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City Guide  - Perth  - Culture
Culture

The arts in Perth tend towards the conservative except at Perth International Festival time, when the avant-garde is embraced. Nevertheless, the overall scene is healthy, with an excellent symphony orchestra, ballet company, opera company and several professional theatre troupes. There is no shortage of talent in town: the West Australian Academy of the Performing Arts (WAAPA), renowned for turning out stars of stage and screen, attracts students from all over the country. While the arts in Perth lack a visible focal point, such as Sydney's Opera House or Brisbane's Performing Arts Centre, the Perth Cultural Centre in Northbridge (tel: (08) 94 92 66 00) goes some way to filling the void, as does the architectural gem that is His Majesty's Theatre. Tickets to most shows are available from Ticketmaster (tel: 136 122).

Music:
The West Australian Opera performs six to nine weeks a year at the Edwardian His Majesty's Theatre, 825 Hay Street (tel: (08) 93 21 27 21). Perth Concert Hall, 5 St George's Terrace (tel: (08) 94 84 11 33), is the prime venue for classical music and also the home of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra; the hall's acoustics have been acclaimed as the best in Australia.

Theatre:
His Majesty's Theatre is the elegant venue for opera, ballet, musicals and other theatrical presentations. Burswood Theatre in the Casino, Great Eastern Highway (tel: (08) 93 62 77 77), presents big-budget musicals, such as Chicago and Fame. The Art Deco Regal Theatre, 474 Hay Street, Subiaco (tel: (08) 94 84 11 33), formerly a cinema, hosts bedroom-farce-style theatre. The Perth Theatre Company treads the boards at the Playhouse Theatre, 3 Pier Street (tel: (08) 92 31 23 77); the more cutting-edge Black Swan Theatre Company is based at the Subiaco Theatre Centre, 180 Hamersley Road, Subiaco (tel: (08) 93 81 24 03). Yirra Yaarkin Noongar Theatre (tel: (08) 92 02 19 66) is a leading Australian Aboriginal theatre company whose performances combine traditional dance with contemporary issue-based drama.

Dance:
The West Australian Ballet (tel: (08) 94 81 07 07), resident at His Majesty's Theatre, performs a repertoire of modern dance as well as classical ballet. Buzz Dance Theatre (tel: (08) 92 26 23 33) is an important local modern dance company. Major Australian and international dance companies frequently tour to Perth and perform at His Majesty's Theatre and the Burswood Theatre in the Casino.

Film:
Mainstream movies are screened at Hoyts, Greater Union and Reading multiplexes throughout the city; tickets are cheaper on Tuesdays. Arthouse cinema can be enjoyed at the Cinema Paradiso, 164 James Street, Northbridge (tel: (08) 92 27 17 71) and the Luna, 155 Oxford Street, Leederville (tel: (08) 94 44 40 56). A good budget cinema in the middle of town is the Piccadilly, Hay Street Mall (tel: (08) 93 22 35 77). Outdoor movies are popular during the summer months at the Sunset Cinema in Kings Park, the Somerville Auditorium at the University of Western Australia and the Luna in the Park in Leederville.
Perth is somewhat under-represented in Australian cinema; Peter Weir's Gallipoli (1981) and Scott Hicks' Shine (1996) are arguably the best movies to include Perth as a setting, and the modern city appears in Bill Bennett's Kiss or Kill (1998). Up-and-coming Hollywood stars Heath Ledger and Frances O'Connor are originally from Perth.

Cultural events:
The Perth International Arts Festival takes places every year from late January to the end of February, showcasing local and international theatre, dance, film, music and visual art at venues around the city. The festival is the oldest of its kind in Australia, dating back to 1952. July sees National Islander Observance Committee Week, featuring exhibitions of indigenous art and traditional performances. Perth's Pride Festival happens in September/October with a range of gay and lesbian cultural events culminating in a street parade and dance party.

Literary Notes
Perth features in a number of important Australian books. A B Facey, author of the panoramic autobiography and quintessential 'Aussie battler' story, A Fortunate Life (1981), lived for a large part of that life in Perth working on the (now defunct) tram system. Tim Winton's modern classic Cloudstreet (1991) chronicles 20 years in the life of a Leederville family following World War II, while Robert Drewe's memoir The Shark Net (2000) evokes Perth in the fifties, during serial killer Eric Cooke's reign of terror. Archie Weller's The Day of the Dog (1980), about urban Aboriginal life in Perth, is a key work of black Australian literature; Sally Morgan's lyrical My Place (1987) is another. The city was also home to Australia's greatest Aboriginal playwright, Jack Davis, who tackled injustice in The Dreamers (1982) and No Sugar (1986). Writers who currently call Perth home include Australian literary grande dame Elizabeth Jolley (Miss Peabody's Inheritance, 1983, and An Accommodating Spouse, 1999) and acclaimed, reclusive science fiction author Greg Egan (Permutation City, 1994).



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