By TANIA PHILLIPS
Event, Foxtel Arts, Sunday, 5pm
IN THESE days where talk and variety shows seem to have gone the way of the dodo on Australian TV, Foxtel are bucking the trend with Event – a monthly look at the arts.
Hosted by Deborah Hutton, Event is everything that seems to be missing from free-to-air at the moment.
While there is still a proliferation of talk shows coming out of the US and UK (most of them finding a home on Foxtel as well) we don’t seem to be making our own. Other than the odd show by Adam Hills, this seems to be a genre we have abandoned en masse in favour of reality, reality or game shows masquerading as reality.
So here is a little gem hidden away on a channel which in itself is also a little hidden gem.
The latest episode, screening this Sunday, 4 October, will include interviews with the timeless Marcia Hines – currently appearing alongside fellow guest Brendan Maclean in the hit cabaret musical Velvet; playwright Kate Mulvany talking about her family-friendly work Masquerade; Josephine Ridge detailing what can be expected from the Melbourne Festival in her final year as artistic director; and Yaron Lifschitz explaining the inspiration behind his award-winning Brisbane-based dance and acrobats company, CIRCA.
Vocalists Casey Donovan and Laura Bunting, soon to appear in the hit musical Rent at the Hayes Theatre Co in Sydney bring the house down with a special performance from their show; and members of CIRCA get playful with an excerpt from their all-ages production Carnival Of Animals.
Deborah is joined in the studio by her co-host, ABC Radio National presenter and arts commentator Cassie McCullagh.
Cassie presents up-to-date arts news and hosts The Critics’ Corner, a monthly segment featuring two guest journalists recommending the best in books, music and theatre from a critic’s perspective.
It is also Cassie who interviews the show’s monthly Artist in Residence, 2015 Archibald Prize finalist Kim Leutwyler.
The show is filmed in the Foxtel studios and explores everything that’s new in Australian music, theatre, visual arts and books as well as what’s happening around the country in the world, from festivals to exhibitions.
It kind of reminds of the old Sunday afternoon arts shows on the ABC and in a world of renovation and cooking competition shows – it’s a little pocket of culture.
