Perth Walkabout - The Insider's Guide to Perth Western Australia

The Blue Caftan at Perth Festival

Details: Written by: Nita Teoh; Published: 21 March 2023

As the Perth Festival movie season comes to an end (there will be an encore season from the 3rd to 9th April), my better half and I headed to UWA Somerville to watch The Blue Caftan.

The Blue Caftan is set in a small Moroccan town where Mina (Lubna Azabal) and Halim (Saleh Bakri) run a store making beautifully embroidered caftans. Their days are spent manning the shop, dealing with customers, and keeping up with the workload of making caftans for sometimes demanding customers.

The middle aged couple decide to take on Youssef (Ayoub Missioui) as an apprentice. He is keen to learn embroidery and tailoring from Halim (the master tailor – also known as a maalem). And thereon as the story unfolds, an intimate love triangle develops between them.

The story is tender, the story is sensuous. It is exquisite in portraying the fragility of love that comes in many forms and the intimacy that goes with love.

Of an Age at Luna

Details: Written by: Nita Teoh; Published: 13 March 2023

On a sunny Saturday morning, I had a leisurely walk down Oxford St, heading to Luna Leederville to watch Of an Age.

The teenage years can be rocky and turbulent times, let alone being a young gay man growing up in a Serbian immigrant family in a working class Northern suburb of Melbourne.

It is 1999 and Kol and Ebony are best of friends and dance partners when a distress call from Ebony after a big night out brings Kol and Ebony’s brother Adam together on a long drive to rescue Ebony.

From there, an unexpected romance blossoms between Kol and Adam. Kol is “fresh as” just out of school, experiencing love for the first time, unsure about himself and his place in the world, and tentative about his sexuality, whilst Adam is older and more settled about his place in the world.

Close at Perth Festival

Details: Written by: Nita Teoh; Published: 07 March 2023

My friend and I headed to UWA Somerville on a cool March night, looking forward to our pre ordered garlic prawn pizza from Charlies Pizza before watching the movie Close.

The Belgian movie Close centres around the friendship between 2 teenage boys: Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (Gustav De Waele).

They do everything together. They cycle to school together, they play together, they have sleep overs at each other’s place. They are bonded in the special way that close friends are.

Until the school year begins at a new school and their friendship takes a turn – triggered by the observations of their peers on their intimate closeness.

Close is a poignant movie about the tenderness and bonds of friendships, along with the volatility and inner turmoil of emotions that can be felt and heightened during the formative teenage years.

Empire of Light at Luna

Details: Written by: Nita Teoh; Published: 28 February 2023

The title of this movie struck me as rather beautiful. I envisioned a light beam casting a warm glow on the Empire Theatre.

It is cognisant of the warm and fuzzy feeling that you get when you enter a movie theatre knowing that you can switch off for a couple of hours and immerse yourself in a good movie.

The trailer didn’t reveal much about the story line – so with this vague introduction to the film, my partner and I headed to Luna Leederville to watch it at Cinema 5 – one of their small cosy cinemas.

Empire of Light clocking in at around 2 hours is one of the most tender movies that I’ve watched recently. It strikes all the right chords.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical at Crown Theatre

Details: Written by: Nita Teoh; Published: 27 February 2023

Truth, beauty, freedom, love…..

I gazed thoughtfully at these empowering words which were emblazoned on the walls of the Crown Theatre as I waited for my better half to join me.

We entered the magical world of the theatre whose stage had been totally transformed for Moulin Rouge! The Musical.

The stage glittered with enormous throbbing patterned hearts, and as we gazed around with curiosity on our left was Moulin Rouge's trademark red windmill and to our right a wise elephant was looking down on us.

We were ready for the show to begin!

And it did – as the line up of star studded performers with their flashy sequined numbers and sexy alluring cabaret outfits made their languid grand entrance up on the stage.

The storyline starts simply enough - boy meets girl...and how complicated could it be to have a happily ever after ending ??!!

Cyrano by Black Swan State Theatre Company

Details: Written by: Greg Letts; Published: 23 February 2023

Thanks to Covid, alternative venues and the vagaries of modern life, it had been quite a while since my partner and I had had the pleasure of taking in a performance at the Heath Ledger Theatre. After all the doom and gloom of the past few years, it was an inspired choice by Artistic Director Kate Champion to choose Virginia Gay's adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac (directed by Sarah Goodes) as the season opener by Black Swan State Theatre Company in 2023.

Most of us are passingly familiar with the theme of Cyrano, the warrior-poet with the large heart and even larger nose. But the original is a tragedy, while Gay's version is a modern-day rom-com which nods to the source material but forges its own path, with new spins on the tropes of the past.

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The Blue Caftan at Perth Festival

Of an Age at Luna

Close at Perth Festival

Empire of Light at Luna

Moulin Rouge! The Musical at Crown Theatre

Cyrano by Black Swan State Theatre Company