NOONGAR dance techniques, contemporary European lighting, Bollywood beats; there’s an eclectic mix of ingredients in a dynamic dance production heading to Perth once a regional tour is completed. Ochre dance company’s Kaya [Hello] is an emotional, athletic, and fierce work of contemporary dance which examines “cross-cultural clash and collaboration”, company dramaturge Phil Thompson says. “[It]…

PIRANHA infested rivers, running out of fuel flying over dense jungle, gangsters and guerrilla warfare—there was little in Jim Richards’ early life in the UK to prepare him for the dangers of being a gold prospector. Gold fever bit the Mt Lawley local aged 17 during a holiday job at a Welsh gold mine, and…

WRITTEN more than 350 years ago French playwright Moliére’s biting satire Tartuffe has plenty to say about life and politics circa 2016, Black Swan director Kate Cherry says. “It’s about shining a light on hypocrisy and people endowed with qualities they don’t have. “You don’t need to go further than Donald Trump to know there…

AS the curtain comes down on Moliére’s Tartuffe at the State Theatre, in November director Kate Cherry will take her final bow in the Perth theatre scene. Joint CEO and artistic director at Black Swan State Theatre Company for nine years she’s going east to head up prestigious acting academy NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic…

WHEN Mel Kay wrote the singles Upside Down Town and Feel Alright, she’d stopped listening to the doubting Thomas’ telling her she’d never make it in the tough music industry. “I had learned to value myself more than a society telling me what I couldn’t do,” the 22 year old says. It didn’t hurt that…

IN it’s ninth year the Swan Festival of Lights is a colourful spectacle of music, dance and mouthwatering Indian food. It celebrates the Hindu holy day Deepavali and victory of light over darkness, good over evil: “We are not preaching religion, but preaching giving back to the community,” Somun Balasubramaniam says. Entry to the three…

MEXICO’S golden days of cinema are back with a vengeance says Jose Briones. Director of Perth’s second annual Viva Mexico Film Festival, Mr Briones is bringing the best of his birth country’s cinema to his adopted home. Mexico had a flourishing film industry from the 1930s to the 1950s: “A golden age. [We] were similar…

FREMANTLE band POWNegro has won Perth’s Big Splash battle of the bands, winning $10,000. The hip hop/ jazz/ rock sextet has done surprisingly well, given they’ve been together less than a year and their bassist only started playing a month before they formed. Already POWNegro have played alongside break-out Freo band Koi Child and Kevin…

A BALLET has called upon the alt-rock gods to honour the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare, with two very different adaptations of the bard’s most popular tragedy Romeo and Juliet. “I thought we should do something special,” says the company’s artistic director Aurélien Scannella. A revival of Youri Vámos’ classical ballet will alternate with performances…

BILL CLINTON introduced health care and social security reform, but it’s a semen-stained blue dress that doggedly remains the defining issue of his second term as US president. Written by Australian brothers Paul and Michael Hodge, Clinton the Musical is a hilarious romp through his time in office. It nails the events, political skullduggery and…