Highlights from the week: writer Helen Ellis tells stories of American domestic derangement, artist Tom Polo's 'live painting', Casey Jenkin's Programmed to Reproduce,and Ray Chen, the violin superstar.

Exploring disability through puppets and dance. At the console with organist Anne Page. Peter van Dongen's graphic novel Rampokan. Shirley Hazzard's life as an essayist.

British writer Abi Morgan's play Splendour explores power, secrecy and betrayal, the story behind the Fremantle sculpture of colonial engineer Charles O'Connor, and historical fiction writer Tracy Chevalier takes on the American frontier.

Migrant women bring their lives to the stage in Mother's Spice, meet violinist superstar Ray Chen, live painting inside the Art Gallery of NSW, and the top productions at this year's Adelaide Fringe.

On International Women's Day, we ask do men still run the arts? We talk to writer and theatre-maker Van Badham on that issue. And performance artists Casey Jenkins is knitting a response to the online abuse she received for her controversial artwork, much of it from other women. And you hear from author Helen Ellis, who is a champion poker player, a contented housewife, and a writer of hilarious short stories.

The Malthouse Theatre is staging an adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock, the iconic 1967 Australian novel written by Joan Lindsay. In A Gambler's Guide to Dying, Gary McNair wryly conjures up his larger than life grandfather, who won a fortune betting on the 1966 World Cup. And Nicola Gunn's one-woman show about morality, personal responsibility, and ducks.

A discussion about the role art and empathy can play in creating social change, 90s dance club music gets spiritual with House Gospel Choir, German photographer Volker Gerling's flip book portraits,and 100 year old artist Trudy Smith on lfe and the creative self.

We travel to Adelaide for a special broadcast on the 2016 Adelaide Festival; we hear about the athletic dance performance Monumental by The Holy Body Tattoo, drop by Adelaide Writers' Week and the Adelaide Biennial exhibition, and hear about a whimsical new adaptation of Oscar Wilde's story The Young King by Adelaide theatre company Slingsby.

Best-selling French author sets her sights on enchantment. The choir giving house music the gospel treatment. Lebanese performance artist Rana Hamadeh. The woman behind Maisy Mouse .

One Million Beats is a new indigenous theatre work charting Aboriginal people on film, German artist Volker Gerling captures people's stories in flipbooks, David Malouf has won a lifetime achievement award for literature, and artists in Perth give a vacant lot in the city a 'Mad Max' style makeover.