Government moves to temporarily ban 'certain cohorts' from Australia Visitors from some countries could be temporarily blocked from Australia by a federal government concerned about a wave of people overstaying their visas due to the war in the Middle East.

So this is fucked.

www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-1...

1154 Days - Arts House A raw and riveting theatrical reflection on freedom, resilience and creativity.   While working as a journalist in China, one morning Cheng Lei was lured to work...

I'm so fucking keen for this show—created and performed by Cheng Lei, an Australian journalist who was detained in China for 1154 days. The team is wildly exciting and I'm just so keen for political theatre that comes up against the dangers of state censorship!!

www.artshouse.com.au/events/1...

i just think it is so exciting to see writing which trusts its audience intelligence so much, and is so rich with metaphor that it just like…. feels so alive in every line? oh i was buzzing!!!!

Like this show does exactly what it sets out to do so remarkably well, wonderfully subtle LX and SX (hello!!! that opening soundscape!!!!!) and a rich set support some beautifully subtle direction and that script!!!! Ugh that script!!!!! I love!!!!!

Really highly recommended.

saw a delightful show called Back to Te Maunga at La Mama on the weekend and wow I just loved it!! a gorgeous new Māori play about brotherhood and how the past bears down on us and colonialism

I am a proud hater of realism but Joel Te Teira's lovely layered script cracked my anti-realism heart.

Your visa to Gag City has been approved, chuckle f*cker Introducing a pop-up newsletter full of my coverage of Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2026

Melbourne Comedy Festival is sooooo soon (and I'm so excited) — I'm planning on writing a daily newsletter/diary during the festival as I try to catch 50+ shows in a couple weeks (lol)

wrote up some details and my thinking about this little project on my blog

www.ryanhamilton.work/your-vi...

i actually don't think you can participate in opera/ballet/chalamet discourse if you don't actually see opera or ballet lol

just watched a video of a hot air balloon flight over narrm and i just think if i ever go on one of them i would end up an emotional sobbing wreck at the majesty of this stupid city i call home. sorry for loving narrm!!!

Emails are fun!!!!!!!

FINE I’ll watch it

when do we get a mamdani

Thinking about what it means to praise art. I’m less interested in technical excellence than I am in art that represents the cultural/political world I want to live in. I want to say ‘this art belongs and should be our artistic baseline moving forward.’ Sort of using taste as a way to make utopia.

oh my god this is so exciting!!!!!!! an atrocious blight on monash

We Get to Decide How We Live Through It Reviewing ‘Democracy Repair Services’ by Noemie Huttner-Koros, directed by Martha Latham, presented at Melbourne Fringe in 2025

i wrote a big scary essay/review about a show i saw at Melbourne Fringe but maybe it’s actually about how we change things and how monash uni fucked me up and also how i have voted in every single election i’ve been a part of.

🔗 www.ryanhamilton.work/we-get-to-de...

oh my godddd. who? 👀

love simmering on a review! i didn’t love the show much at all but im still figuring out exactly how to talk about it

Arts criticism & journalism being reduced to marketing is incredibly depressing, and I am thankful for the approximately six people/outlets in the BG space who actually do criticism and/or journalism. I don't condemn the rest but I do feel sorry for them.

Plus, the inclusion of a lot of plot points verbatim from the original text muddy what this world is and where it goes. It’s a visionary show with an excellent team but I’m not really sure why this vision, you know? Anywho, go see it—it’s fun and there’s a LOT to chew on.

But on the whole the concept of adapting Miss Julie into a greek kitchen didn’t land for me; it felt forced and didn’t connect me to the original text or the present day in a substantially unique way.

Plus, there’s a chorus of like… 8(?) performers who accentuate the work with movement and voice in some really subtle and beautiful ways; LOVED those moments tbh (need more poetic movement on stage PLEASE)

My bestie Georgie Wolfe ate with the lighting design—told her last night that maybe it’s the best LX I’ve ever seen her do (but I am biased so) and Angelina Daniel’s versatile evocation of a professional kitchen was really effective and gorgeous to see.

although I specifically want to call out Fiorentino’s Italian pronunciation: totally took me out of the play every time he spoke in Italian (maybe this won’t piss you off as much if you don’t speak the language so).

There were some really high highs though! Izabella Yena is (as always) a powerhouse performer, while Annalise Gelagotis and Adam-Jon Fiorentino were pretty charismatic as the lovers of the play

interesting? Sure. Did it add much to the story? idk, I mean obviously there’s some interesting links to our hospo sector’s massive exploitation issues but in staying close to the original plot this production kinda misses tackling the sector head on.

Saw Miss Julie last night at fortyfivedownstairs and I’m a little gagged. It’s a fairly strict adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie (which I’ve never seen nor read) set in the melb hospo sector.

help i can’t reed

✊ young men ✊

Interesting! I’m still sitting with the work—not sure how I feel.

I think the metaphor of the rumbling to me felt a bit fraught: I’m thinking about how it might’ve been influenced by Navajo mythology around skinwalkers which feels uncomfortable in a play by a settler playwright.

I’m planning on seeing it again with my housemate so will give you some more nuanced thoughts after then; but a very strong recommendation from me in the meantime.

Saw mother play at Melbourne Theatre Company last night and oh goodness!!! What a beautiful little show. I went in without having read anything about the show (literally didn’t even read the copy I had no clue what it was about) and was delighted on so many fronts.