AUSE01Z01MA - V1 THE AUSTRALIAN, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2018 14 theaustralian.com.au/arts ARTS

YOUR NATIONAL CULTURE GUIDE Matt Johnson returns with the definite article

NOW SHOWING TASMANIA

Zama (M) MUSIC Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel’s new film, Zama, is set in The Joy of Mozart 1790 in a little colonial Violinist Emma McGrath backwater on the Amazon. The performs Mozart’s Violin central character is Don Diego Concerto No 3. The program de Zama (Daniel Gimenez also includes Haydn’s Cacho, pictured above), a Symphony No 44, Mourning, magistrate representing Korngold’s Much Ado about Spanish justice who is conscious Nothing Suite and Brahms’s of the fact his appointment to Tragic Overture. this out-of-the-way place is a Federation Concert Hall. 1 Davey St, kind of humiliation. To Zama’s Hobart. Friday, 7.30pm. Tickets: $33- frustration, the local governor $99. Bookings: 1800 001 190 or online. constantly frustrates his requests and demands for a transfer, refusing to send the required letter to the king in Madrid, and when the hapless NSW Zama is discovered to be writing Matt Johnson has put the The a book — on government time STAGE back on the road, playing at such — he’s punished by being forced prestigious venues as the Royal to move from his already Leigh Sales: Any Ordinary Day Albert Hall, below, and tonight at primitive accommodation to Walkley award-winner Leigh the Sydney Opera House more squalid premises on the Sales discusses her book Any HELEN EDWARDS outskirts of the community. He Ordinary Day with Annabel responds by joining a band of Crabb. Investigating how the soldiers who are hunting down a brain manages grief and fear, legendary outlaw. As a Sales’s book is a mix of scientific protagonist, Zama is not exactly research and interviews with Matt Johnson was born and raised tre. Trotsky. Graham Greene. an easy figure to understand or those who have faced extreme in the East End of London, where The The’s frontman hopes Australian audiences will sing along and dance George Orwell was his favourite.” warm to. Yet this handsome hardship. — after stints in Sweden, Spain He leaps up and fetches a book film, beautifully photographed Seymour Centre. Corner of City and New York — he lives again titled Tales from The Two Pud- by Portuguese cinematographer Road and Cleveland Street, now. JANE CORNWELL dings, filled with stories and pho- Rui Pocas, is more than just an Chippendale. Today, 6.30pm. Tickets: East London isn’t what it was, tos of uncles and aunts and esoteric exercise in exotica. It’s a $30-$35. Bookings: (02) 9351 7940 or of course. Corner shops and pubs Johnson: that impassioned bari- alongside the eponymous album. immediate family including his stark vision of a corrupt society. online. with sawdust floors and upright tone, those chiselled looks the so- He waited for the phone to ring. It elder brother Andrew, whose DAVID STRATTON hhhkj pianos and have given way to lux- cial conscience he poured into didn’t. “Eventually I understood death in 2016 prompted Johnson ury towers and shiny office blocks. lyrics that railed against war mon- that the joy comes in the creation,” to revive the The; and his father Proud workin- class folk are being gering, inequality and greed. “This he says with a shrug. Eddie, who died earlier this year, Johnny English Strikes Again edged out by hipster millennials, is the day your life will surely “So going forward to 2018 and aged 86, just as the band was about (PG) SOUTH AUSTRALIA who swarm past Johnson’s front change,” he intoned on the band’s being in this band … I’m older. to play Stockholm. “Dad would Rowan Atkinson stars in Johnny door in Shoreditch, E1, unaware 1983 debut, Soul Mining, a classic We’re having a laugh. I’m enjoy- have wanted me to continue,” says English Strikes Again, the third STAGE that the dapper old dude they see that paved the way for a sound as ing the moment.” Johnson, whose new song about film in the comic espionage coming and going was frontman much rock and blues as post-punk. Johnson only ever wanted to death, We Can’t Stop What’s Com- series in which he is a Faith Healer for one of the most acclaimed Today, sitting in a vast living space work in music. The third of four ing, took on added poignancy; it combination of James Bond and Francis Hardy tours Ireland, bands of the 1980s. colonised by books, boxes and sons born to publicans in Strat- will feature on a new studio album Mr Bean. As the title suggests, Scotland and Wales with his “My family goes back genera- recording gear, blinds closed to ford, east London, his earliest mu- due for release next year. this movie is about English wife, preaching his ability to tions to this part of London,” tone down the furnace outside, he sical memories include the Beatles Having returned, Johnson’s coming in from the cold. We cure the ill. Judy Davis directs Johnson, 57, tells me when we says life hasn’t changed — at least wallpaper in his shared bedroom muse is staying faithful. He has set first see him teaching geography this play, written by Brian Friel, meet on a blazing summer’s day, a not on a global level. and muffled sounds of bands play- up a record label, broadcasts on his — and spycraft — at an English which explores themes of chemical heat that saps and wilts Wars are still being waged. The ing in the pub — The Two Pud- own Radio Cineola, has a publish- school. But when a cyber attack nostalgia and faith. and creates a queue in the pop-up underprivileged are still being dings — below. Not just any ing company called 51st State reveals the identity of every Adelaide Festival Centre. Space juice bar outside his home. “I’m abused. Now there’s climate bands; The Two Puddings was one Press and has channelled his flair British spy, the government has Theatre, King William Street. one of the few original East End- change: “It amazes me how many CHRISTIE GOODWIN of the best live music venues in the for mixed-media into a series of to call agents out of retirement. Tonight, 6.30pm. Tickets: $30-$84. ers left.” people are going about oblivious East End and Johnson’s Uncle lovingly crafted CD/book releas- The Prime Minister (Emma Bookings: 131 246 or online. Until Johnson has spent the last dec- to what is unfolding around ‘People need to logue; 2000’s acclaimed NakedSelf Kenny was one of London’s top es. A boxed set features the film Thompson) is about to host a October 13. Duration: 1hr 40min. ade fighting the area’s encroach- them.” He gestures towards a — kept coming. For a long while live music promoters. Tony by his younger brother Ger- G12 summit. It is English who ing gentrification, sitting on shuttered window. “People need put down their he felt stuck. Not for nothing is last “The Small Faces, the Kinks, ard, for which Johnson did the must save the world from the committees, lobbying MPs, re- to put down their phones and phones and year’s documentary about John- before they were famous … We soundtrack; and Moonbug, a doc- cyber terrorists. He is joined by storing the 19th-century building galvanise.” galvanise’ son titled The Inertia Variations, could hear them if we sat on the umentary on the Apollo astro- his tech-savvy comrade cum he owns. But then his muse re- “Put down your phones” is a after a work by English poet John stairs. When I was 12 I learned to nauts with music by the The. I ask manservant Bough (Ben Miller). turned and there was no time to directive he issues from the stage, MATT JOHNSON Tottenham. Johnson read the play boogie woogie on the pub’s who buys them and he flashes a The PM is unconvinced the waste; wasting time, he admits, is during a set of 24 songs cherry- poem from the Royal Albert Hall old Joanna” — Cockney rhyming grin. “Asian housewives,” he empire can be rescued by Her his specialty. picked from albums including the a radio ban. There were long-form stage: “You would think by now slang, he adds with a twinkle, for quips. “You’d be surprised.” Majesty’s Secret Service. So she Putting the The back on the righteously angry Mind Bomb, re- videos involving death-defying people would know better than to upright piano — “then picked up a There are more projects to reaches out to a young Silicon road was a risk that paid off: leased in 1989, the same year the stunts and recording sessions ask me what I have been doing guitar at 14 and formed my first come, he says. But for now, be- Valley tech billionaire (Jake venues including the Royal Albert The toured Australia, wowing fuelled by sleeplessness and magic with my time / And you would band.” tween concern for our overheat- Lacy). This movie is directed by Hall sold out. Reviewers raved: crowds, being drunk and silly on mushroom tea. When Johnson’s think by now I would have come Aged 15 he left school, which he ing planet and a longstanding David Kerr and it’s his first go at “Johnson may not have sung pub- late-night chat shows. “We want younger brother Eugene died sud- up with any answer that would hardly went to anyway, and got a need to talk about gentrification, the series, though the licly for (18) years but there’s little an old-school audience,” says denly in 1989, aged 24, midway silence them.” job in a recording studio in edgy, globalisation, extremism, it is the scriptwriter, William Davies, doubt he’s been practising his Johnson, an intense yet amiable through the band’s world tour, A new authorised biography characterful Soho. Aged 17 he put The, and Australia, that are on his has been there from the start. scales in private,” declared The In- father of two. “I want to see peo- then his mother not long after, details the emptiness that wal- an ad in the hallowed New Musical mind. “I hope they’ll sing along Kerr sensibly sticks more or less NORTHERN dependent. This week, Australia ple’s faces, not a load of screens. Johnson quit. “Everything felt loped him once he had finished Express, a shout-out for musicians and dance.” A smile. “In fact, I tell to the format. There are times will get to relive such catchy, pre- For any performer, that connec- irrelevant,” he’s said. pouring himself into recording influenced by the Residents, Syd people they have to sing along. If I when what is obvious is also TERRITORY scient anthems as Sweet Bird of tion with the audience is oxygen.” Johnson was always an anti- sessions, after travelling the world Barrett, Throbbing Gristle and forget the words I just have to read what is needed, and this is one Truth and Armageddon Days are Johnson threw his all into re- pop star. Recruiting mates such as to make authentic, soul-baring art Velvet Underground. The The their lips.” of them. STAGE Here (Again) as Johnson and a inforcing the sincerity of lyrics ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr for his fans. He tells me how he began as an electronic duo: “I paid STEPHEN ROMEI hhhjj quartet of crack musicians remind such as “Let the bums count their to work on 1992’s Dusk helped. But had sat at home watching a tele- my dues playing various venues The The performs at the Sydney Lisa Wilkinson us how timeless, how relevant, blessings while the rich count the the gaps between releases — vision screening of Infected, the and kept songwriting; my father Opera House today and Journalist and television these songs are. money” from the political single 1995’s Hanky Panky, a leftfield take feature-length film he had spent was a big influence in my self-edu- tomorrow, and at the Melbourne presenter Lisa Wilkinson The The was always Matt Heartland, which was slapped with on Hank Williams’s back cata- three years creating, issuing it cation. He was very well read. Sar- Festival on Thursday and Friday. (above) will step on stage at the QUEENSLAND Darwin Entertainment Centre. Moving from print media to MUSIC radio and television, Wilkinson will discuss stories from her No contest in the saviour stakes Political satire trumped by reality The Louis Armstrong Legacy media career. Jazz singer Herb Armstrong Darwin Entertainment Centre. The presents Louis’s favourite songs Playhouse, 93 Mitchell Street, Darwin accompanied by 16-piece band City. Today, 5.30pm. Tickets: $20. Protecting our way Let’s stop laughing the Art Deco Dance Orchestra. Bookings: (08) 8980 3333 or online. of life comes easily and start voting, says Home of the Arts. Paradise Showroom, 135 Bundall Road, Surfers to the original 007 Armando Iannucci Paradise. Tomorrow, 7.30pm. Tickets: $28-$30. Bookings: (07) 5588 4000 or BEN HOYLE DAVID SANDERSON online. Duration: 2 hr 30 min, WESTERN AUSTRALIA including interval. There are critics who regard the One of Britain’s leading satirists EXHIBITION 1998 film The Avengers as a crime has declared himself redundant. against cinema, if not humanity Armando Iannucci says the rise of 2018 Fremantle Arts Centre itself. Donald Trump and other populist Print Award But while much of the ridicule politicians who regard themselves VICTORIA The 43rd annual Fremantle stems from the appearance of Sir as entertainers means that he now Arts Centre Print Award Sean Connery as a mad-scientist advocates voting instead. Jason Isaac, centre, in Iannucci’s The Death of Stalin EXHIBITION presents a selection of artists’ villain dressed in a teddy-bear “Trump is a self-basting satir- books and prints from emerging costume, the actor is still in credit. Sean Connery as James Bond in Goldfinger, left, and with ist,” Iannucci says. “Just read him Thatcher and Major and Blair and fundamentally OK as people”. He Mandela — My Life: The and established Australian Connery has saved the planet Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and you have found the joke I think we have gone beyond that. sympathised with their predica- Official Exhibition artists. in his roles more times than any about him. It comes out in what he We have gone into a world where ment and reveals that Clement Culled from the archives of the Fremantle Arts Centre. 1 Finnerty St, other actor, researchers say. breakthrough role as James Bond Keanu Reeves. Harrison Ford says, which leaves people like me these people think they are un- Attlee, Tony Blair and Barack Johannesburg-based Mandela Fremantle. Daily, 10am-4pm. Free The former Edinburgh body- in Dr No, the first film adapted and Will Smith came fourth and slightly redundant other than just touchable and the only way to Obama were three figures that he Foundation, this exhibition entry. Inquiries: (08) 9432 9555 or builder and milkman never both- from Ian Fleming’s novels. fifth. to point it out.” touch them is by voting them out, respected. includes documents and online. Until November 4. ered to develop an Irish accent for He prevents the mysterious Milla Jovovich was the most Iannucci, 54, creator of tele- so I would far rather concentrate While not naming others be- memorabilia, plus a suite of his Oscar-winning performance Julius No, a rogue atomic scien- deadly actress, with 1296 kills in vision shows and films such as The on that.” yond Trump, Iannucci says that paintings by South African artist as an Irish-American cop in The tist, from using a nuclear-pow- the Resident Evil series — though Thick of It and The Death of Stalin, Iannucci says he is not making the “current brand are their own John Meyer depicting Untouchables. But frankly, when ered radio beam to override US most of them were zombies. told the Cliveden Literary Festival “much stuff about the present entertainers”. “That is how Mandela’s life from childhood you’ve thwarted 13 bids to subvert missile launching systems and Other actors in the top five are Jet in Britain that politics has “moved day”, with his latest project being Trump sees himself, he is ob- to world renown. the world order as we know it in hold the world to ransom. Con- Li, Dolph Lundgren, Arnold beyond satire”. an adaptation of Dickens’s David sessed with figures and ratings. MIRIAM COSIC films spread across four decades, nery provided a similar service as Schwarzenegger and Chow Yun- “The best, most powerful, re- Copperfield. He is obsessed with a measurable Melbourne Museum. Touring Hall, and been named the Greatest 007 in six more Bond films. Re- fat. To be considered in the killer sponse against people like them is Despite his scathing portrayal popularity, so to maintain and 11 Nicholson St, Carlton. Daily, 10am- Living Scot into the bargain, why searchers from Movies4Men, the category, actors must have re- to vote against them, rather than of politicians in The Thick of It and achieve that popularity he has to 5pm. Tickets: $17.90-$32. Bookings: 13 would you? Connery began res- action film channel, say his 13 res- ceived combat and weapons just to make jokes,” he says. the HBO series Veep, Iannucci do something very day to make a 11 02 or online. Until March 2019. cuing humanity from doom and cue acts put him three clear of training. “I worry that to make jokes you says that none of those he sati- headline,” he sats. destruction in 1962 with his Bruce Willis and four ahead of THE TIMES kind of accept them on a par with rised were “criminals; they are THE TIMES