Alison Croggon

Shiels and Rabe shine in Anne-Louise Sarks’ Rebecca adaptation Anne-Louise Sarks’ production of Daphne du Maurier’s subversive Rebecca swaps melodrama for an exploration of subjectivity.

"It is, when you consider it, a profoundly bleak view of romantic love. What are we to make of a supposed ingenue who grows up when she blinks at murder?" Me on the MTC adaptation of Rebecca www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/thea...

The Australian Ballet’s Prism has moments of pure joy The Australian Ballet’s latest production, Prism, is a triple bill that brings moments of austere beauty and pure joy.

Me on the Australian Ballet's joyous program of contemporary dance, Prism. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2025/10/04/t...

Writing the book on Robodebt drove Rick Morton mad. Now it's won him $80k Journalist Rick Morton didn't want to write a book about Robodebt. Now that book, Mean Streak, has won the Prime Minister's Literary Award for non-fiction.

What a ride. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

So pleased for you Rick. Congrats! 💖

"Gamergate never ended. It put on a tie and went to Washington."

Who killed Meanjin? And why won’t Melbourne University Publishing engage with efforts to save it?

A really great piece from @nickfeik.bsky.social.

The decision to close Meanjin misunderstands its wider importance. Australian culture deserves better The decision to close Meanjin is the latest in a string of recent decisions that suggest universities are not safe harbours for priceless cultural institutions.

If Melbourne University Publishing doesn’t want to keep publishing Meanjin, they should hand over the journal to someone worthy of the responsibility. Me in The Conversation theconversation.com/the-decision...

Why should accountants, human-resource managers & real-estate developers be interested in promoting Australian literature?

Thanks Chris - me too, dammit! So annoying

Ah, I can see it not being someone’s cup of tea

Anyway, please read, it's free and Tanz is an excellent magazine.

“There hasn’t been any perspective for a while now,” says another respected choreographer. “One cannot plan, funding is extremely uncertain, and demoralisation characterises the independent professional scene all around, artists, critics, venues and festivals included."

“Lack of funding acts as a form of censorship. It may not be explicit, but its effects are undeniable.” says choreographer Márta Ladjánszki.

“There are financial sources that are gone or drying up, reduced budgets, the starving out of artists and communities, and subtle manipulations of ownership or institutional background... Most artists lost their access to public funding and decided to stop or reduce their activity"

There the problem is authoritarianism. Here the problem is corporatism. But the effects are basically identical. Some quotes from Hungarian artists below that could all be said (and have been said) by Australian independent artists.

The city of open wounds - Shifting the arts It was actually an inspiring few days in the Hungarian capital: invited by Lena Megyeri, a dance writer living in Budapest, I gained an insight into the deeper layers of the independent scene in Budap...

Well worth the read: a report on contemporary dance and censorship in Viktor Orbán's right wing Hungary, where independent artists are struggling to survive. A situation unsettlingly parallel with what is happening in Australia.

tanz.dance/the-city-of-...

In that you disliked it or did everyone else? (Just got back from Brisbane and have caught a cold and am slightly sideways today)

Thanks Keith 🙏🏻

“In Della’s contradictions, Marillier portrays the internalisation of decades – nay, centuries – of brutal authoritarian power. Apartheid was, after all, only the culmination of a process that began with British and Dutch colonisation.” www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/thea...

Bastards! | Sydney Review of Books From economic rationalism to libertarianism, neoliberalism appears under many guises. Reviewing Quinn Slobodian’s new book on neoliberal thought, James Ley shows that what its founders share with latt...

sydneyreviewofbooks.com/reviews/bast...

Me and so many others!

So much I could say about the Robodebt Class Action re-settlement. But I am tired and in another time zone and will simply leave this here instead.

It is easy to dismiss this as a single publication ending, but it’s a wider _infrastructural_ loss - and as Louise Adler says, easy to close, very hard to rebuild. These decisions have disastrous long term consequences beyond a single slice of the cultural sector

I was Meanjin's Designer in the early 00s for years. Laid out and typeset every page and cover. Tiny budget but a great opportunity for young me and for those who came before and after. Even then Melbourne Uni was an existential threat. They'll save very little and lose a great deal through this.

A stack of Meanjin issues that contain my fiction and non-fiction

The loss of Meanjin is devastating news for Australian writers and readers. Always meant so much to see my work there. Some of my best experiences of being edited. An entirely avoidable disaster.

Literary journal Meanjin to close after 85 years of publishing Meanjin, a mainstay of Australia's cultural landscape and the nation's second-oldest literary publication, is shuttering after Melbourne University Publishing decided to cease financial support.

This is shocking news. Literary magazines - and all the other small orgs now under pressure or closing or gone - are the bedrock of culture and their ongoing costs are barely a blip in any institutional budget. Melbourne University ought to be ashamed www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/04/m...

How mainstream media and politicians fuelled Australia's biggest far-right rally Six takeaways from the March for Australia and why it should be a wake-up call.

It would be a massive mistake for progressive folk to convince themselves the March for Australia was a bust, or can safely be ridiculed.

It was an alarming escalation of far-right action, and we need to reckon with it.

More thoughts (un-paywalled) here:

www.lamestream.com.au/how-mainstre...

Diabolus Ex Machina This Is Not An Essay

This is a set of screenshots of an astonishing "conversation" between writer @guinz.bsky.social and #ChatGPT.

"What ultimately transpired is the closest thing to a personal episode of Black Mirror this lifetime."

‪h/t @dranitaheiss.bsky.social
#writing #AI

/...

open.substack.com/pub/amandagu...

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Broken Forms by Franz Marc, 1914 #artbots #guggenheim
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137374

Tens of thousands protest in nationwide action against war in Gaza Pro-Palestinian demonstrations were held across the country today, with organisers claiming crowd numbers to be in the tens of thousands.

#FreePalestine

BRI: 10-50K
MEL: 100K
SYD: ? ['tens of thousands']
CAN: 2K
HOB: 'thousands'
PER: 25K
ADE: 15K
plus numerous other towns & regional centres

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...