World City Guide

Culture

Its relatively cool climate and European heritage have shaped Melbourne as Australia’s city of civilised indoor pursuits. There are many top-class performances throughout the year at the Victorian Arts Centre, 100 St Kilda Road (tel: (03) 9281 8000; website: www.vicartscentre.com.au), which is home to Opera Australia, the Melbourne Theatre Company, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Ballet. The Sidney Myer Music Bowl, 21 Linlithgow Avenue (tel: (03) 9281 8000), hosts open-air performances all year round, especially during the many arts festivals held in the city.

Friday’s Age newspaper contains the cultural listings supplement EG. Information also is available online (website: http://melbourne.citysearch.com.au).

Cheap tickets for most venues throughout Melbourne can be booked through the Halftix booth, Melbourne Town Hall (tel: (03) 9650 9420), although only on the day of the performance. Advance tickets can be bought through Ticketek (tel: 132 849, Australia only; website: www.ticketek.com).

Music: Opera Australia (tel: (03) 9685 3777; website: www.opera-australia.org.au) regularly appears at the Melbourne Concert Hall, located in the Victorian Arts Complex (see above), as does the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (tel: (03) 9626 1111; website: www.mso.com.au).

Theatre: Melbourne has a large number of theatres located throughout the city centre and in the suburbs. The Regent Theatre, Collins Street (tel: (03) 9299 9500), hosts elaborate musical productions, while theatres such as the Athenaeum, Collins Street (tel: (03) 9650 1500) and the Princess, Spring Street (tel: (03) 9299 9800), produce Shakespeare, contemporary plays and musicals. The Melbourne Theatre Company, Ferrars Street, Southbank (tel: (03) 9684 4500; website: www.mtc.com.au) is the oldest professional theatre company in Australia. Playbox Theatre Centre, Monash University (tel: (03) 9685 5100; website: www.playbox.com.au), generates new dramatic works promoting Australia’s cultural diversity.

Dance: Dancehouse, 150 Princes Street, North Carlton (tel: (03) 9347 2860; website: www.dancehouse.com.au), is an exciting venue for innovative dance and physical theatre and has a well-deserved reputation in the contemporary dance field.

Film: Reflecting its European self-image, Melbourne has many independent arthouse cinemas, including the Cinema Como, at the corner of Toorak Road and Chapel Street, South Yarra (tel: (03) 9827 7533), Cinema Nova, 380 Lygon Street, Carlton (tel: (03) 9347 5331), the Lumire, 108 Lonsdale Street (tel: (03) 9639 1055) and the Kino, 45 Collins Street (tel: (03) 9650 2100). The splendid art deco Astor Theatre, at the corner of Chapel Street and Dandenong Road (tel: (03) 9510 1414), hosts the St Kilda Film Festival for experimental film every April. The local IMAX Theatre is located on Rathdowne Street, Carlton (tel: (03) 9663 5454). Mainstream fare is screened at the Hoyts Cinema Centre, 140 Bourke Street (tel: (03) 9663 3303), and at Hoyts multiplexes throughout suburban Melbourne.

The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), reputed to be the world’s first ever feature-length film, was made in and around Melbourne. Other Australian movie classics set or filmed in Melbourne include Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) and Phar Lap (1983). Death in Brunswick (1991) and Romper Stomper (1992) both achieved international acclaim. Recent broad comedies The Castle (1997) and The Wog Boy (2000) were huge hits in Australia. Reflecting the recent trend of Hollywood production moving to Australia, The Queen of the Damned (2002) was shot in Melbourne.

Cultural events: The importance of the arts scene in Melbourne is highlighted by the support received by the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts (tel: (03) 9662 4242; website: www.melbournefestival.com.au), held every October. Artists, writers, musicians, actors and dancers from dozens of countries around the world descend on the theatres and galleries of Melbourne, for a 17-day cultural feast. It also boasts a Fringe Festival, which is smaller and definitely more off-beat and kicks off with a parade and huge party in Brunswick Street.

Three days in March are given over to the Melbourne Moomba Festival (tel: (03) 9658 8566; website: www.melbournemoombafestival.com.au), which is Australia’s largest outdoor festival. There are open-air performances, night-time parades, firework displays and even water-skiing competitions. The three-week Melbourne International Comedy Festival (tel: (03) 9417 7711; website: www.comedyfestival.com.au) is Australia’s top comedy event, attracting many local and international acts every April.

Come July, the cream of the Australian and international film world are drawn to the city for the Melbourne International Film Festival (tel: (03) 9417 2011; website: www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au), which has been running since 1951.

Literary Notes
Melbourne has enjoyed its share of internationally acclaimed writers. C J Dennis, who lived in the small town of Toolangi, north of Melbourne, rose to national fame as Victoria’s most popular writer with his urban romance in verse, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke (1915). The works of Victorian writers of this period, including Dennis, reflected upon the impact of the gold rush and the business of making money. Painter and writer Norman Lindsay, who hailed from the small town of Creswick (near Ballarat), is the author of the irreverent Australian children’s classic, The Magic Pudding (1917).

One of the most sensational novels to come out of Melbourne is Frank Hardy’s Power Without Glory (1950). Loosely based on the affairs and dealings of notorious Melbourne businessman John Wren, the book scandalised Melbourne society and Hardy was prosecuted for criminal libel. British author Neville Shute’s novel On The Beach (1957), another literary cause clbre, depicts Melbourne as the last outpost of a world wracked by nuclear devastation.

Melbourne playwright Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1957) pioneered dramatic realism in Australia, while criticising cultural stereotypes. Classic modern novels include Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967) by Joan Lindsay, and George Johnston’s My Brother Jack (1964), perhaps the definitive novel of Melbourne between the wars. Peter Carey set one of his best works, Illywhacker (1985), in the city, and his Booker Prize-winning The True History of the Kelly Gang (2001) also features Melbourne as a setting. Helen Garner, whose novels, such as Monkey Grip (1977), are mostly set in Melbourne, has also attracted a wide following.

The ‘grunge lit’ of the 1990s produced writers such as Christos Tsiolkas, whose Loaded (1995) portrays the town as a netherworld of drugs and sex. Criminal Mark ‘Chopper’ Read wrote From The Inside (1991) in the H Division of Melbourne’s Pentridge Prison. While snubbed by the literary establishment, Read’s lively underworld confessions are among the most popular contemporary writing in Australia.