SmartArts

Glittery Clittery: A ConSENSUAL Partyclosesthis weekend - a sparkly, sex-positive, feminist cabaret/gameshow about women, culture and female anatomy.Tessa Waters, Rowena Hutson and Victoria Falconer-Pritchard from Fringe Wives Club join Richard to sing, laughand beat the patriarchy. Showing as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Independent theatre collective the Corinthian Food Store Collective are visiting Melbourne from Sydney with their unique and revolutionary showThis, This is Mine. This intimate story of personal history in space takes place in the living room of a home - someone's home.Director Duncan Ragg and performer Matilda Ridgwaydiscuss the process of developing and touring the show.

Ashley Crawfordhas just written a book about a photographer. Martin Kantor, who passed away in 2015, was widely recognised as a maverick of Australian photo portraiture. His work has been immortalised in Photo, written by Ashley Crawford and Richard Guilliat, launched at Brightspace. Ashley joins Richard to talk about Martin's history and character as an icon of Australian art.

Independent theatre company The Rabble take onJoan of Arc in their production,Joan. Co-creator Kate Davis and actor Luisa Hastings-Edgejoin Richard to discussthe process of devising an original take on a historical figure through a contemporary feminist lens.

The Ilbijerri Theatre Company delve into little-known Victorian history in a new adaptation ofCoranderrk, the story of a self-determined Aboriginal community in Healesville in the 1840s.Artistic Director Rachael Mazatalks with Richard aboutthe importance of telling this story and the extensive upcoming national tour.

Kieran Hodgsonused to think he could write a symphony. Now he's taken to the stage to imitate tortured symphonic genius Gustav Mahler in Maestro,where character comedy and classical music meet. Showing as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Anya Anastasia is an award-winning cabaret artist whose latest showRogue Romantic: Serenades from at Delinquent Divahas just kicked off at the new Melba Spiegeltent. Anya joins Richard to discussher show, its inspirations and just exactly whatis cabaret?

Yirramboi First Nations Arts Festival has just released its program, and Creative DirectorJacob Boehme is in to talk about this exciting, Indigenous-led arts initiative. Yirramboi (a Kulin word meaning 'Tomorrow') is firmly rooted in Kulin Nation tradition and embraces First Nations from around the world, while inviting all of the inhabitants of this country to experience the world's oldest continuing culture.

Finally, Triple R favourite Laura Dunemannhas a comedy festival show all about comfort.Flannelettefeatures Laura's musings on growing older and embracing the small joys of physical comfort.

Photographer Kristian Laemmle-Ruffjoins Richard to talk about his upcoming photographic/mixed media exhibitionMind The Gap.Centred around a photo of the infamous Pine Gap military base, the exhibition explores contemporary Australian issues and a look at the diversity of the Australian social, cultural and environmental landscape.

On the dance front, choreographerSandra Parkerand mixed media artistRhian Hinkleycome in to talk aboutSmall Details, in which the dancers interact with kinetic sculptures and explore the space, examining the body's vulnerability in an increasingly technological world.

Melbourne Queer Film FestivalProgram Manager Spiro Economopoulosrounds off the show, providing some insight into the festival's operations and programming and offering some highlights of this year's program, commencing March 16.

First up, The Women's Show, an annual exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women artists from across Australia, held at the Vivien Anderson Gallery. Gallery managerAmy Boydand Victorian indigenousartistMaree Clarkjoin Richard to discuss the exhibition, Maree's practice and issues of diversity and identity in Australian indigenous art.

The incomparableJudy Davis(most recently of The Dressmaker fame)is directing Brian Friels's Irish masterpiece,Faith Healer, as part of the MTC's season. Judy and Richard talk extensively about the show and its somewhat difficult themes of Irish identity, Judy's career and the film and theatre industries today.

Finally,Nicola Gunn'sPiece for Person and Ghetto Blaster is back as part of theDance Massivefestival. Nicola discusses the origins of the show and her ideas about its success, which all came as the result of a confrontation about a man and a duck.

Bernard Caleo joins Richard this week forDrawn Out, the monthly comics review segment. He introduces us toResist!,a womens' cartooning collection in response to the election of Donald Trump,The Banksia Project,a local comic mentoringinitiative for minority creators, andNaming Monsters, an eerie and haunting comic which is part of the growing graphic medicine movement.

Political Acts: Pioneers of Performance Art in Southeast Asia is an Arts Centre exhibition curated bySteven Tonkin. Steven talks about the process of curating the documentation of live performance for exhibition and issues surrounding political content in art. Political Acts is showing as part of AsiaTOPA.

Finally Sarah GoodesandUrsula Mills, from MTC's production of Annie Baker'sJohn, are in studio to discuss the show's writing style, feel and story.John is a present-day ghost story which juxtaposes the supernatural and the real, as a young couple visit Gettysburg, Pennsylvania amidst the collapseof their relationship.

This week, Richard is in studio with Pippa BaileyandAlex Galeazzi, senior producer and co-director respectively of the cross-cultural playThe Age of Bones. The Age of Bones(orJaman Belulang,its Indonesian name) is a collaboration between Australian and Indonesian theatre-makers as part of AsiaTOPA.Pippa and Alex discuss the origins of the story, navigating collaboration between cultures and the processes behind creating this performance of puppetry, politics and satire, creating a bridge between Indonesia and Australia.

Adam Simmons is in next to discuss the ultimate question, is art useful? His upcoming concert series, The Usefulness of Art,with the Creative Music Ensemble and Michael Kieran Harvey includes the Australian premiere of his Concerto for Piano and Toy Band,and today he speaks to Richard about the juxtaposition of play and practice, avant garde and tradition, toys and instruments.

Finally,Camilla Blunden joins Richard to discuss her new work,All This Living!,ashow about age, myth and women. Camilla talks about the issues surrounding age in society and the invisibility of women as they age, both in theatre and in daily life. This is Camilla's first major show as a solo writer, in which she tells the story of Jay, who wonders why she is gradually disappearing?

Richard speaks to the cast of a brand new Australian production,Lifetime Guarantee. Charles Purcell, Julian Dibley-Hall and Izabella Lena star in this satirical, modern-day comedy, written by Ross Mueller and directed by John Sheedy, dealing with issues of modern-day property development and our relationship to objects.Lifetime Guarantee is showing at Theatre Works in St Kilda from9th - 26th of February.

On the other end of the theatre spectrum, Humphrey Bower has developed a new, solo adaptation of Homer's TheIliad,aspart of Stork Theatre's Melbourne Homer Fest. The Rage of Achillesturns the focus to human tragedy within war, stripping back Homer's epic poem to the story of Achilles. Richard and Humphrey discuss questions of male rage, our attraction to war and the relevance of this ancient piece of literature to modern times.The Rage of Achilles is showing at La Mama Theatre from the 7th - 19th February.

Richard's final guest,Penny Byrne,is a sculptor and visual artist working with ceramics, among other things. Her upcoming exhibition,Brutal, uses reworked porcelain figurines to create new sculptures, dealing with contemporary global humanitarian issues. The result isconfronting yet familiar, with a sombre political commentary.Brutalis running at Linden New Art in St Kilda until the 8th of March.

Continuing Richard's exploration of the current Midsumma Festival program, this week's podcast features an interview with Tom Halls and Yvonne Virsik, whose production Sad Digger Mad Mary is showing at La Mama Theatre in Carlton. Sad Digger Mad Mary is a one-person show, presenting a man struggling with his return to society from the war, and the unlikely visitor who guides him out of his hermitude. Richard is also joined by the Director of the biennial Castlemaine State Festival, Martin Papen, discussing the significance of place and environment to Martin's final festival as Director. Wrapping up the podcast are performance artists Luke George and Daniel Kok, whose intriguingly titled show Bunny is a part of the much-hyped Asia TOPA festival. The 2-hour performance piece is described as "safe, sane and consensual", and this segment may leave you hanging out to seeBunny.

This week's podcast includes an in-depth discussion withJacob Boheme, the Artistic Director of the Yirramboi First Nations Festival, on the significanceof 26 January to the First Nations' people of Australia and the upcoming Yirramboi Festival in Melbourne.

Richard also speaks to Daniel Lammin about his upcoming production, Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens, showing during Midsumma Festival at the Brunswick Mechanics' Institute, and Artist Amy Spiers regarding the Miranda Must Gocampaign,aimed at de-mythologising one of Victoria's historical natural landmarks, Hanging Rock.