TWO acclaimed poets who fled Ukraine just before the Russian invasion will give a fascinating insight into the war-torn country at Perth’s Ubud Writers and Readers festival. Couple Max Rosochinsky and Oksana Maksymchuk had been diligently preparing for the invasion, even though they didn’t fully believe Vladimir Putin would go through with it. That all…

   NO, you’re not having a crazy dream about Waldecks, you’re in the lush heart of the art installation/dance show Hundreds + Thousands. Audience members bring their own plants and are surrounded by plants during the tactile show that blends dance, video, sound and art. The work is the brainchild of Luke George and Daniel…

PETER GARRETT never really quit politics – he just swapped parliament for the tour bus. Taking to the stage with Midnight Oil at the RAC Arena on Sunday night, the dreary upper house debates had been replaced with power chords, the parliamentary speeches with trenchant lyrics, and the hoary backbenchers with Marshall stacks. Halfway through…

THE concept of ‘home’ became all-encompassing during covid. People trying to get back home, people missing their spiritual home – whether that be the church, pub or gym – people losing their job and home, people unable to work to afford a home… So even though the play Homeward Bound is ostensibly about an astronaut…

FAMED children’s author James Foley has another award label to stick on his latest book Stellarphant, after it was named an ‘honour book’ in the picture book of the year category of the Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards last week. Perhaps even more tellingly, this year the CBCA organised for 2000 kids across the…

The mysteries of the universe and Mother Nature intertwine in a stunning debut solo exhibition by young Bicton artist Alexis Steyn. Pitching the female form against vast cosmological backdrops with strong colours and nods to the environment, Steyn’s paintings have a dreamlike, fantasy quality that wouldn’t be out of place on a ‘space rock’ album cover.…

HER underwear with shark’s teeth caused an international stir in the 1980s, and now Perth artist Tania Ferrier is back with a fresh look at that decade and how far or little women have come in the intervening years. Her new exhibition Pop Porn features nine Angry Underwear sets, bras and underwear with shark’s teeth…

GEORGE LAZENBY’S appearance at The Music of James Bond in Perth will be a poignant affair with his daughter Jennifer directing a dance number at the show. The WA Symphony Orchestra will perform all the Bond hits with special guest singers Bonnie Anderson and Luke Kennedy, and the only Aussie ever to play 007, George…

HE’S Danish, he lived in London for 12 years and now he’s moved to Perth. Some days jazz guitarist Kristian Borring must wake up thinking he’s in witness protection and ask himself “Where do I belong?” There’s an element of that in his new album Earth Matters, which has a searching, restless quality with lots…

1990s trance music, weird refracted light and old landline phones create a hypnotic and slightly strange backdrop to the stage show Telephone. Focusing on the fragmented nature of communication, audiences are bombarded by “a symphony of phone calls” as conversations criss-cross, repeat and fade-out in disorientating waves. The endless chatter creates an emotional and sometimes…