Dee Jefferson

Comedian and actor Atsuko Okatsuka discusses the films, jobs and experiences that shaped her comedy, including her love of White Chicks, a memorable dog-walking dispute and performing during a 7.1-magnitude earthquake in Pasadena. She reflects on advice from Chelsea Handler, her childhood mobility, time living in the United States as an undocumented migrant, and her connection with fans who have adopted her distinctive bowl haircut. Okatsuka also talks about physical therapy, her interest in appearing on a dating reality show with her husband, and an eclectic fantasy dinner party featuring figures such as Lucille Ball, Charlie Chaplin, Sia, Paddington and Hachiko.

Leah Purcell’s retelling of Henry Lawson’s bush tale has been adapted into an opera by George Palmer for Opera Australia and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. The production expands the story of Molly Johnson, her son Danny and Yadaka, using Indigenous ceremony, dance and song to explore colonial violence, First Nations identity, gender relations and connection to country. The review praises the performances—especially Nina Korbe—as well as the set, choreography and emotionally resonant duets, while finding the music less convincing in some depictions of violence and grief. The production is presented as an important reclamation of the Australian national narrative and runs at the Sydney Opera House until 15 August.

Netflix’s six-part adaptation of Miles Franklin’s 1901 novel modernizes the story of aspiring writer Sybylla Melvin with an irreverent, sexually frank tone and a contemporary soundtrack. Philippa Northeast plays the rebellious heroine, while an all-female creative team emphasizes women’s experiences of resisting social expectations. The series expands the original by portraying Harry Beecham as Chinese-Australian and adding First Nations characters, including Aboriginal stockwoman Nell, as well as a gay storyline. The creators frame these changes as an effort to represent the diverse people living in Australia around 1900 without tokenism, while retaining the novel’s themes of artistic ambition, financial independence and female autonomy.

Sydney Chamber Opera’s production of Liza Lim’s one-hour opera The Oresteia retells Aeschylus’s cycle of sacrifice, vengeance and justice through intensely physical singing and movement. Directed by Imara Savage and conducted by Jack Symonds, the production combines demanding, unconventional music with striking set and lighting design, earning strong praise for its vocal and instrumental virtuosity. The review calls the work daring and unusually ambitious in a cautious cultural climate, while advising audiences to familiarize themselves with the characters and plot before attending.

Jane Harrison’s play stages a meeting between the spirit of Wangal leader Bennelong and Sebastian, a contemporary actor preparing to play him. The production explores Bennelong’s kidnapping by Arthur Phillip, his time in London, his return to the Eora and the continuing tensions around Indigenous and colonial interpretations of his life. The review praises the ingenious framework, humour, performances and moments when the production becomes dreamlike and emotionally potent, but criticises its reliance on exposition, rushed pacing and occasional interruptions that weaken its emotional impact.

Bundanon Art Museum has opened Man on Fire: Visions of Nebuchadnezzar, the first large-scale presentation in decades of Arthur Boyd’s hallucinatory series about the Babylonian king’s punishment, exile and transformation into an animal. Nearly 50 paintings, pastels and drawings explore fire, landscape, masculinity, power, insanity and the human condition, while also reflecting Boyd’s horror at the Vietnam War, his religious upbringing and memories of his father’s epilepsy. The exhibition also includes Shaun Gladwell’s 67-minute video commission A Nebuchadnezzar Cycle, which reinterprets the figure through contemporary performance in the Shoalhaven landscape.

Anna Funder discusses taking up a creative-writing professorship at the University of Sydney, her unconventional path from international law to writing Stasiland, and the research-intensive books that followed, including All That I Am and Wifedom. She explains her enduring interest in resistance, power and the emotional dimensions of human behavior, shaped by her family and literary education. Funder views her appointment as a vote of confidence in the humanities amid AI, political authoritarianism and attacks on books, and argues that protecting human creativity is essential. She is also developing a contemporary, personal novel and plans to tour Australian capital cities in July and August 2026.

Actor and director Virginia Gay discusses directing Yve Blake’s Shakespeare-inspired play Mackenzie, which reimagines Lady Macbeth as a demanding stage mother. She praises Ursula and Disney’s theatrical villains, calls Hamlet Shakespeare’s most overrated play because it is too long and dominated by “sad boy thoughts,” and identifies The Rocky Horror Picture Show as a major creative influence. Gay also reflects on the joyful, precise collaborative culture she learned from Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer, the value of embracing her queer, irreverent and masculine qualities, chaotic stage mishaps during Calamity Jane, and her efforts to break a social-media addiction through immersive creative work.

A first-time dance-class participant attends Cuban salsa, Melbourne shuffle and Afro-fusion sessions at Melbourne’s Rising festival, initially struggling with the movements, embarrassment and physical exertion. The classes gradually become enjoyable as supportive instructors and fellow participants create a sense of camaraderie. Watching professional, student and untrained dancers, as well as children learning cultural dances from the Djirri Djirri Wurundjeri Dance collective, leads to a broader reflection on how people often lose the uninhibited joy of dancing as they grow up and how communal movement can help them rediscover it.

Florentina Holzinger’s A Year Without Summer, presented at Arts Centre Melbourne during the Rising festival, reworks the 1816 volcanic summer and the origins of Frankenstein into a chaotic, sexually explicit musical. Combining nudity, live endurance art, comedy, dance, punk music and grotesque stunts, the production examines medical science, climate crisis, bodily autonomy and humanity’s responsibility for technological progress. Although its fragmented vignettes are not always coherent, the review finds the show thrilling and ultimately powerful, particularly in its creation of a temporary utopia where diverse women and marginalized performers define their own theatrical vision.

Roddy Doyle discusses the lasting impact of The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, the origins of The Women Behind the Door, and his continuing drive to write. He offers advice to emerging writers—be kind to yourself, prioritize producing words, and discover a story gradually. Doyle defends The Commitments’ language, clarifies his views on James Joyce while criticizing the academic culture surrounding Joyce studies, and expresses admiration for Charles Dickens despite Dickens’s treatment of his family. He also shares his favorite swear words, his love of Great Expectations, and his wish to have Match of the Day’s theme played at his funeral.

Tony Albert’s exhibition Not a Souvenir at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art presents more than 3,000 examples of “Aboriginalia” — racist, exoticised and kitsch objects depicting First Nations people and culture. Albert, who began collecting the objects as a child and later transformed them into art, uses installations, paintings, photographs and text works to expose Australia’s colonial history and the commodification of Indigenous identity. The MCA is also inviting the public to donate similar objects to his collection. The exhibition reflects Albert’s broader effort to challenge institutional and colonial narratives while empowering Aboriginal voices, cultures and identities.

Flying Lotus discusses his upcoming Layer 3 audiovisual show in Australia, his formative influences, and his creative process. Steven Ellison recalls being told that hip-hop could not be made with a laptop, using the criticism as motivation to develop his production style. He also shares enthusiasm for Blade Runner, Beetlejuice, horror films, video games, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, a preference for three-four time, and candid opinions about Kanye West’s albums.

The 2026 Archibald Prize’s selected portraits and the rejected works at Sydney’s Salon des Refusés reveal how subjective and unpredictable the judging process can be. The selections reflect not only painting quality but also the subjects’ public relevance and how the exhibition represents contemporary Australia, with 59 finalists chosen from 1,034 entries in a single weekend. While critics frame the prize through arguments about taste, technique and culture wars, the commentary argues that personal aesthetic responses are unavoidable and that the exhibition’s broad public appeal is part of its value.

Hannah Belanszky’s play Saplings, commissioned by Australian Theatre for Young People, draws on a year of conversations with young people in youth centres and detention facilities across New South Wales. Its short scenes portray children encountering police, court processes, house arrest, poverty and family disruption while emphasizing their humor, loyalty and ordinary aspirations. The production foregrounds First Nations perspectives, with Belanszky and director Abbie-lee Lewis bringing cultural context and care to stories shaped by the disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous young people. After its 2024 premiere and Sydney Theatre Award win, Saplings returns to the Sydney Opera House before touring nationally and being performed in NSW youth justice centres.

Australian playwright Suzie Miller discusses her journey from human-rights and criminal law to theatre, describing Sydney as the place that enabled her artistic ambitions. Her plays, including Prima Facie and Inter Alia, examine sexual-assault law, the justice system and gender inequality, while her forthcoming Strong Is The New Pretty explores the birth of AFLW and women’s collaborative approach to power. Miller also recalls resistance from a male-dominated Australian theatre industry, her international success, and plans for a third play about sexual assault law from the jury’s perspective.

Photographer Fiona Pardington creates large-scale portraits of extinct, endangered and historically collected birds from Aotearoa New Zealand. Using black velvet backgrounds, long exposures and enlarged eyes containing archival landscape images, she seeks to restore the birds’ spiritual presence and evoke their habitats and histories. Her work addresses colonial collecting, hunting, extinction and grief while recognizing the cultural significance of species such as the kākāpō to Ngāi Tahu. The portraits are intended for presentation at human scale in the Aotearoa New Zealand Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

Gamilaroi actor and writer Megan Wilding discusses Game. Set. Match., her new play at Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre. Framed initially as a romantic comedy between a middle-aged white man and a young Aboriginal woman, the play develops into a dark reckoning with abuses of power, particularly the sexual abuse of a child. Drawing on Wilding's own experiences and her commitment to confronting difficult truths, the production reflects her broader use of theatre to process trauma and help audiences feel seen rather than offering simple healing or answers.

The Sydney production of The Lion King remains a visually breathtaking and emotionally powerful theatrical experience nearly three decades after its debut. Julie Taymor’s puppetry, Lebo M’s choral score, Garth Fagan’s choreography and the large, predominantly African and diasporic cast give the musical a distinctive ritualistic energy, while expanded roles for Rafiki, Nala, Sarabi and the female lions improve on the original film’s gender balance and cultural perspective. The production is weakened by its excessive length, uneven comic material, tonal inconsistencies and songs that interrupt the momentum, but its ensemble performances and unified aesthetic make it greater than the sum of its parts.

Australian comedian Aaron Chen discusses how Fisk transformed his career and helped him build an audience in the United States after moving to New York in 2023. Since then, he has expanded into Netflix comedy, television gameshows, a first feature film, an HBO series and US touring, including performances at the Comedy Cellar and support dates for Ali Wong. Chen describes leaving Australia as an existential and creative decision, motivated by a desire to test himself in a new comedy scene, while also reflecting on the difficult growth that preceded his international success. He is now focused on writing new material and developing his next live show while maintaining a notably grounded outlook.

In a wide-ranging interview, Yann Martel discusses the enduring interpretations and emotional impact of Life of Pi, including readers who use its tiger, Richard Parker, as a metaphor for trauma and survival. He describes his new novel, Son of Nobody, as drawing on the mythology and history of Troy, recalls writing advice from Martin Amis, and recommends Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich to political leaders. Martel also expresses strong egalitarian views, arguing that extreme wealth should be curtailed, and reflects on aging, letting go, digging, music and his anticipation of visiting Australia.

Sydney Theatre Company's An Iliad reworks Homer's epic as a contemporary oral storytelling performance led by David Wenham's world-weary Poet and Helen Svoboda's live singing, double bass and sound design. The production succeeds when it conveys the personal devastation of war and the dark magic of storytelling, especially in scenes depicting Andromache's grief. However, its heavy use of humour and Wenham's natural comedic appeal sometimes puncture the drama, leaving the production uneven despite its powerful emotional high points.

Belvoir St Theatre’s three-and-a-half-hour adaptation of Olga Tokarczuk’s novel is praised for Pamela Rabe’s performance, its playful visual style, faithful chronology and imaginative portrayal of animals. However, reviewer criticizes Eamon Flack’s production for turning gruesome murders into light comedy and stripping away the novel’s radical anger, grief and horror. The muted final reveal, omission of a crucial hunting sermon and rushed final act weaken the play’s dramatic tension and political urgency, leaving the production entertaining but emotionally and thematically unresolved.