Still getting a laugh after 350 years

Ron Cerabona Moliere's comedy The School for Wives was first performed in 1662. But Harriet Dyer, who stars in the Bell Shakespeare production that opened at The Playhouse last night, said there was still plenty...

Musical still hip to these times

Ron Cerabona When Hair was first produced in 1967, the contemporary issues it explored included war, racism, human rights and personal freedom. Some things never change.

Doug Anthony All Star conjures the past

Ron Cerabona It's an unobtrusive plaque you've probably walked over a thousand times at the intersection of Petrie Plaza and City Walk: ''The Doug Anthony All Stars were born and died here.''

Neil Simon's take on family ties that bind

Ron Cerabona Everyone has family, and every family has its problems and challenges as well as the ties that bind its members.

Bangarra brings Lake Eyre to the capital

Ron Cerabona Bangarra Dance Theatre's Terrain explains the relationship of indigenous people to country.

Kids find homage to the '80s cuts loose

Ron Cerabona Members of Generation Y performed songs from the era of Generation X for Generation Z yesterday when the cast of Free Rain Theatre's production of Back to the 80s took to the stage of Rosary Primary...

Gen Y embrace Gen X in Back to the 80s

Ron Cerabona Members of Generation Y performed songs from the era of Generation X for Generation Z yesterday when the cast of Free Rain Theatre's production of Back to the 80s took to the stage of Rosary Primary...

Stage is set for a microcosm of Aussie views

Ron Cerabona Take one small-town Liberal mayor with higher political aspirations. Add a Green, a Country Women's Association rep, a mayoral hopeful, a bigoted builder and a schoolteacher of Vietnamese heritage.

Ron Cerabona

Actor turns hand to empty stage for off-wall act

Ron Cerabona A man named Thom walks on to a stage dressed in suit, tie and sneakers and begins to explain that what you are about to see is not a love story. He then proceeds to tell a love story: his.

'Blockbusters' giving bang for buck

Ron Cerabona The ACT government's "blockbuster" funding of $1 million a year for 2011-12 and 2012-13 is giving the territory plenty of bang for its buck.

Ron Cerabona

Class act: capital's lord of dance returns

Ron Cerabona Paul Knobloch is 34 and has been dancing for more than half his life. And now, in the midst of a successful career during which he has performed and choreographed in Europe and the United States as...

Hairspray set to capture Canberra in strong hold

Ron Cerabona Everything is outsize about the musical Hairspray - including the wigs.

Enduring appeal of classic Christie play no mystery

Ron Cerabona Agatha Christie's mystery play The Mousetrap premiered in the West End in 1952 and, more than 24,000 performances later, is still going - the longest-running stage production in the world.

A local hero taps his way to the dogs

Ron Cerabona Born-and-bred Canberran Matt Papa made his home-town professional stage debut last night at the Canberra Theatre as a member of the internationally successful Australian dance troupe Tap Dogs.

Cats dump rubbish tip in a theatrical move

Ron Cerabona The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats will be given a decidedly theatrical emphasis in Free-Rain Theatre's production directed by Cate Clelland, which opens on Friday, July 6.

Slide rule: dancers lighten up a dark tale

Ron Cerabona The Imperial Ice Stars skated into the Canberra Theatre with their latest production, The Nutcracker on Ice, last night.

Tap Dogs teach Legs some new tricks

Ron Cerabona The Playhouse reverberated to the sound of Blundstone boots tapping en masse yesterday when members of Tap Dogs came to town for a class with some of the young students from Canberra's Legs Dance...

Weaving's wait over as Canberra film hits Cannes

Ron Cerabona Canberra writer-director Simon Weaving described his short comedy Waiting for Robbo as ''a cross between Reservoir Dogs and Waiting for Godot''.

Show doing business again with added digital features

Ron Cerabona Mad Men will meet the musical when Phoenix Players' production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying clocks on at the ANU Arts Centre on Friday.