Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is a play at once deceivingly complex and disarmingly simplistic, a steady drip-drip-drip of social commentary and kitchen sink drama, writes Luke Buckmaster.
Culture / The Arts
theatre reviews 
Radio Muezzin — Everest Theatre (Sydney Festival)
Throughout his career Stefan Kaegi has crossed visual and performing arts borders and has specialised in the arse end of avant garde. Radio Muezzin explores Islamist themes but leaves an odorous after taste, writes Lloyd Bradford Syke.
theatre reviews Never Did Me Any Harm — Warf 1 (Sydney Festival)
The Sydney Theatre Company’s latest dance production, based on Christos Tsiolkas’ The Slap, is sophisticated, highly original and amusing, writes Lloyd Bradford Syke.
The Great Gamble: Baz Luhrmann’s high stakes Gatsby punt
It was one thing for Australian director Baz Luhrmann to take on the almighty task of bringing F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby to the big screen. It was another to do it in 3D, writes Michael Cieply.
album reviews Big Deal’s Lights Out — beautiful listening
Big Deal’s debut album Lights Out continually ramps up Lolita-like levels of sexual tension between its two band members. It’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship between them and the listener, writes Neil Walker.
Returning to Roald Dahl’s Matilda
Returns To invites writers to return to their favourite childhood classics. Matilda, Roald Dahl’s enchanting story about a little girl with awful parents, fascinatingly addresses young readers at a very high level, writes Bethanie Blanchard.
The economy of comedy: does less money = more laughs?
A stand-up comedy club entrepreneur in Chicago is using the American economic recession not to scale back his business but to expand it, writes Gary Strauss.
theatre reviews Sydney Festival: Babel (Words) — Sydney Theatre
Ensemble dance production Babel (Words) presents a refreshing problem for a critic to have: a work so extraordinary one worries if one can even begin to do it justice in acclaiming it, writes Lloyd Bradford Skye.
A good, bad review: the ‘Hatchet Job of the Year’ Award
The Hatchet Job of the Year Award is a new prize awarded to the best — meaning the angriest, funniest and most trenchant — bad book review of the year. The nominees certainly hit their stride, writes Bethanie Blanchard.
Who was the first author to write a novel on a word processor?
The days of writing novels with pen and paper are long, long gone. There is always a transition period between old and new technologies, so who was the first author to write a novel on a word processor? asks Adam Clark Estes.
theatre reviews The Taming of the Shrew — Bicentennial Park, Sydney
The Sydney Shakespeare Company returns for another summer season to bring us this late 17th-century entertainment which pits Mars against Venus in a definitive replay of the battle of the sexes, writes Lloyd Bradford Skye.
album reviews Snow Patrol’s Fallen Empires — same old same old
The latest album from Snow Patrol is a bit all over the place and far too often repetition is used like a blunt instrument to try to push songs that simply aren’t good enough to match former glories, writes Neil Walker.
Come in Spinner: Come in Spinner: how the so-called experts always get it wrong
It’s that time of the year again — the time that pundits make predictably erroneous predictions about the coming year.
Announcing earworm 2.0
With high quality legal music streaming services set to arrive in Australia, this year will be a great one for music lovers. Crikey’s music blog earworm will change with the times with a raft of exciting new features, writes Neil Walker.
#lessambitiousbooks
Perhaps because writers and lit lovers are as ubiquitous on twitter as pictures of cats on the net, there are some pretty awesome literary hashtags doing the rounds and #lessambitiousbooks is one of them, writes Bethanie Blanchard.
theatre reviews The Magic Flute — Opera Theatre, Sydney
It might sound like the name of a porn flick backed by the likes of Larry Flynt, but Mozart’s The Magic Flute is a children’s opera. Its enchanting and magical realm is as potent now as ever, writes Lloyd Bradford Skye.
Nobel committee on JRR Tolkien: great stories, poor prose
Secret discussions held by Nobel prize juries are released to the public half a century after awards are distributed. Fresh docs from the 1961 award reveal the judges were unimpressed with JRR Tolkien’s prose, reports Alison Flood.
theatre reviews Annie — Lyric Theatre at The Star, Sydney
It spawned a record breaking run and productions in 22 countries. But Annie needs to no introduction and it’s a great relief that Karen Johnson Mortimer’s new adaptation is virtually flawless, writes Lloyd Bradford Skye.
D Publishing agreement: third time lucky?
A third version of a controversial author contract from self-publishing venture D Publishing has been released but it still has serious problems, writes Bethanie Blanchard.
On reading and re-reading and not reading
The dawning of a new year is an appropriate time to reflect upon our own reading goals – especially in this, the National Year of Reading. What will yours be — trash, the classics or something else? asks Crikey’s book aficionado Bethanie Blanchard.
Summer reading: earworm’s top 8 albums of the year
Tired of end-of-year top 10s? Here’s the eight best albums earworm reviewed in 2011. Think of it as the eight-track of end-of-year best album lists, writes Neil Walker.
The 2011 Crikeys: the best in film, music, books, TV and stage
We went searching for the most page-turning books, the funniest TV, the smartest theatre, the best books and music and film. After naming the best in politics, policy, media and business, we present the 2011 Cultural Crikeys.
Famous authors and their bookshelves
What do the personal libraries of famous authors look like? What lines their shelves, and how do they feel about the digitalisation of books? Maria Popova takes a look at ‘Unpacking My Library: Writers and their Books’.
‘Authors Beware’: an Interview with Steve Rossiter, editor of The Australian Literature Review
Dymocks Books have launched a new author driven self-publishing arm, the D Publishing Network. Criticism has been widespread and Australian Literature Review editor Steve Rossiter, who spoke with Bethanie Blanchard, has been at the forefront of it.
How writers can help other writers
Tis the season to be jolly — and generous — so if you’re a writer, why not help other writers? Chuck Wendig from Terrible Minds lists 25 ways wordsmiths can share the love.
