Return to Perth

Were you an Enid Blyton fan? As a child, I was an avid reader of the Secret Seven and the Famous Five books. I even have a charming take-off on my bookshelf: But I didn't ever read The Magic Faraway Tree. So when a film version was released with such wonderful British/Irish actors as Claire Foy and Nicola Couglan, Simon Russel Beale and Lenny Henry, I had to brave the school holiday crowds and go and see it. Susan and I were the only group without children but we didn't look as suspicious as if we'd been two older men sitting in a cinema enjoy the charms of fairies and elves and pixies. It was a delightful piece of story telling that deals with the challenges parents are having to cope with  all over the world  - children addicted to technology. Even the forthcoming Toy Story 5 is exploring that problem. [We saw the short while we were waiting for the main film.] Of course, having a magic tree nearby and access to worlds of spells and goodies and birthday wishes does make ...

This year's Easter has been a bit of this and a bit of that but nothing religious. Susan said a polite but firm "no" when our delightful neighbours invited us to a service on Good Friday. We've eached worked in our preferred spaces. Susan baking cakes and roasts in the kitchen. Me creating photo books and blog posts in the study. And in between, we've seen some of the Fremantle Street Arts Festival and more films in the French Film Festival. So there was nothing in particular to write about until Susan showed me an utterly charming Substack post about Australian easter eggs and bunnies from the wonderfully named commentator Snarky Gherkin:  https://substack.com/@snarkygherkin/note/c-238269703  I have to confess that we have Haigh's bilby's sitting on the dining table as we speak and we've been giving Lindt bunnies to visitors. Mr Gherkin says that the Haigh's crowd doesn't so much eat chocolates as curate them. Haigh's chocolate signals ...

Ever since Heather Mitchell took on the role of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2022, I've missed the production. I was never in the right place at the right time. Finally I managed to catch up with it at the State Theatre in Perth and it was absolutley worth the money. It's a clever biographical piece of writing by lawyer/playwright Suzie Miller about RBG and Heather Mitchell puts on a virtuosic turn playing not only Ginsberg from age 13 to 87 but also all the other characters including three presidents - Clinton, Obama and Trump.  For those of you haven't seen it or don't know much about RBG she was a lawyer who dedicated her life to fighting for gender equality (don't say 'sex equality', the judges will focus on the wrong thing, she was told) and civil rights. She was the second woman to be appointed to the US Supreme Court in 1993. The great tragedy of Ginsberg's story comes at the end. There was the hope that she would resign while Obama was in office so tha...

One of the pleasures of living in Perth is that one has the chance to see the young students from the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts at the very beginnings of their careers. The first production for third year music theatre students in 2026 was Renascence, a new musical set in the USA in the early 20th century. I went without having any idea what it was about which can always be a great way to step into a theatre. Open hearted with no expectations. It turns out that the play is about the poet Edna St Vincent Millay and the songs are all arrangements of her poems. She's a person I'd heard of but I'd never read any of her work. She turns about to be a feisty woman from an impoverished background who had her first poems published as a teenager. Through publicity gained about her poem Renascence published when she was 20, she obtained a scholarship to Vassar University and then moved to New York where she lived, as they say, a bohemian/bisexual life. The musical foc...

I had been invited to Melbourne to run a strategic planning session for an arts company but they cancelled at the last minute. However, flights had been booked, theatre tickets arranged, dates with friends confirmed so I decided to go anyway. It was only the equivalent of a long weekend but I did manage to fit in two theatre productions, two restaurant dinners, two cafe lunches, two home-cooked meals and a morning tea plus a film. I'm lucky to still have kind and inviting friends in Melbourne. The first MTC show was Do Not Pass Go by Jean Tong. Remember that phrase from Monopoly? It is set in a (cleverly designed) factory where two workers do repetitive tasks. They are new to each other and have qualities that feel very contemporary - one is a mother who may have undiagnosed ADHD and the other is a trans person, saving up for surgery. Each part was beautiful performed by Belinda McClory and Ella Prince. I don't know the latter actor but Belinda is wonderful performer so it was ...

I've always enjoyed seeing sculptures set amongst seascapes and this year, one such display is back at Cottesloe Beach . I have to confess that there few objects per se that particularly inspired me but it was wonderful to see so many people, including hordes of school children, meandering around, taking in the sights.  I enjoyed Evi and Tania Ferrier's Sun Dial . Tania is known for her " angry underwear " series of challenging painted bras and pants. The original exhibition in Perth was closed briefly because of "obscenity and inappropriate use of government funding. I bought one one of her bras back in the day called The Treasure Chest. Of course it no longer fits but I do still have it on display. Other pieces that appealed included: Love U by Jason Hirst - large hearts on which you could add your name The Ghost of Van Eileen by Tim Haynes  - a life sized installation of a food van that used to be at Cottelsoe Beach. Someone, and it wasn't clear whether it...