The Drawing Room

September 11, 2001 was a day of shocking violence and loss. But, in the aftermath, it was also a day of heroism and of community. As planes bound for New York were being turned away, many of them found themselves being directed to the small town of Gander, in Newfoundland, Canada. Almost seven thousand people landed in Gander on that day. It could have been impossible. It could have been overwhelming. But instead, the town opened its arms to those strangers. Their story was turned into a Tony Award winning musical, Come From Away, and in the Drawing Room, Gander residents Oz Fudge and Brian Mosher share how those days changed their lives.

Robert Wilson is an acclaimed director of experimental theatre and opera. but his latest work sees him stepping away from the stage and into the gallery, with a series of portraits. But these are no ordinary portraits. They're short films, which mix celebrity and art history and involve large teams behind the scenes. Helping it all come together is Chris Green, Robert's producer, who also happens to be the executive director of Harvard Law School's Animal Law & Policy Program.

Is it possible to tell when someone is lying to you? Not just to guess, but to truly know? Michael Robotham's debut thriller sold more than a million copies, he's since become one of the biggest names in crime, and his latest novel features a woman with that precise skill In the Drawing Room, Michael explains how he keeps the tension high, when the truth can be so easily exposed.

In the small city of Yellowstone, in the old west, the mine has shut and the town is slowly dying. Then, one day, a wild local strikes gold. But hopes for a revival are quickly dashed when the man is murdered on his way home from celebrating. A recently arrived outsider makes for a convenient suspect, but in this town, nothing is what it seems. Australian director Richard Gray talks about his new film, Murder at Yellowstone City, and the town he built along the way.

Most of us would think of Australia as a trustworthy country, largely free from corruption and dirty money, at least in a global context. But, if that's right, why has Australia been pointed to as one of the top targets in the world to launder money through real estate? And why have several major institutions in Australia been linked to money laundering? Nathan Lynch is an expert on financial crime and the author of a new book, The Lucky Laundry.

Whether it's “can't we all just get along” or “agree to disagree”, not everyone embraces an argument when it arrives. But Lee Siegel argues that argument is essential: to the individual, to art, and to society. Argument leads to change and it helps us to understand the world. Whether that argument plays out in political platforms, in art, or, increasingly, online, it's a way of understanding the other side and convincing them that your point of view is better.

Stanley Jordan is a guitar virtuoso who has been pushing the boundaries with his playing for over four decades.

The worlds of classical music and urban culture very rarely rub shoulders. However, KLASSIK underground, aims to bring these worlds together by combining classical music with other art forms such as dance, street art, poetry and video installations - to create innovative music events. In the Drawing Room, Australian violist and creative producer, Tahlia Petrosian, talks about how she's bringing together laser artistry with Shostakovich.

Our Blood Runs in the Street is a visceral and raw examination of the violence and persecution experienced by the LGBTQI community in Australia. Blending physical theatre with verbatim text, the production looks at a spate of brutal bashings and murders in Sydney that brought terror to the LGBTQI community for decades. In the Drawing Room, award-winning director, Shane Anthony, talks about how he went about bringing these challenging and important stories to the stage.

Il Trovatore is perhaps Verdi's most complicated opera, with betrayals, abductions, revenge and hidden identities. The character of Leonora is led by her heart and lacks reason. For singer, Leah Crocetto, who is taking on the role in Opera Australia's latest production, it's not a character she easily identifies with. In the Drawing Room, Leah talk about how she's learnt to channel her inner teenager for the role and shares how a rejection from the Met Chorus changed the trajectory of her career.

What magic happens when a musical genius is exposed to Beethoven, Vivaldi, and AC/DC at a young age, and loves them all? William Barton is a composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and one of Australia's leading didgeridoo players. His latest song is a cover of the classic rock song Johnny B. Goode, as part of Chess Records' seventieth anniversary album, Everybody Knows I'm Here.

Robert Dessaix is an essential part of the Australian literary world. As a writer, a performer, and an interviewer, he's explored the meaning of life and the stories behind the stories. For that work, he's the recipient of the 2022 Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. In the Drawing Room, Robert shares how he likes to connect ideas and talks about his latest release, Abracadabra.

The songs of Jimmy Barnes have become anthems for generations of Australians; his is a voice and a sound that's part of the fabric of this country. But the sound that Jimmy grew up with was something else entirely. He grew up listening to the classics of soul, and that's a sound that's stayed with him throughout his career. In the Drawing Room, Jimmy Barnes talks about the 30th anniversary of his Soul Deep record, crashing a Tina Turner concert, and music as communion.

What would Australia look like if we were to put children at the centre of public policy? Would we see more children thrive in school and stay out of prisons? And would they then go on to be more productive and prosperous adults?   In the Drawing Room, Jeni Whalan, Chief Strategy Officer at the Paul Ramsay Foundation and host of the Life's Lottery podcast talks about what it would mean to put kids at the centre of public policy.

Verdi's La Traviata invites you to indulge in the opulence and glamour of the Parisian salon. Violetta is a free-spirited courtesan who throws lavish parties with the finest champagne but amidst the glitz and glamour a tragic love story unfolds as our effervescent host relinquishes her only chance at love. In the Drawing Room, Constantine Costi, the opera's revival director, talks about how he's making sparks fly in his new interpretation of this well-known opera classic.

Return to Seoul follows a young French-Korean woman as she travels to her country of birth on a holiday. She swears she isn't there to connect to her biological family, but, once in the country, she can't help but reach out. This isn't the tale of a joyous reunion though, it's complicated, messy, and prickly, just like real life. In the Drawing Room, the film's creator, Davy Chou, talks about the real experience that inspired the script, and the complicated questions of belonging that lie at its heart.

When faith and power collide, is it possible to avoid compromising your beliefs? Tarik Saleh's new film, Boy from Heaven, was inspired by Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, but takes audiences to al-Azhar University in Cairo, where the death of the Grand Imam could change the power dynamics of the country. In the Drawing Room he talks about the importance of truth in fiction and why he loves a country that doesn't love him back.

Representation is everything, it validates people and their experiences. So what happens when a large part of a country's population don't see themselves reflected in society? Arabs represent almost 21% of Israelis but there are still very few Arab-Israeli journalists in the newsroom. Haaretz, one of Israel's major newspapers, is trying to change that. In the Drawing Room, Noa Landau, the deputy editor-in-chief of Haaretz talks about the new initiative she's founded, Haaretz 21, that will give a voice to Arab-Israel writers.

Across installations, sculptures, and performance, food is front and centre in Elizabeth Willing's art. Her new body of work, Forced Rhubarb, features hand-printed and embroidered linens, but also a large, looping floorwork made from brightly coloured sherbet-filled straws. In the Drawing Room, Elizabeth talks about her own relationship with food, the surprising power of yeast, and how high-end dining compares to a gallery.

What would you do if you had one of the most dangerous men in the world handcuffed in a room and, for 20 minutes, it was just you and him? That's the starting point of a new play, where two highway patrol officers accidentally arrest a powerful drug lord for speeding away from the jail he'd just broken out of. Twenty Minutes With The Devil is based on real life events around the capture of El Chapo. In the Drawing Room, playwrights and legal professors Desmond Manderson and Luis Gomez Romero talk about their approach to the stage.

The Jezabels were catapulted into the spotlight a decade ago when their debut album, Prisoner, won the 2011 Australian Music Prize and reached number two on the ARIA chart. A lot has happened over those ten years, but the band have come back together for a national tour to celebrate the album and the chance to perform together again. In the Drawing Room, Hayley Mary revisits those days in the studio and shares the ups and downs of a life in the music industry.

The Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people have, for centuries, lived deep in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil. First contact with the Brazilian state came in 1981, and it came with a great cost: disease and illness killed off half the tribe. Their territory is meant to be protected, but instead they're facing invasion, with settlers moving into the forest and claiming the land as their own, with chainsaws and with fire. A new documentary, The Territory, filmed in part by the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau themselves, captures the struggle between the two groups.

On streets and in halls around Australia, remarkable dancers are coming together in battle. This is the world of competitive street dance, where the challengers break and pop their way to the top. A new documentary, Keep Stepping, follows two dancers in Sydney as they prepare for one of the year's biggest competitions. In the Drawing Room, the director, Luke Cornish, introduces us to the scene and explores the community at its heart.

Are we doing enough to protect our children's mental and physical wellbeing?  It's the tough question being tackled in a recent UNICEF report - Places and Spaces: Environments and children's well-being. Professor Fiona Stanley has long been a vocal advocate for the needs of children and their families and in 2003 she was named Australian of the Year in recognition of her public health work. In The Drawing Room, Fiona talks about the report's findings and how over-consumption in some of the world's richest countries is damaging our children's environments.

The best songwriters tell us stories about the world around us, about shared experiences, but it's a rare treat when we get to hear about them and their story. On her latest album, Home Video, Lucy Dacus, opens up about her own life, with songs that capture her coming of age, finding love, making friends and risking losing them. In the Drawing Room, Lucy talks about the process of figuring out who she is and why she still writes in her journal.   

When Ana Roxanne released her debut LP, Because of A Flower, in 2020, it provided a peaceful, meditative space for listeners to sit amongst the stress and the noise. Inspired by her own personal story and the experience of identifying as intersex, it weaves complicated ideas into a deceptively simple sound. In the Drawing Room, Ana explores resonant spaces and childhood influences.

Don Carlos is a grand work, with opera's eternal themes of love, betrayal and faith. These days, it's beloved by fans of Verdi, but that hasn't always been the case. The opera has appeared in many forms over the years, with some acts edited out and even the language changed. The latest production by the Metropolitan Opera is performed for the first time by the company in the original French. The production's star, Matthew Polenzani, takes listeners back to the origins: the character's and his own.

In an old apartment in Kings Cross, Maureen keeps a notebook in which she lists her friends in the order that she expects them to die. On stage, she shares the stories of the friends who are gone, and her own experiences along the way. In the Drawing Room, Jonny Hawkins remembers the women who inspired their new play, Maureen: Harbinger of Death.

What does it take to power a one kilometre long laser above the surface of the Yarra river? And when you're composing a soundtrack for dance to be played by nine drummers, is it possible to create a quiet, gentle moment? These are the questions that Robin Fox has been asking himself over the last few months as he prepares for a series of big festival shows. In the Drawing Room, he explores the answers and explains why classical music caused him to break his own rules.

Søren Solkær made his name with celebrity portraits, taking photos of everyone from Paul McCartney to David Lynch.

Over a ten year run, starting in the mid-90s, Arab Strap released a half-dozen albums that brought them critical and public acclaim. They were the sort of artist that was your favourite band's favourite band. Then one day, they called it quits: moving on to other bands and other sounds. Last year announced a return, their first album together in 16 years, called As Days Get Dark. In the Drawing Room, Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton reminisce about the early days and the way the world has changed.

From haunting minimalist melodies to an almost overwhelming mix of synths and techno rhythms, Nils Frahm is one of the piano's most interesting practitioners. He's spent the pandemic-induced pause going back through his archives and finding musical friends—old and new—to share. Ahead of his return to Sydney for his first concert since 2019, Nils talks about the importance of the subconscious and why he prefers improvisation.

Ferruccio Furlanetto is one of the world's greatest operatic basses. Over five decades, Furlanetto has stamped his authority on the works of Verdi and Mozart with his powerful voice and impressive stage presence. In the Drawing Room, he looks back over his career so far, and talks about taking on the role of Mefistofele.

As a worker, a theatre producer, an activist, and a businessman, William Onus was a tireless campaigner for the rights of his people in Australia, and a leader for the referendum that saw Australia's Indigenous peoples finally counted as people in their own country. He was also, perhaps, the first Aboriginal filmmaker. A new documentary, Ablaze, begins with the discovery of Bill's film in the National Film and Sound Archive and goes on to tell his story, and the story of his fight for equal rights. Co-director Alec Morgan shares Bill's story and the story of the film.

A good photo can capture the mood of a moment, but a great photograph tells us something deeper: it layers history and emotion and can change our understanding of the world. When Covid broke out in New York, Philip Montgomery was in the public hospitals and the funeral homes, capturing the moment. When protests broke out over the death of black men and women by police violence, Philip was there to cover it and was shot with rubber bullets for his troubles. In the Drawing Room, he talks about his new monograph and exhibition, American Mirror.

His beautiful voice and remarkable cover versions brought him a devoted following online, but it's his own songs that have turned Teddy Swims into a burgeoning superstar, with a sound that's a throwback to the classic moments of soul. In the Drawing Room, Teddy Swims talks about his path to music and the promises he's made and kept, to himself and to his friends.

How much say should corporations have in our fundamental rights as a society? And whether or not you agree with the stands they take, are there dangers in letting businesses be in a position to dictate our moral choices? In the Drawing Room, Professor Carl Rhodes discusses his book, Woke Capitalism, and the problems that occur when governments cede the debate around issues like climate change and equal rights to businesses who might talk a good game, but have their own interests at heart.

Every year there are a handful of books that cross from literary masterpiece into cultural touchstone. Hanya Yanagihara's second novel, A Little Life, was one of those novels and catapulted her onto the world stage. Her latest work, To Paradise, takes readers into relationships in the present, the future and an alternate imagined past of America and looks at how the country's image of itself stacks up to the reality.

Jennifer Egan's latest work, The Candy House, is a book that looks at the power of technology, but is, at its heart, about the power of stories: the stories we tell ourselves, the stories that are told about us, and the stories that Egan shares.

Starting in Krakow, Poland as a local music festival, Unsound has gone on to become one of the most important names in experimental music. But throughout the years, their philosophy has remained the same: to introduce their audience to something new and to foster unexpected collaborations. In the Drawing Room, Mat Schulz and Gosia Plysa talk about the festival, the unusual places they've toured, and the upcoming event at Illuminate Adelaide.

The Archibald is perhaps the most significant art prize in this country, capturing the public's attention each year with a collection of brilliant paintings that showcase the diverse potential of the portrait. The 2022 winner is Blak Douglas, for his painting of Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens. In the Drawing Room, Blak shares his path to portraits and the role of politics in his art.

From the start, Camp Cope have won over fans with their open-hearted songs about love, loss, sex, and sexism. Their latest release, Running With The Hurricane, is a gentler record, released at a time when we could all use a little gentleness, but of course, it's no less honest. In the Drawing Room, Georgia McDonald and Kelly Hellmrich discuss origin stories and vocal tips.