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A quick snapshot

Western Australia • 29 September 2023

Driving traditions

Road trips are as much about the journey as the destination, even when the destinations are spectacular. They are a chance to connect with each other as well as the wonders of the country. What better way to transport your travels than with the addition of a few road trip traditions. Australian driving holidays are rich in time-honoured rituals that magnify the memories of a road well-travelled, of a trip worth taking. Make yours go the distance with a truly local flavour.

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Seesawmag • 15 September 2023

Umbrella academy the theatre of dreams

How did they do that? There’s no point in asking Mary Poppins as we all know the titular nanny never explains anything. But it’s a question I find myself asking time and again as this three-hour re-imagining of PL Travers’ book and Disney’s 1964 classic whizzes by. A house opens and folds like origami, unveiling a living room one minute, a kitchen the next. A desolate park transforms into a cornucopia of colour, the joy of life springing from every corner (and statue). A children’s bedroom morp

Seesawmag • 10 September 2023

From WAAPA to Winifred

Lucy Maunder is still catching her breath after landing in Perth – and not just because of her part in Mary Poppins. While the effervescent musical is undoubtedly an endurance test for cast and crew, Maunder’s energy the week leading up to this interview has been consumed by someone much smaller, if every bit as endearing.

Western Australia • 27 August 2023

Go above and beyond

Impossible colours shift across ancient landscapes and along endless oceans, inviting you to come closer, to see the dream slowly taking shape and discover the marvels below. Strawberry milkshakes dot green fields. Giant, almost phantasmic, figures weave through turquoise waters. Orange and black beehives rise from rusty plains. Shimmering salt blankets the landscape like a beacon in a sea of red. Welcome to Western Australia from above, where nothing feels quite real, and everything is awe-insp

Seesawmag • 25 August 2023

Birds soar on orchestral wings

I’ve taken a bit of a gamble tonight, bringing a music lover unfamiliar with much of the Birds of Tokyo canon to their collaboration with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.

As the horns bring Mercy Arms to a thunderous conclusion, he leans over to whisper “it’s very Barry-esque” (as in late James Bond film composer John Barry) and I know it has paid off. There are few higher compliments the Barry aficionado could deliver. And that’s before conductor Nicholas Buc leads the ensemble through

Western Australia • 24 July 2023

Great Southern Land - Tourism

Feel the magic of an ancient land. Welcome to Menang Boodja, where ocean giants come to feed, granite ranges keep floral secrets and towering trees tingle. Awash with untamed beauty, the spectacular Great Southern casts a spell on all who meander through its majestic forests, wander along its dramatic coastline or nestle into its sheltered coves. Follow the highways, tracks and trails into this corner of the South West for a road trip that will lift your spirits.

Seesawmag • 17 July 2023

Playing with real treasures

Christopher Cartlidge is enamoured of a beauty called Fabio. Like the male model who launched a thousand romance novels, his Fabio is Italian and powerfully built. But this one is also subtle, with hidden depths – and more than 200 years old.

“Fabio is a brilliant quartet viola that I’m fortunate to be in possession of thanks to the generosity of (South Australian cultural centre) UKARIA,” Cartlidge says.

“I’ve nicknamed him Fabio because he is fabulous! He sings with such power and clarity bu

Seesawmag • 11 July 2023

A hunk of burning fun

It’s a battle between the hound dogs and the teddy bears. Sort of. For in this endearing musical, no one is quite sure whether they are one or the other. Cupid’s arrow is swinging around faster than Elvis’s hips, hitting almost everyone in sight, and rendering them incapable of behaving rationally.

Inspired by Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (though there’s more than a nod to A Midsummer Night’s Dream and flashes of Footloose), All Shook Up is built around the songs of Elvis Presley. It’s set in a

Seesawmag • 22 June 2023

Give me that rock 'n' role music

Turn the dial up to 11! How else to describe the rare joy that is RocKwiz Live to the unfamiliar? Part quiz night, part rock concert and part comedy show, this national treasure gives members of the public the chance to show off their musical knowledge while simultaneously providing musicians – newcomers and veterans – with a platform to perform in front of an appreciative audience.

The TV program that started it all ran for 12 seasons on SBS and was recently given a reboot on Foxtel after a s

Seesawmag • 15 June 2023

Creating poetry in motion

Rupert Guenther grew up surrounded by art and ideas. It was not uncommon to come home from school in Melbourne and find the likes of renowned Austrian conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt or Australian mezzo-soprano Suzanne Johnston in the living room. This revolving door of musicians, artists and philosophers clearly left its mark.

“It was a very creative time,” Guenther says from the Toodyay farm that has been his home for the past two years. “My siblings all played music, so it was a natural progr

Seesawmag • 10 June 2023

WAAPA's rising stars put best feet forward

“You are trouble, t-r-u-b-l-e,” Willard spells out to his new mate Ren. What the cowboy-hatted goofball lacks in literacy he makes up with heart and humour. Just like Ariel’s feisty friend Rusty, the supporting character gets some of the best material in the musical adaptation of Footloose and reminds us that playing second fiddle isn’t always a bad thing.

Footloose is a song that has been tearing up dance floors for almost 40 years and, for those of a certain vintage, a film that introduced u

Seesawmag • 15 May 2023

Raising the voices of forgotten artists

Ever heard of Raffaella Aleotti? You might guess at her Italian roots but if you said she was a 16th century composer, then I want you on my table at the next quiz night. For like so many of her era and, let’s face it, many more since the Renaissance, Aleotti’s work has largely been overlooked, not because of its quality but because of her gender.

Seesawmag • 27 March 2023

Jackson sings a different tune

“I wanted to be like this guy more than anything when I was at school,” Joel Jackson says, indicating the distinctive tones of another double J wafting in the background. “I was known for playing him all the time – my buddies would call me Jack Joelson!”

Seesawmag • 21 September 2022

Let's talk about the future: better health and wellbeing

The arts were all around us in the pandemic. In the concertos and rock anthems we played to soothe our troubled souls. In the novels that took us to a different time and place. In the films and television shows we binged to forget, at least temporarily, the grim reality sweeping the planet. Even in the things we made, to varying degrees of success, to keep our spirits up.

In some ways, West Australians were more immersed in the arts than ever, even though galleries and theatres were shut and pe

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