Steve Dow

Strong elements of activism and Indigenous rights at White Bay Power Station for the #SydneyBiennale

A Bridge Over Troubled Waters An intergenerational exhibition reflects on the contested building of a bridge to Kumarangk (Hindmarsh Island), and pays tribute to the Ngarrindjeri women who fought to protect and sustain their cultu...

"It was unrelenting, like we were under siege."

I talk to artists Aunty Sandra Saunders and Aunty Ellen Trevorrow about the 90s fight to stop a bridge being built from the South Australian mainland to Kumarangk / Hindmarsh Island and their art about sacred knowledge

artguide.com.au/a-bridge-ove...

Stress Test The 2026 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Yield Strength, highlights the ways artists are pushing materials to their limits, to reflect the world around them.

The Adelaide Biennial has opened. I spoke to curator Ellie Buttrose and artists Lauren Burrow and Kirtika Kain about the stress test of pushing materials past their limit, an apt metaphor for political and ecological change artguide.com.au/stress-test/

The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin review – Simon Burke is extraordinary in this timely queer classic Actor deploys range and comedic skill in this gripping one-man show, which caused a sensation when it premiered in 1976 – and remains relevant today

My review of the return of a queer Australian classic, starring Simon Burke, returning to Surry Hills where it all started 50 years ago: www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/f...

Justice Department withheld and removed some Epstein files related to Trump An NPR investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump.

Details of allegations against Trump and the coverup by US Justice Department. Important investigation by America’s NPR www.npr.org/2026/02/24/n...

Meanjin is reborn, the title returning to its namesake home, via Queensland University of Technology.

What a riposte to Melbourne University Publishing’s decision to suddenly can the storied journal last year after 80 years of publication on, ahem, “purely financial grounds”.

Afro-Asian Creole artist Thania Petersen makes sensory works with cross-cultural joy at their heart. Yolŋu Elders and artists from Arnhem Land joined her in Makassar in Sulawesi recently to make recordings for her project.

I spoke to Petersen about her Perth Festival show: artguide.com.au?p=226424

Well, the cinematography of Leni Riefenstahl doesn’t come cheap.

More than $A100 million to licence and market doco Melania.

One ticket sold across Hoyts cinemas so far, back row in Cronulla.

Is Scotty from Marketing back in town?

mumbrella.com.au/hoyts-has-so...

This is how the administration is maligning Alex Pretti

A caring, 37 year old male US citizen who worked in the Minneapolis VA ICU as a nurse caring for sick veterans.

This is shameful and indefensible.

Partisan politics after Bondi sowed seeds of Coalition’s demise The Coalition’s response to the Bondi shootings led to its unravelling. Anthony Albanese and Labor now own the political centre.

www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

To be fair, it’s hard to rhyme Malinauskas

Thank goodness they dodged the "public ridicule and opprobrium".

Far from being "never acceptable", insult is an inevitable byproduct of free speech. Curious he seems on board with preventing Friedman's appearance.

Is he really this dim?

‘An Arab in a post-9/11 world’: Khalid Abdalla’s one-man play about belonging comes to Australia In Nowhere, The Crown actor interweaves personal experience and family history with commentary on western colonialism and the Israel-Gaza war

Saw Khalid Abdalla’s one-man work Nowhere for Sydney Festival last night.

Highly recommend. A skilled, engaging actor who acknowledges traumas across the divide.

Here is a conversation we had about his life, career and ominous censorship of such voices of late. www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

🔵 This week's Tom the Dancing Bug
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A Calvinesque and Hobbesian look at a Venezuela invasion
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Brought to you by the proud and mighty Inner Hive, including longtime member G.L. Waters and new member Laura Testa-Reyes.
( bit.ly/theInnerHive )
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READ IT RIGHT HERE👇

A whole bunch of artists and cultural workers have lost work because of the implosion of Adelaide Writers week — writers, producers, stage crew, front of house. None of this was their fault. Something for the Labor premier to think about

Louise Adler: “Many years ago the former premier Don Dunstan touted Adelaide as the ‘Athens of the south’. Now South Australia’s tourism slogan could be ‘Welcome to Moscow on the Torrens’.”

I cannot be party to silencing writers, which is why I am resigning as director of Adelaide Writers’ Week | Louise Adler Cancelling the Australian Palestinian author Randa Abdel-Fattah weakens freedom of speech and is the harbinger of a less free nation

Louise Adler resigns amid Adelaide Writers’ Week fiasco.

“Now religious leaders are to be policed, universities monitored … and the arts starved. Are you or have you ever been a critic of Israel? Joe McCarthy would be cheering on the inheritors of his tactics.” 🔥
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Unbelievable. I told the Sky News guy to fuck off with his questions and now *that* is the story.
This hungry beast is insatiable.
How’s that Royal Commission into Murdoch media going?

No notes

All the power and love to @cathywilcox.bsky.social

Dear Son review – essays by famous Indigenous fathers make for incredibly moving theatre Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney festivalAdapted from essays by the likes of Stan Grant, Troy Cassar-Daley and NRL player Joe Williams, Dear Son generously invites the audience into its warm and vulnera...

These men talk about trauma and healing. “We pull the oars of truth, with strength from our ancestors,” they repeat, acknowledging society-wide problems of toxic masculinity while conveying how government policies and media dehumanise them.

My review of Dear Son www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/j...

‘Abhorrent’: PM slams Elon Musk’s X over sexually explicit images As the wave of AI generated sexual material grows, international leaders are demanding action by tech companies to stop images generated without consent.

Albanese calls Grok abhorrent, yet he still posts on hellsite X. Why? www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

Good points. Yes I suspect we’ll never know what the total might have otherwise been.

Fast skates, high stakes: the raucous roller derby show taking over Sydney town hall Mama Does Derby, based on theatre-maker Clare Watson’s experiences as a single mum searching for community, is bringing the sport to the stage

Roller derby in Australia is a force, featuring face-painted skaters such as Bionic Mayhem, Frill Seeker and Judge Juicy.

I talk to jammer Maddy "BB Gun" Wilkinson and theatre makers Clare Watson & Virginia Gay about taking over Sydney Town Hall next week. www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/j...

Sydney Festival: Communal Rituals Three presentations at the Sydney Festival highlight communal ritual and ceremony, encouraging viewers and participants to consider different approaches to life, and death.

Community and ritual are needed right now: I talk to artists behind three Sydney Festival events that deliver just that. artguide.com.au/sydney-festi...

Adelaide Festival board masks censorship as cohesion.

One Nation supporter Dawn Fraser a curious media go-to for her opinion she’s “never seen so much hatred and division” in Australia.

To be fair, she was well ahead of the curve.

No notes.

Simon Stone on luring film stars on stage, family tragedy and staging Chekhov in Korean: ‘It’s one of the proudest moments in my career’ Directing the likes of Alicia Vikander, Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman on stage, the Australian director is returning to Adelaide festival with a bold new take on The Cherry Orchard

I yarn with expat Australian writer and director Simon Stone about his life and career ahead of his Korean-language The Cherry Orchard coming to Adelaide Festival.

Stone says he is “obsessed with Korean culture” and its “embrace of peculiarity and weirdness”.
www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/j...