Rising Festival
★★★★★
Melbourne live reviews
The ghostly theatre classic you should see at least once in your life
Daniel MacPherson and John Waters star in The Woman in Black – the second-longest running play in London, after Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap.
- by Cameron Woodhead, Nadia Bailey and Andrew McClelland
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Has Melbourne’s biggest arts festival finally taken off?
With a beefed-up performing arts program, this was the first year of Rising that felt like more than a poor shadow of an international arts festival.
- by Cameron Woodhead
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Melbourne’s biggest arts festival closes this weekend. Its future is in doubt
Rising is the biggest cultural event in Victoria and receives millions in government funding, with ambitions to rival the Australian Open and Grand Prix.
- by Meg Watson
★★★★
Melbourne live reviews
This moving and vibrant Rising show is a must-watch
Gurr Era Op, a beautifully composed dance theatre piece, is like a sea breeze: it blows strong and tastes fresh.
- by Andrew Fuhrmann, Cameron Woodhead, Tony Way and Vyshnavee Wijekumar
★★★★★
Melbourne live reviews
One of Melbourne’s most underrated bands return home and blow off the roof
At first, indie duo Good Morning and the Melbourne Recital Centre seemed like an unusual match. But then the music started.
- by Will Cox, Andrew Fuhrmann and Brodie Lancaster
In a time before selfies, Rennie Ellis captured Melbourne
There were no selfies or duck faces when Rennie Ellis was roaming Melbourne with his camera instead he captured the unaffected and ordinary faces of the city.Â
- by Cara Waters
This play about Julia Gillard will hold your attention, regardless of your politics
It’s worth seeing this show just to watch Justine Clarke transform into Gillard and, in a thrilling display, deliver the misogyny speech in full.
- by Cameron Woodhead, Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen, Andrew Fuhrmann and Jessica Nicholas
If the Yarra could make music, this is what it would sound like
An ethereal soundscape in Melbourne’s CBD begins the moment the sun grazes the horizon – and no two listeners will hear the same work.
- by John Bailey
Sky Ferreira emerges after 10 years of ‘being erased’ by record label drama
The cult pop enigma returns to Australian stages for Vivid Live in Sydney and Rising in Melbourne.
- by Robert Moran
A brass band with acid house bangers? Hold on to your flugelhorn
At this year’s Rising festival, traditional brass bands meet classic techno tracks, and you’ll be surprised at the result.
- by Kylie Northover
‘The musical that Australia needed’ is about to land in Melbourne
Soundtracked by the Warumpi Band, when Big Name, No Blankets premiered it ‘had standing ovations every night, even sometimes during the show’.
- by Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen