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OBSERVER: Nell takes over Heide Museum

Friday, September 19, 2025

Heide Museum of Modern Art has announced a major exhibition by celebrated Australian artist Nell, taking over the award-winning Heide Modern building, from October 11 to March 8.Titled Face Everything, the site-responsive exhibition will see Nell transform the former home into a vibrant, layered environment populated with more than 85 works from across her 30-year…

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OBSERVER: Crossroads with Rob Foenander

I Want YouThree-time Golden Guitar winning duo Felicity Urquhart and Josh Cunningham return with their latest single, I Want You – a three-minute distillation of the euphoria and danger of skating on the edge of control with a pounding head and a pulsing chest.Gritty and unapologetic, the track captures the visceral intensity of desire in…

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OBSERVER: Don’t Let Me Eat My Babies

Bizarre and hilarious dark comedy is alive and well in the Melbourne comedy scene if Don’t Let Me Eat My Babies, performed at The Motley Bauhaus by Holly Bohmer, was anything to go by.In a short season reprising her Melbourne International Comedy Festival show from earlier this year, Bohmer performed an hour of sketch comedy…

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OBSERVER: Advent Brass Band

What an amazing afternoon of big band music at Hamer Hall. The one hundred year celebration of Advent Brass Band had everything including aerials, tap dancing, amazing soloists, inspiring duets , comedy, visuals along with three plus hours of music, ranging from the Flinstones theme song to musical theatre to gospel.There were many warm, humorous…

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OBSERVER: Confessions of a Boba Liberalist

Coming to Melbourne Fringe from October 1-5 after two successful Adelaide Fringe seasons and a run during Pride Fest at Qtopia Sydney, Confessions of a Boba Liberalist is an attempt to prove that Nita (Juanita Navas-Nguyen) is in fact not a Boba Liberal and an answer (or not) to the dreaded question “where are you…

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OBSERVER: Fringe Focus Taiwan

Fringe Focus Taiwan 2025 is set for Melbourne with ‘boundary-pushing works for audiences and participants of all ages, celebrating the full cycle of life through bold contemporary art’ from September 30 – October 19 at various venues.Now in its sixth year, Fringe Focus Taiwan features three works by Taiwanese artists that embody the 2025 Festival…

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OBSERVER: Tomas Clifford Got Stood Up

After smash hit seasons earlier this year at Fringeworld and Perth Comedy Festival, the multi-award winning production Tomas Clifford Got Stood Up is being presented in Melbourne from October 1-5 at Solidarity Hall at Trades hall Festival Hub.Tomas Clifford Got Stood Up is an original musical comedy cabaret, inviting audiences to join Tomas as he…

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OBSERVER: Hair

Hair, a brand-new production of the Grammy and Tony Award-winning tribal rock show comes to the Athenaeum Theatre from October 25 for a strictly limited season.When Hair first exploded onto the Australian stage in the early 1970s, it not only shocked and thrilled audiences, but also launched the careers of some of the country’s leading…

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OBSERVER: Trio of Showtimes

Many would not know that the eastern side of Melbourne is home to three of Victorian Scouting and Guiding’s vibrant showcases titled Showtime.It has been the season where some 350 budding young thespians have hit the stage to perform their original works to the general community and to their peer groups.Why review the three very…

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OBSERVER: Othello

Director Tanya Gerstle provides us with a judiciously pared down version of Othello with just five actors in Melbourne Shakespeare Company’s offering.There is an unflinching intensity afforded by this approach. While the foundational explanation of the relationship between Othello (Christopher Kirby) and Desdemona (Tanya Schneider) has been excised, the unravelling of the relationship and Iago’s…