The Drawing Room

Once, not as long ago as many would like to imagine, the remains of Australia's Indigenous people were pillaged and sent around the world.

Viewed as trophies, or scientific curiosities, they found their way to museums and private collections, far from Country and the families who loved them.

Efforts to bring those ancestors home have become more prominent, but many institutions still resist attempts at repatriation.

In the Drawing Room, Jason Tamiru and Jimi Bani discuss The Return, a new theatre show that takes audiences into that story, and looks to create a place for learning and for healing.

When MI6 agent Sylvia Fox grows disillusioned with the politics of her job, she heads for Italy - but trouble is not far behind.

This is the premise for a new TV show Signora Volpe starring British actress Emilia Fox.

In the Drawing Room, Emilia talks about preparing for the role and how the character compares to Dr. Nikki Alexander who she played for 17 years in Silent Witness.

Our hearts in her hands: Life as a cardiothoracic surgeon

Technology has given us access to the world - but in exchange, has it robbed us of our ability to focus?

Led by the charismatic, intense frontman David McComb, The Triffids were part of a generation of Australian bands that went to England and took on the world.

Along the way they created a body of music that's stood the test of times and inspired more than a few new bands in their wake.

In the Drawing Room, Rob McComb and Graham Lee look back on their days with the band, the new documentary, Love in Bright Landscapes, and paying tribute to the memory of their friend and brother.

One evening in 1930, a revolutionary piece of political satire premiered in Leipzig, Germany. Some took it as a shot at the troubles of Weimar Republic, other thought it was aimed at the excesses of early 20th century American society. Either way it's themes of political corruption, sin and economic crisis saw it banned by the Nazis and it disappeared until the 1960s.

Now, in our globalised world, with the rise of autocrats and the subjugation of migrant workers' rights, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, by Berholt Brecht, Elizabeth Hauptmann, and Kurt Weill, still feels contemporary.

In the Drawing Room, director Suzanne Chaundy talks about her take on the work.

"Be joyful - a caressing voice invites us warmly to joy."

So says Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata, a favourite role of Melbourne soprano Stacey Alleaume.

Alleaume has become something of a specialist at not only singing challenging roles, but in challenging situations: at the top of hot air balloons, shipping containers, and even quite literally swinging from chandeliers.

In the Drawing Room, she talks about her path to opera, the real woman behind the character of Violetta, and the importance of a good plate of pasta.

"Suit the action to the word, the word to the action." So says Hamlet, to the troupe of players he has brought together for a show.

For more than three decades, Bell Shakespeare have suited the bard's words to the action on stages across Australia.

In the Drawing Room, the company's artistic director, Peter Evans, talks about his path to theatre, the company's new home and the nostalgia at the heart of Hamlet.

When you're in a public space, do you watch the people around you?

It can help to stand out when you're a young band looking to make an impression. But it's not always easy creating your own place in the world.

Slave to Sirens is Lebanon's first all-female metal band and the subjects of a new documentary, Sirens, which follows the women as they write, rehearse, and fight to chart their own path.

Documentary maker Rita Baghdadi spent three years with the women, and she's created a very intimate portrait of creativity and coming-of-age.