Conversations Live giveaway
Join hosts Sarah Kanowski and Richard Fidler in Perth for an unforgettable live show that takes you behind the scenes of the country's most popular podcast. Find out more and book you seat.
Tune in to Breakfast with Mark Gibson and Mornings with Nadia Mitsopoulos on 720 ABC Radio Perth from Monday 28 July to find out how you can win a merch pack and tickets to Conversations Live this August. Prize details 10 x double passes to Conversations Live at The Regal Theatre, Perth on 10 and 11 August 2025.
A Conversations Live tote bag and T-shirt.
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ABC News
17 minutes ago
- ABC News
Coriolanus star Hazem Shammas on the futility of making art at a time of crisis
Hazem Shammas doesn't see the point in making art at a time like this. "I feel the futility of it more and more," he tells ABC Arts. It's a disappointing and troubling feeling for the Palestinian Australian actor, best known for roles in TV shows Safe Harbour, Underbelly and The Twelve. Shammas is grappling with this as he prepares to play the title role of Coriolanus in a new production by Bell Shakespeare in Melbourne. The rarely performed play — it's Bell's first staging in almost 30 years — is about the corrosive influence of power and politics. Shammas plays Coriolanus, a soldier who returns to Rome victorious after war with the Volscians. Called upon to be the city's next consul, he faces opposition from both the city's elected tribunes (played by Matilda Ridgway and Marco Chiappi) and ordinary citizens. He rallies against the idea of popular rule, saying citizens having any power over politicians allows "crows to peck the eagles". Consequently he is banished from Rome, and soon seeks revenge on the city by joining forces with the Volscians. Coriolanus — marking Shammas's return to Bell Shakespeare after starring in Macbeth in 2023 — is landing rave reviews, but the actor had to be convinced to take on the role. "It's not the crowd-pleaser that, say, Macbeth is, and it's not known so much," he says. "And the language: I get a real sense of Shakespeare's maturity in his writing; the poetry is denser." While parallels have been drawn between the character of Coriolanus and US President Donald Trump, the far more disturbing link for Shammas is to the war in Gaza, where 146 people including 88 children have died of malnutrition and the death toll has passed 60,000 people since Hamas' attack on Israel in October 2023. "We're studying power in a time when there are horrific abuses of power and that affects me," Shammas says. "I'm a Palestinian, playing a role where the actor walks around talking about wiping people out as a solution. "I'm playing a role where a man walks around talking about essentially ethnic cleansing. "Of course I'm going to think about that constantly." Making theatre at this time, Shammas says, is "dabbling in whimsy" and an "intellectual privilege". "[Coriolanus] is a play about the abuses of power, but when we're living in a climate of utter, horrific abuse of power and our arts community is silenced, and we remain silent, it troubles me." Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, Australian artists whose work has referenced the Arab-Israeli conflict, or who have spoken out about human rights abuses, including the killing of journalists, have had performances cancelled and awards rescinded. Those artists include Khaled Sabsabi, who, after being dropped was recently reinstated to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale; and Jayson Gillham, who is suing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for his cancelled performances. Expressions of support for the Palestinian cause have also ended in censorship. Writer K A Ren Wyld lost a $15,000 fellowship over a social media post following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in October last year, which was deleted shortly after it was posted. Kellee Green's win at the Queensland Music Awards for an instrumental song titled 'River to Sea' led to the Brisbane City Council withdrawing funding for the awards; workshops by Omar Sakr and other writers at the State Library Victoria were cancelled over "child and cultural safety"; and when some of the cast of The Seagull at Sydney Theatre Company wore keffiyehs to a curtain call, a number of donors and board members withdrew. "How are we OK with our artists and our writers being constantly silenced?" Shammas says. "How are we OK with things being defunded or threatened [to be defunded] constantly? "We're in a perpetual state of fear, and we're walking around not talking about it, only worried about our next job and whether we've got a job or not, while people are being f**king slaughtered." Shammas argues government intervention "can stop our voices". "But it's happening everywhere and to everyone right now purely because of a f**king genocide that is being allowed to happen in Palestine. "[That intervention] is more troubling now than it was [in the past]." Israel has repeatedly denied it is pursuing a campaign of genocide in Gaza, accusing Hamas in turn of trying to wipe out the Jewish population in Israel. Shammas does not intend to stop working in the arts. "That's who I am; it's what I do," he says. "That's why I'm so troubled by this." And while he is frustrated by the failure of the Australian arts community to speak up against against the war in Gaza and what he argues is censorship, he is also at times heartened by solidarity in the wider community. For example, current and former collaborators — including Coriolanus co-stars Jules Billington and Matilda Ridgway — have signed an open letter of more than 4,000 artists to the federal government calling for unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza, potential sanctions of Israel, and recognition of Palestinian statehood. "I don't doubt the people I work with and their capacities for engagement in this," he says. "I don't doubt any individual audiences' capacities for engagement in this. "But I doubt our collective will for engagement in this." Still, Shammas remains proud of the work he and his collaborators at Bell Shakespeare have done on Coriolanus. "We've created an exceptional piece of art," he says. But he fears the ideas about power and politics in the play fail to reach beyond the theatre. That impelled him to speak up. Coriolanus is at Arts Centre Melbourne until August 10.
ABC News
17 minutes ago
- ABC News
Sports boss Peter V'landys leverages powerful connections to resurrect Tropfest
Tropfest, once one of Australia's most beloved artistic institutions, is set to be revived by an unlikely alliance involving Racing NSW boss Peter V'Landys and a member of the Murdoch family. Its origins lie in a Darlinghurst cafe in inner-city Sydney, where young actor John Polson put on a special screening for 200 people in 1993. Over the following two decades, the annual Tropfest event rose in prominence, at its peak drawing crowds of almost 200,000 at its venue before abruptly ending in 2019 under a cloud of financial mismanagement. Now it's being relaunched, with the Tropfest Foundation quietly registered as a company on July 2; its principal place of business listed as Mr V'landys's Racing NSW headquarters. Mr V'landys is a director, and the other three directors named in the company extract reveal his web of high-profile connections across media, finance and film. The ABC can reveal that philanthropist Sarah Murdoch, real estate investor Richard Weinberg and actor Bryan Brown are also directors of the Tropfest Foundation. Brown has had a storied acting career and last year won a Logie for best supporting actor for his performance in the Netflix series Boy Swallows Universe. Ms Murdoch is a philanthropist and global ambassador for the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Mr V'landys is the CEO of Racing NSW and Chair of the Australian Rugby League Commission. He is linked to Ms Murdoch's husband, Lachlan Murdoch. Mr Murdoch is the chair of News Corp, which is the majority shareholder of the Brisbane Broncos, the NRL's richest team. Mr V'landys met with Mr Murdoch in the US a fortnight ago seeking to expand the NRL's global footprint and heaped praise on the media mogul, telling News Corp he is "such a nice person" who has "gone to another level in management worldwide". He described Mr Murdoch's influence at FOX as a "massive help" with the free-to-air US broadcaster airing the NRL's Las Vegas 2025 matches. Mr Murdoch holds the key to the NRL breaking into the US market. The Murdochs were seen alongside Mr V'landys at the NRL's inaugural 2024 Las Vegas venture last year. Ms Murdoch was recently pictured with another director of the Tropfest Foundation, Mr Weinberg. Both were involved in the Sydney screening of a documentary titled October 8 — Globalise the Intifada, which examines what filmmakers say was the "explosion of antisemitism on college campuses, online, and in the streets of America" in the wake of Hamas's terrorist attack on Israel in 2023. If you have any information about a story, contact Amy Greenbank. Mr Weinberg is the CEO of Terrace Tower Group and is married to the billionaire heiress of the late Westfield co-founder John Saunders. He is also an entrepreneur who co-founded TV production company KarlinBerg Entertainment in 2020 with TV host Karl Stefanovic, who works for Nine Entertainment, which holds the broadcast rights to the NRL. Stefanovic and Mr Weinberg had reportedly planned to shoot a behind-the-scenes documentary on the State of Origin, an idea backed by Mr V'landys, but it did not eventuate. Late last year, Mr V'landys flagged his intention to re-introduce a film festival in Sydney. "There was a short film festival called Tropfest, and it used to give young artists an opportunity to show what they could do … so I thought I'd revive that and do a short film festival, but I want to call it The Airfryers," he said. It does not appear the name has stuck. All Tropfest Foundation directors were contacted for comment. A spokesperson for Tropfest said: "There are a lot of exciting things happening behind the scenes, and all will be revealed soon. "The next generation of this country's best and brightest screen talent should get ready. A new chapter is about to begin." An official announcement is expected within weeks.
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
What's on in Darwin August 2 and 3, 2025: Festival tips, 360 at Mayberry, and crocodile racing
WHAT'S ON THIS WEEKEND Music lovers are again in for a treat this weekend. If you've been keeping up with my Gig Guide on We Are Locals, you'll know that all weekend this weekend is the 53rd Top Half Folk Festival. But this year is a little different, it's at Mt Bundy Station, on the banks of the Adelaide River. The festival is bringing together more than 40 artists from across the NT and beyond, for four days and three nights of music and entertainment. It started yesterday but you can just go for the day any day this weekend, or grab yourself a weekend pass. It's a bit of a long weekend treat, going out to a gig on a Sunday night – and fans of Aussie hip hop can catch 360 with his special guest PEZ at Mayberry from 8pm. If you're keen to get on the microphone yourself, it's First Sunday Blues at Tracy Village from 3pm. Head along to listen to the local blues bands, or sign yourself up to belt out a few tracks on the board when you enter. And Monday, of course, is the Darwin Cup – but if you're feeling like going full Territory, check out the 'Croc Cup Carnival' at the Berry Springs Tavern on Sunday from 2pm. Yes – it's croc racing … But don't worry, they're only freshies. SOMEWHERE YOU NEED TO EAT It's an oldie but a goodie – so if you've been there, I am sure this is a welcome reminder to bring it back into the rotation, and if not: you need to try the Moorish lunch special. For $35, you get the choice of three tapas plates and a glass of Sangria – and if you go with friends and all get different plates, it's a seriously good way of tasting the whole menu. If you're going to order your own meals, try the Portobello mushroom with cauliflower puree, almonds, currants and truffle oil. YUM. LOCAL'S TIP It's officially less than a week to go until Darwin Festival – a reminder to break free of the NT stereotype of buying tickets at the last minute, and actually pre-booking your shows to avoid disappointment, and support the arts. Speaking of supporting: brand new gym and recreation facility, Gecko Climb, opens this weekend. It's four years in the making. There's some serious climbing equipment there and they're also running a cafe, workout spaces, team building areas – the whole shebang! It takes a lot of work to bring something of that scale to life, and I always have great respect for people who go all in to bring new things to Darwin – so get down and check it out.
