she has a new offering based on Greek mythology called Galatea. Also, Lauren Chater's real life inspiration for her third historical novel, The Winter Dress and Carrie Cox asks whether relationships are really meant to go the distance in her latest novel, So Many Beats of the Heart.
We’re talking about new releases from superstars Beyoncé and JLo and chatting with silver Logie winner and ABC sweetheart Tony Armstrong and Gruen’s Wil Anderson. Break My Soul is Beyoncé’s first single off her upcoming album Renaissance, Halftime documents JLo’s blazing run as she campaigned for an award for Hustlers and prepared for the Super Bowl halftime show in the same year. Tony Armstrong tells us where he’s keeping his Logie and Ben Law ventures into the fourth dimension for Jurassic World: Dominion. Show notes: Break My Soul lyrics: https://genius.com/Beyonce-break-my-soul-lyrics JLo and Shakira’s Super Bowl Halftime show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pILCn6VO_RU Tony Armstrong’s Logies acceptance speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YkqvzvlbTg Gruen: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/gruen
A chat with the inimitable Baz Lurhmann about what he thinks Elvis, his first new film in nearly a decade might add to the legend and mythology of the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. We've all heard of Taco Tuesday, but how about Nude Tuesday? Aussie actor Damon Herriman stars in a deliriously silly NZ set comedy about love, nudity and gibberish and he's along to tell us all about it + the question of power, who has it, what they do with it and how to get it, is central to the funny and gory superhero satire The Boys....we meet a bunch of the stars ahead of the Season 3 launch, including Chace Crawford, Jack Quaid and Karen Fukuhara.
Have you ever walked through an epic entanglement of red cotton thread, by the artist Chiharu Shiota? The Japanese installation and performance artist takes Daniel through The Soul Trembles, an exhibition highlighting 25 years of her practice. Including the time she undertook a nude workshop with Marina Abramovic, mistaking her for the textile sculptor Magdalena Abakanowitcz. Plus, Daniel speaks with performance artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji, who came to Sydney to lead a public endurance performance in which a group of women haul water kegs through the streets. It was first performed in Lagos, Nigeria in 2011. From the sky, to the moon and the neon of electric globes, light is art’s most essential element. Tate UK has a huge collection of works that speak to the evolution of light, from natural source to fluorescent tubes. More than 70 of them are on show at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).
A Strange Loop has won Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical at the 75th Tony Awards. This funny and challenging metafictional musical is inspired by the experiences of its writer, Michael R. Jackson, who joins us from New York. Also, we're joined by the chief theatre critics at the New York Times and the Guardian for the latest from the US and UK and we meet director Max Webster, the man behind a daring new Henry V starring Kit Harrington (Game of Thrones) and soon in cinemas.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brookes says she "didn't grow up as a horse obsessed girl" but rather her interest in horses was a result of a midlife crisis which led her to the history of a famous American thoroughbred that was the inspiration for her latest novel, simply called Horse. Also, John Purcell talks about his second official novel, The Lessons, and reveals his brief career writing erotica and Karen Manton explains the inspiration for her evocative novel, The Curlew's Eye, set in remote Northern Territory.
The media debacle around Rebel Wilson’s coming out has implications for journalism, LGBTQIA+ safety and the right to privacy. The story’s travelled far and wide with everyone from Whoopi Goldberg to Magda Szubanski weighing in. Among many questions we’re asking — what’s the place of gossip columns in newspapers these days? We know it’s cold outside, so we have a couple of winter warmers to keep you company as you snuggle down in your doona fort on the couch. With the Logies around the corner, revisit double nominee New Gold Mountain with director Corrie Chen and series lead Yoson An. And we catch up Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, aka Daniels, writers and directors of the A24 action-sci-fi-comedy-family dramedy Everything Everywhere All at Once. Show notes: Rebel Wilson instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CelyiLZLHa2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Magda Szubanski on Rebel Wilson’s coming out, from RN Breakfast: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/magda-szubanski-on-coming-out-in-public/13929900 Co-hosts of The View discuss the Rebel Wilson story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngsPGfv9qs8 SMH columnist Andrew Hornery’s apology: https://www.smh.com.au/culture/celebrity/i-made-mistakes-over-rebel-wilson-and-will-learn-from-them-20220613-p5at9e.html Sydney Morning Herald editor tells staff he wouldn’t have ‘outed’ Rebel Wilson if she didn’t respond to the paper’s request: https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/06/14/smh-editor-tells-staff-he-wouldnt-have-outed-wilson-without-comment/ The Rebel Wilson story is a statement about the SMH’s news culture — and that’s a big problem: https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/06/15/rebel-wilson-story-statement-about-the-smhs-news-culture/ New Gold Mountain original Stop Everything episode: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/stop-everything/harry-styles-shania-twain/13849270 Daniels’ original Stop Everything! episode: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/stop-everything/harry-styles-shania-twain/13849270
The great documentarian Frederick Wiseman is being celebrated this month at Sydney Film Festival & ACMI with a retrospective of ten seminal films which chronicle American life and institutions. 92 year old Wiseman is our guest. British actor Jack Davenport who appears in series' like The Morning Show, 90s cult classic This Life, and films including the Pirates of the Caribbean series, talks about his role as the lead character in Ten Percent, a UK remake of the French hit Call my Agent, and filmmaker Mary Zournazi traces the history and her own connection to a Greek music born of exile in her documentary My Rembetika Blues.
Why artist and curator David Sequeira doesn't believe in just a 'pop of colour'. How a colour-blind artist adapted to colours he couldn't perceive. And how glasses that allow colour-deficient people to see the full spectrum of colours, work. Plus, Daniel chats to V&A curator Catlin Langford about her book on the mania for Autochrome, an early colour photography process invented by the Lumière brothers.
Since starting her career on Young Talent Time, Tina Arena has become one of our most successful musical exports, having sold over 10 million records worldwide. She's now flexing new creative muscles as the artistic director of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Also, we meet the students and two high-profile alumni creating new work at The Australian Ballet School and we learn about a new study that suggests job insecurity and other factors may be adversely affecting the mental health and wellbeing of performing artists.
Meg Mason thought her second novel, Sorrow and Bliss wouldn't be published, it was and is now shortlisted for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction, which will be announced this week. Also Australian writer Ennis Ćehić on his playful collection, Sadvertising, and American writer Leila Motley's debut novel, Nightcrawling, which she wrote at just 17.
Lettuce discuss the rising cost of living, the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Fire Island and Stranger Things 4. Ben talks to queer comedy icon Margaret Cho, SNL favourite Bowen Yang and rising comedy star and now glossy magazine cover boy Joel Kim Booster about gay romcom Fire Island and explains why the queer-POC centred film has been criticised for failing the Bechdel test. BW and BL talk through all the pop culture moments happening in international seats of power: Buckingham Palace, the White House and the Indonesian Presidential Palace. Finally, we’re running up that hill with Stranger Things 4, the latest season of Netflix’s ‘80s nostalgia-soaked sci-fi horror fantasy show. Show notes: Kate called out over Louis’ behaviour: https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/royals/kate-called-out-over-louis-behaviour-you-have-no-control-of-your-children/news-story/cabe07de8c8988d2fc34e40b88222405 The Queen and Paddington: https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/queen-thrills-crowds-with-paddington-bear-skit-for-platinum-jubilee-20220605-p5ar4y.html BTS at the White House: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg6lQac41HA Matthew McConaughey at the White House: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMGcgWDcJqw Joko Widodo and Anthony Albanese state visit: https://twitter.com/jokowi/status/1534001660732723200?s=20&t=konsgIRcrW_iE9kbhaCjdA Fire Island and the Bechdel test: https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2022/06/07/hanna-rosin-apologizes-controversial-tweet-hulu-fire-island-bechdel-test/10004388002/
Nashen Moodley, artistic director of Sydney Film Festival is in to talk festival highlights as the event opens this week. He's joined by the curators of Screenability, a section of SFF that shines a spotlight on people with disability, and also the Travelling Film Festival, which showcases this world-class cinema in regional locations Amir Jadidi, Iranian star of Oscar and Cannes winning director Asghar Farhadi's new film A Hero, talks about the complex themes raised in this powerful drama about family, vulnerability and debt, and as the great British filmmaker Terence Davies' mesmerising new film Benediction releases, we revisit an excerpt of a conversation he had with Jason Di Rosso as it premiered at the 2021 British Film Festival.
We start the show at the Parade for the Moon in Melbourne's Chinatown, part of the city's RISING festival. Then Daniel speaks with tattoo and visual artist eX-de-Medici about her intense and detailed watercolours that interrogate violent power structures. And step inside the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where Daniel catches up with Australian artist Angelica Mesiti, who teaches there.
After being cancelled in 2020 and 2021, Melbourne's RISING festival is finally here. It's the first major arts festival the city has hosted since 2019. We venture into the frosty night air to discover how this festival tries to subvert expectations and capture new audiences. We meet the artistic directors, watch passers-by become part of the action in The Invisible Opera, meet ordinary people rehearsing for a massive dance work, encounter new work from Marrugeku and examine social taboos with choreographer Mette Ingvarten.
Booker-winning writer Damon Galgut wasn’t always aware of his privilege, growing up as a white man in South Africa. Instead, he describes a ‘slow-shifting of consciousness’, that culminated in The Promise, a book he calls ‘my most South African novel'. Also, The Rosie Project author, Graeme Simsion, gives a tour of his writing space and Hilde Hinton on her second novel, A Solitary Walk on the Moon.
Post Covid Beverley returns to the warm embrace of Stop Everything and Benjamin Law. This week BL and BW discuss their ambivalence for ‘First Dog’ Toto Albanese’s social media presence, the etiquette of the Swedish dinner discourse and the return of old televisual IP: Borgen, Willow and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Also hear from UK-born, Perth-raised electronic music producer and vocalist Kučka who’s back in Australia for headline shows at the Sydney Opera House. Kučka chats with BW about collaborations, covers and making her mark in the music industry. Show notes: Kučka on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv_PePyKrERL_YMjcYa6ZPQ Kučka’s Vivid show: https://www.vividsydney.com/event/music/kucka-vivid-live Musical artists pushback against making TikToks: https://www.tiktok.com/@iamkucka?lang=en Swedish dinner discourse: https://twitter.com/SamQari/status/1529868644846641153?s=20&t=ZmOyLBSRFdhHXpE8bHQVSA Borgen’s back: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/may/30/borgen-again-the-most-prescient-show-on-tv-is-back-and-still-working-its-magic?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Willow trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbbveDpUZv4 Obi-Wan Kenobi: https://disneyplusoriginals.disney.com/show/obi-wan-kenobi
As Obi-Wan Kenobi, the latest incarnation in the Star Wars universe arrives, we meet Deborah Chow, the first female director in the film franchise's history, as well as one of the stars of the series, Moses Ingram. We're also joined this week by Executive Producer Patrick Walters from See-Saw Films who are behind a slate of the best TV right now including Heartstopper and The Essex Serpent, plus, screenwriter Kodie Bedford, who's credits include Mystery Road, Squinters, Troppo and Firebite joins us for a career chat.
Daniel chats with artist brothers Abdul-Rahman and Abdul Abdullah, who are close in life but not so much in their art. However, thorny issues unite them in Land Abounds, their new joint exhibition. Hear how Filipino sculptor Leeroy New builds his large-scale sci-fi installations made from 100% recycled materials. He's in Australia for Melbourne's RISING festival. And how did an 1897 painting by the Wurundjeri clan leader William Barak, end up at a Sotheby's auction house in New York? Last week Wurundjeri people successfully bid for the works.
