Observer

OBSERVER: St Kilda Film Festival

Friday, May 9, 2025

Australia’s longest-running film festival, the St Kilda Film Festival, returns to the big screen from June 5-15.Presented by the City of Port Phillip, this year’s festival will screen over 150 films across 34 curated sessions, taking place at iconic venues including South Melbourne Market, the Astor Theatre, and for the first time since 2019, the…

OBSERVER: Femme Play

Attitude Production and Cracked Actors Theatre present Femme Play [ungrateful slut], at The Butterfly Club from May 21-31 as part of the Drama Queen Festival 2025.Written by feminist playwright Judy Doubas and directed by Susan Rundle, the play is described as a ‘sharp, provocative production which blends humour and biting social commentary with an urgent…

OBSERVER: Circa

Circa returns to Arts Centre Melbourne with their global acrobatic smash hit Humans 2.0 from May 14 – 24 in the Playhouse, fresh from celebrating their 20-year anniversary last year.Circa’s reputation precedes itself for being at the forefront of the new wave of contemporary Australian circus, redefining the art form by showcasing how extreme physicality…

OBSERVER: Away

Monash Uni Student Theatre (MUST, MSA) presents Away by Australian playwright Michael Gow, from May 15 – 24 in The MUST Space, Monash University, Clayton.Directed by Max Pickering, Away is set against the backdrop of mid 1960s social upheaval, as three families travel to Queensland to celebrate their Christmas holidays, striving to escape the troubled…

OBSERVER: At Kew Court House

Lovers of jazz are in for a treat over the next few weeks at Kew Courthouse.Jazz diva Fem Belling has planned an interesting series of different jazz events in a special series of concerts at Kew Courthouse.Coning up on Friday 23 May is The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which celebrates in music the well-known novel.Pianist-composer…

OBSERVER: Skills and Roles

At its inaugural Music Data and Insights Summit, the Victorian Music Development Office launched its new research commission, Skills and Roles – Support workers in Victorian music industries.Following a long-term research partnership with RMIT University, these new insights provide the VMDO with a current evidence-based perspective and expands on the 2020 study, Career Path: The…

OBSERVER: The Lightning Thief

Monash Uni Student Theatre (MUST, MSA) announces that while their season of The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical being presented from May 30 to June 7 is booked out, an extra performance has been scheduled for Saturday, May 31 at 1.30pm in The MUST Space at Monash University, Clayton.Adapted from the book The Lightning…

OBSEERVER: Local Theatre Report

Thursday, May 8, 2025

ShowsBairnsdale Production Line Theatre Company: Come From Away (by Irene Sankolff and David Hein) Until May 25 at the Forge Theatre and Arts Hub, Bairnsdale. Director: Peter Martignoles. Bookings: eastgippsland.vic.gov.au/leisure/whats-on-and-buy-ticketsEltham Little Theatre: Crossroads – A One Act Play Season. Until May 16 (Playwrights: Emma Wood, Paula Armstrong, John Jennings and Daniel Reitz) at the Eltham…

OBSERVER: From Roses To Poison

Monday, May 5, 2025

From Roses to Poison, being the English translation, was premiered by the Melbourne French Theatre Inc as a rehearsed and costumed reading at their very own La Maison De Maitre Building in Carlton, being their 110th production over their 48 years.From English it has been translated into French by Michelle Beugnot with the help of…

OBSERVER: The Comeuppance

Gary Abrahams, in his direction of The Comeuppance by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, provides a juxtaposition of lives led vacuously against a backdrop of personal and social trauma.Ostensibly reconnecting for a class reunion after 20 years, five friends weigh up the cost of their successes and failures. Ursula (AYA), the recluse, doesn’t want to go to the…