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Event Review: The Bubbles Festival – Melbourne 2025

3 May 2025 Megan Davis

The Bubbles Festival Rating

★★★★★

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Few things are more delightful than a glass of sparkling wine enjoyed riverside. The Bubbles Festival delivered exactly that and more at this year’s Melbourne session at the stunning River’s Edge in Docklands.

The atmosphere was elegant without being stiff, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Yarra and the golden glow of autumn light. This wasn’t a crowded scramble for samples but a perfectly paced event where guests could relax, discover, and indulge.

Founder Natalie Pickett opened the event with warmth and wit, reminding us that sparkling wine is beautiful and should be enjoyed with all the senses. Her tasting tips were charming and personal: listen to the bubbles, take in the aroma, and always pair with food. The canapés were curated accordingly, with a seafood station offering plump prawns, fresh oysters, mussels, and calamari and a generous cheese station of soft and hard cheeses. Additional bites roved the room, matching the mood and the wine effortlessly.

On the tasting front, the festival truly delivered on its promise of diversity. There was something for every palate, with around 18 different wines available — including French Champagnes, Italian sparklings, and standout Australian drops from the Yarra Valley, Great Western and Mornington Peninsula. A personal highlight was the Flinders Bloom Elderflower Spritz, inspired by the classic Hugo. Light, floral, and utterly refreshing, it combined méthode traditionnelle sparkling wine with lemon myrtle and elderflower for what can only be described as springtime in a glass.

VIP guests were treated to a tasting of Champagne Philippe Fourrier Millésime 2017 Blanc de Noirs, a refined pinot noir as elegant as the event itself. With a private tasting, RIEDEL glasses to take home, and a charitable contribution to Sacred Heart Mission.

Beyond the wine, guests could browse and purchase Susan Kerian’s gorgeous Parisian-style illustrations, a lovely visual complement to the day.

If you’re a sparkling lover, this event isn’t just worth attending — it’s essential. Whether you’re discovering a new favourite Prosecco or sipping vintage Champagne, The Bubbles Festival is a celebration in the truest sense.

Visit The Bubbles Festival website to book tickets and discover more about each city’s event; dates for 2025 are:
Melbourne – 3 May 2025
Brisbane – 9 & 10 May 2025
Sydney – 16 & 17 May 2025
Adelaide – 31 May 2025
Perth – 21 June 2025

To book tickets to The Bubbles Festival, please visit https://thebubblesreview.com/the-bubbles-festival/.

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Chalkface: Melville Theatre

6 May 20253 May 2025 Manuela Kacomanolis

Chalkface Rating

★★★★★

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Chalkface is a glimpse into the lives of six staff members from the fictional West Vale Public Primary School.

The two protagonists in the play, Pat Novitsky and Anna Park are polar opposites. Pat is a weary, cynical 56-year-old teacher and Anna is a 22-year-old perky graduate teacher, full of enthusiasm.

Pat has been teaching at West Vale for many years and has given up trying to make a difference in teaching and in the lives of the students. Her weariness is evident from the moment she steps into the staff room on the first day of Term One, dragging her feet with shoulders hunched. Years of bureaucratic red-tape, the constant lack of funding and having to deal with difficult parents appears to have taken a toll on her and that bright light within her she once had is now dim.

Anna on the other hand has full of ideas on how to improve the school for the teachers and for the students. On her very first day she is already suggesting new teaching methods that land her on the wrong side of Pat. The two clash throughout the play but as they get to know each other on a more personal level they develop a common ground.

The other characters are Denise Hart, the somewhat ditzy pre-primary teacher; Cheryl Filch, the former bank worker now school office manager who guards the office supplies with an iron fist; Steve Budge, who is convinced a parent of one of his students is stalking him; and lycra Principal Douglas Housten.

Rather than acts in the play they have terms which I thought was quite a clever way of delivering the performance. With each term more layers of the characters unravel.

Set in the staff room of West Vale, the set designer has done a brilliant job in presenting a run-down and outdated staff room with cracks in the walls and basic office furniture. This was a dead give-away that West Vale is a public school and the lack of school funding is a major theme throughout the play.

Natalie Burbage is phenomenal as the grouchy Pat Novitsky and Sophie Harvey-Lissienko is equally as good as the bright Anna Park. The other cast members Louise Fishwick, Cameron Leese, Maree Stedul and Christopher Hill all deliver strong performances and the camaraderie amongst the cast shines through in their performances.

There is a strong message conveyed in the play which many of us are perhaps already aware of and that is teaching is a hard profession. Teachers are underappreciated and underpaid. But as the director Vanessa Jensen mentions in her Director’s Notes, playwright Angela Betzien describes Chalkface as a “love letter to teachers” with relatable teacher issues presented in a humorous manner.

To book tickets to Chalkface, please visit https://melvilletheatrecompany.au/current-production.

Photographer: Curtain Call Creatives

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Rhys Darby: The Legend Returns

29 April 2025 Manuela Kacomanolis

Rhys Darby – The Legend Returns Rating

★★★★★

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The first time I knew about Kiwi comedian Rhys Darby was when I happened to stumble upon a tv show in which he travels to Japan, “Rhys Darby: Big in Japan”, and I instantly became a fan so I was super excited when I found out that he would be performing a show in Perth for the Perth Comedy Festival and his show did not disappoint.

Although Rhys delves into a range of topics, which he manages to squeeze into his hour-long show, it centred predominantly on technology and its impact on society.

His take on Artificial Intelligence (AI) within society was especially cleverly portrayed using an analogy of a horse and carriage. The horses are the AI, the tech billionaires Mark Zuckerburg, Elon Musk and Sam Altman are the horsemen with the whips directing the horses where to go, the general population are the passengers inside the carriages not knowing where the horses are taking them, and the Baby Boomer generation are being dragged behind the carriages in this crazy ride. The whole image was brought to life energetically with Rhys impersonating the horses, the tech billionaires, the general population and the Baby Boomers.

With Perth known as being behind the rest of the world in everything, he jokes that Perth wouldn’t be aware of this, as AI hasn’t yet hit Perth.

Throughout the show, Rhys tells separate stories like Rumba the robot vacuum that escapes from home or the flying machine he invents to take his kids to school. In the end, he manages to weave all the stories into one cleverly crafted final story.

Rhys is also a man of hidden talents, or perhaps a talent of his that isn’t so well known. I was impressed with his voice, sound effects, and his beatboxing and DJ skills. During the performance, he manages to put together a live track of him beatboxing.

Rhys was full of energy throughout his entire show. He is not one to stand still. He is animated in the stories that he tells, and his passion for comedy and storytelling shines through in his performances. There are some comedians who are more popular with male audience and others with female audience. Rhys appeals to a wide range of audience members regardless of age, gender or ethnicity.

Unlike other comedians, he also delivered quite a poignant message about not getting too consumed with technology, to appreciate each other’s company whilst we can, as life is short and not to be so afraid of what the future holds in these uncertain times.

The Perth Comedy Festival runs from 21 Apr to 18 May. To book tickets to a show, please visit https://www.perthcomedyfestival.com/.

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Hysteria – A Thriller That Burns Through the Lies

25 April 2025 Megan Davis

Hysteria Rating

★★★★★

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The German Film Festival previewed at Palace Cinemas with the Australian première of Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s Hysteria. This 104-minute political thriller left the crowd hushed and visibly rattled on the way out. On a film set that unravels after a burned Quran is discovered, Hysteria is equal parts whodunnit, social essay, and psychological pressure cooker.

Büyükatalay wastes no time striking the match. When the sacred text is smouldering among the props, blame ricochets between the director, the star, a slippery producer and a van-load of asylum-seeker extras. Class, faith and power lines are drawn in seconds; alliances fray just as quickly. This film proves you don’t need a big budget to create tension. The tension comes from the people, not the pyrotechnics.

One of Hysteria’s thrills (and frustrations) is its refusal to hand you a neat answer. Every scene forces you to ask: whose version of events do I believe, and what does that say about me? Büyükatalay is less interested in solving the mystery than in showing how easily images of “the Other” override the human being standing before us. That makes for an unsettling watch, but it’s precisely the point. Cineuropa praised the film’s “important inquiry into the representation of migrant minorities”, even as it noted the narrative leaves viewers “confused”. Confusion about how you want the story to pan out and who turns out to be the protagonist and the antagonist.

As a 24-year-old intern, Elif Devrim Lingnau anchors the film with wide-eyed resolve that gradually hardens into fury. Refugee extra Said (Mehdi Meskar) and Director Yigit (Serkan Kaya) spar with her in tightly coiled exchanges that feel one breath away from violence. Nicolette Krebitz steals scenes as a calculating producer who knows exactly how far an image can travel once uploaded. The casting is strong, there are no weak links.

The use of close-ups in Hysteria traps the audience inside green-screen warehouses and cramped caravans. The pacing is fast; the 104 minutes fly by. Cinematographer Julian Krubasik ensures we feel connected to every character in every shot.

This film may leave you feeling cold if you love films that end all tied up neatly with a little bow. Hysteria is a must-see for viewers who relish cinema that sends them out into the foyer to debate morality, identity, and media manipulation. Behind every flame lies a darker truth.

Büyükatalay’s sophomore feature doesn’t just hold up a mirror; it shatters it, then asks us to pick up the shards and see which reflection we choose. Catch it while the German Film Festival programme runs nationwide, and check session times via the Palace Cinemas website. Take a friend; you’ll need someone to argue with on the tram ride home.

The HSBC German Film Festival presented by Palace runs from 2 May – 21 May, in association with German Films. In 2025, the festival will showcase the best contemporary German cinema direct from major festivals in Europe, plus a selection from its German-speaking neighbours, Austria and Switzerland.

To book tickets to Hysteria, or for date and session information for any other films in the festival, please visit https://germanfilmfestival.com.au/.

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