ABC RN Arts

This week it’s all about curry, capes and … sex clubs. The PM’s social media obsession with posting his curries hit new highs of engagement when the internet noticed the chicken in his questionably-garnished korma was also questionably cooked. Is the curry discourse a distraction, or can we talk about curry and scrutinise the campaign at the same time? For those who observe, the first Monday in May is known as Met Gala Day. This year’s theme of ‘Gilded Glamour’ had celebrities turning up in capes and tails. Kim Kardashian went to extreme lengths to fit into Marilyn Monroe’s famous ‘Happy Birthday Mr President’ dress and her mother, Kris Jenner, dressed up like Jackie O. Yumi Stynes drops by to chat about season "Sex" of ABC podcast Ladies, We Need to Talk and how she gets women to open up on taboo topics.  Finally, BW and BL dig into Severance. Show notes: PM Scott Morrison’s curry: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=554652889363411&set=pb.100044561133947.-2207520000 Vogue Met Gala live blog: https://www.vogue.com/live/met-gala-2022-live-updates?id=6270643b5993216c48e1b303 Severance: https://www.theverge.com/23015650/severance-season-1-review-apple-tv-plus Ladies, We Need to Talk: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/ladies-we-need-to-talk/ 5 minute food fix: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/5-minute-food-fix/id1619052425 BW’s dossier of politicians and food PM Scott Morrison’s curry https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=554652889363411&set=pb.100044561133947.-2207520000 US President George HW Bush vomits at Japanese state banquet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_KVL-wtpgg Kevin Rudd eats earwax https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/national/kevin-rudd-eats-ear-wax-during-question-time/video/da459b74ae8021d23c754afe0e98a0c2 Tony Abbott eats bites into a raw onion https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/13/tony-abbott-eats-raw-onion Ed Milliband eats bacon sandwich https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ed-miliband-bacon-sandwich_n_5bbe27b0e4b01470d0580898 Bill Shorten eats sausage side-on https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/federal-election-2016-bill-shorten-confounds-by-eating-sausage-sizzle-from-side-20160702-gpwwpi.html Scott Morrison addresses Engadine Maccas rumour https://www.kiis1065.com.au/entertainment/scott-morrison-finally-clears-up-what-happened-at-the-engadine-maccas/ Michaelia Cash’s “curry for the country” https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/michaelia-cash-curry-country/

British actor Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey, Paddington) talks about playing the writer Roald Dahl in the new film To Olivia, set in the late 1950s, early 1960s, a period when he was married to American actor Patricia Neale and the couple lost their young child to measles. Plus, African American Italian director Jonas Carpignano on To Chiara, which won Best European Film at Cannes and follows a young Calabrian woman who learns some difficult family truths upon her father's disappearance.

What do artists think about when making huge public art? Lindy Lee is making the most expensive work commissioned by the NGA, and Judy Watson's bara will grace Sydney's harbour with a giant Gadigal fish hook. Then, the US art lab addressing the problem of confederate monuments to racist causes... and Indigenous artists Julie Gough, Nicholas Galanin and Yhonnie Scarce on Australia's own colonial memorialising.

Richard Wagner's epic fantasy opera Lohengrin is a fairy-tale romance, but a disconcerting German nationalism lurks beneath its surface. French director Olivier Py confronts the opera's complexities head on in his upcoming production for Opera Australia. Also, we trace the influence of theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski and his impact on modern acting and theatrical storytelling with Isaac Butler, author of The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act (Bloomsbury).

We meet some of the most remarkable mothers in recent fiction, with authors including Dawn French, Douglas Stuart, Anne Enright, Lisa Taddeo, Larissa Behrendt and Alice Pung. These literary mums can be loving, neglectful and sometimes cruel – and they often reveal something about the author’s own relationship with their mother or children. Other featured authors include George Haddad, Craig Sherborne, Lydia Kiesling and Kate Mildenhall.

This week, BW and BL writhe their way through their feelings about the world’s richest man’s moves to buy twitter. BL shares his bulging dossier documenting the rise of full frontal male nudity on television, and what to make of it.  Meanwhile in Australia, Jimmy Rees, formerly known as Jimmy Giggle, discusses exploring Australian history via the world of miniatures in Tiny Oz, life after Jimmy Giggle and how he reinvented his career as a social media comedian during the pandemic. Show notes: Tiny Oz: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/tiny-oz#:~:text=Comedian%20Jimmy%20Rees%20and%20tiny,ABC%20iview%20and%20ABC%20TV. Jimmy Rees: https://www.jimmyrees.com.au/ Jimmy Rees TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jimmyrees?lang=en Elon Musk’s twitter takeover: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/25/five-things-in-elon-musks-in-tray-after-twitter-takeover https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/25/business/elon-musk-twitter-trump-return.html Ben Law’s full frontal dossier: https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a39583817/minx-hbo-taylor-zakhar-perez-full-frontal-nudity-prosthetic-penis/ https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/03/minx-euphoria-tvs-increase-in-full-frontal-male-nudity-prosthetics https://sea.mashable.com/culture/17369/heres-why-youve-been-seeing-more-and-more-dicks-on-tv

Two interviews with directors who have made films about families, parenting and memory…...you’ll meet Korean-American writer director and film critic Kogonada, who talks about his mysterious, gentle sci-fi film After Yang, set in a near future society where androids can be bought as companions. Plus, French filmmaker Céline Sciamma , who’s new film is called Petit Maman, and asks the question, what if a child could travel back in time and meet their mother or father at the same age?

Rebecca Belmore is one of Canada's most important artists and is now having her first Australian solo show. Plus, visit Sally Smart's studio, inspired by one of the most influential dance companies of the twentieth century. And Yuki Kihara's Venice Biennale entry Paradise Camp, where the artist reimagines tropes used by Paul Gauguin and Samoan tourism brochures, with a Fa’afafine cast.

Red Stitch Actors' Theatre has just 80 seats, but the company is acclaimed for their bold programming of the buzziest new work from abroad and for developing new Australian plays. Now in its 21st year, we meet their artistic director Ella Caldwell. Also, Kaitlin Tinker summons the strength of Alien heroine Ellen Ripley in her play about pregnancy and childbirth, Earthside, at the Blue Room, and we take a closer look at Hamlet with two high school students and members of the current Bell Shakespeare production.

Jennifer Down doesn't turn away from uncomfortable truths in her Stella Prize shortlisted novel, Bodies of Light, about the systemic failures of the residential and foster care systems in the 70s and 80s. Also, we revisit our interview with Jonathan Franzen who talks about faith and family, which are two themes in his latest book, Crossroads.