Culture

Sarah Price He was a small man with a huge heart and left an indelible mark on the games of rugby league and rugby union. Arthur Summons was also one half of the famous “Gladiators” image. “I didn’t really do anything to make it happen. Just tripped over in the mud, had a photo taken and became famous.”

Evan Williams Before becoming a playwright, screenwriter and showrunner, Tony McNamara was a stockbroker who had failed year 11 English. Now, after being nominated for an Oscar for The Favourite, he brings his acerbic dialogue and honest storytelling to his new TV series, The Great. “I saw a lot of Pinter, a lot of Mamet, Caryl Churchill … I was struck by how visceral it was, how you could get a rhythm going that really carries an audience along.”

Maddee Clark Using glass as a medium, Yhonnie Scarce makes art that testifies to the trauma enacted on Aboriginal people and communities. She speaks about travelling to memorial sites around the world and the importance of truth-telling. “I don’t like being lied to … They were setting off bombs, and they knew there were blackfullas around in that area, but they didn’t care.”

Nick Buckley Since releasing her first album, Gordi has experienced three years of emotional upheaval, which she has channelled into a new record, Our Two Skins. She speaks to Nick Buckley about losing her grandmother, falling in love over the phone and creating music in self-enforced isolation. “That’s when I feel most creative, when I don’t have everything at my disposal. You know, how I might make one sound if I don’t have that thing. It’s like creating unique moments out of nothing.”

Steve Dow Four weeks after becoming the artistic director of Sydney’s Griffin Theatre Company, Declan Greene had to cancel two plays because of Covid-19. He speaks about this extraordinary challenge, his childhood flair for drama and his ambitions for the company. “I’m constantly thinking I should do more to change things in the world … I’m interested in reconfiguring the space I work in to make it a more equal place.”

Christos Tsiolkas In his latest film, It Must Be Heaven, Elia Suleiman continues to explore the absurdity and tragedy of being Palestinian, and weaves in a moving contemplation of the ageing body.

Shaad D’Souza We know the power of music to provide comfort and healing. But we also know it can act as a force for change. Here, three releases that have powerful messages in the current cultural moment.

Christos Tsiolkas While welcoming the Covid-19 lockdown as a chance to catch up on some TV and film viewing, this reviewer found himself craving, with a few notable exceptions, the romance of the cinematic experience.

Elliot Perlman A new short story from an award-winning author of The Street Sweeper.

DBC Pierre New short fiction from South Australian-born award-winning author DBC Pierre.

Ceridwen Dovey A new short story by Ceridwen Dovey, winner of the 2014 Queensland Literary Award for her collection Only the Animals.

Reviewer: Leah Jing McIntosh As a frantic March rolled into an accepting April, sliding into a complacent May, the “apocalypse”, now boring, has disappeared into June. The “new normal” became old in the time it took to say the phrase; in supermarket aisles, …

Reviewer: Adam Ford Melbourne author Tom Doig’s book about the 45-day fire at the Hazelwood open-cut coalmine, located less than 500 metres from the Gippsland town of Morwell, was five years in the making. Its publication was then delayed by another year because of …

Reviewer: Louise Swinn It begins with lightkeeper Esther Nunn, inspired after she is sent Tracks by a friend. Or it begins with author Anna Krien, for whom Robyn Davidson has been a moral compass since, as a child, Krien saw Davidson on the cover of National Geographic. …