Robyn Nevin on Agatha Christie's 'dark side' + a play about Julian Assange

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival has taken over the city. Comedians from across Australia and around the world are here including the UK's Nicola And Rosie Dempsey, as dead-pan singing sisters Flo and Joan. This year they're also presenting One Man Musical – a musical take-down of Andrew Lloyd Webber!Producer Rosa Ellen hits the streets and meets three comedians debuting shows at MICF: the word-of-mouth hit Jin Hao Li (Swimming in a Submarine), Tik Tok pop songstress Charlene Kaye and Brisbane's queen of crowd work, Anisa Nandaula (You Can't Say That)Kayah Guenther is 31 and he has been dancing since he was a kid. Now with his sister Maitreyah Guenther he is performing in a skilful, intimate show called The Glass Child. Kayah has Down Syndrome and the performance is an exploration of their journey together and their growth to adulthood. They're joined by choreographer Kate Harman from The Farm. Music by Anna Whitaker.

John Harding, a founder of Ilbijerri Theatre Company and veteran playwright, recorded 20 hours of Taungurung elder Uncle Larry Walsh recounting his life story. The result is Lazarus, a sold-out theatre show telling a life of tragic beginnings as a stolen child, survival in institutions and fearless activism. We also hear Billy McPherson, playing Larry. Lazarus is on as part of Melbourne /Naarm's Yirramboi festival.Jason Arrow is known to many as the titular character in Hamilton where he had an extraordinary run both in Australia and internationally. Now he has put his breeches and coat tails away and has donned a 1950s dapper suit for the character of Nicely-Nicely Johnson in Opera Australia’s Guys and Dolls on Sydney Harbour. He sings for us the showstopper Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat!The Player Kings is a show which takes the audience on an 8-hour journey through plays by Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe that chart the rise and fall of five kings. Liam Gamble is making his professional theatre debut, alongside Emma Palmer who plays the evil Queen Margaret. Liam has cerebral palsy, and talks about playing the villainous Richard III, a character who is disabled and endures cruel treatment.

Comedian and writer Ruby Wax tells Michael about how she recently found herself in a mental health clinic, after searching for transformative experiences (like swimming with whales). So what drives her to go public about her experiences, and stay funny?Two thousand years ago and the Roman poet Ovid has been banished to live out his days among uncivilised people on the Black Sea ... The plot of An Imaginary Life by Australian writer David Malouf. Humphrey Bower is performing it as a one man play about how to live with others, and with nature. Musician Pavan Khumar Hari performs alongside. It's on as part of Ten Days on the Island festival.We chat with Australian actor Eliza Scanlen (Sharp Objects, Little Women), who is Cecily in a joyfully Queer production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, which can be seen in cinemas as part of the UK's National Theatre Live, co-starring Ncuti Gatwa (Dr Who) and Hugh Skinner (Fleabag).

This episode of The Stage Show is about love that doesn't end well!The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is retold in a hit folk musical called Hadestown. It's won Tonys, Grammys and is now in Australia. We speak to the singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell, who wrote Hadestown as a concept album, before touring it around in an old bus and then turning it into a remarkable stage show with the Broadway director Rachael Chavkin.Soprano Anna Dowsley sings the gorgeous aria Ah Belinda! In  Dido and Aeneas,  the opera by Henry Purcell about another ill-fated couple from classical times. Anna reflects on her character's fate and on working with acrobats in this production between Opera Australia and Circa, the Queensland based circus company.Anton Chekhov’s play Three Sisters  follows the lives of  a 19th C. family who feel trapped and are hankering for something more. It continues our theme for the day of tragic love-stories. We hear from Theatre Works' new production with director Greg Carroll,  and actors Stella Carroll and Chris Connely. And globe trotting theatre critic from UK's The Stage newspaper, Richard Jordan, joins us for his highlights of the Adelaide Fringe .

Actor, director and writer Leah Purcell has been telling us her own stories and the stories of people close to her since the 1990s. Now Leah’s back – as the adaptor and director of the true tale of Aunty Ruth Hegarty, which take us into the heart of Australia’s post-colonial history, a powerful two-person play called Is that you, Ruthie?The life of a performer on the road can be tough, but think about the partner who’s left back at home. Add a new baby to the mix and it can be challenging indeed. This was the experience of Kyle Falconer, the lead singer of Scottish band The View and his partner Laura Wilde. They tell their story in an indi musical No Love Songs. We're joined by the Australian cast Keegan Joyce and Lucy Maunder.Damien Warren-Smith is the comedian behind Garry Starr, the (increasingly nude) clown who has toured highly successful shows like Garry Starr Performs Everything, Greece Lightning and now, Classic Penguins, which won rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe and is now coming to Australia. Garry may be a buffoon, but Damien takes clowning very seriously.

We meet Irish screen and theatre actor Stephen Rea, who talks about meeting Samuel Beckett early in his career. Rea so wanted to perform Beckett's play Krapp's Last Tape, he had the foresight to record his youthful self reading it. In his new production at Adelaide Festival, the audience gets to hear those recordings.We head Back Stage to the hat maker's studio! In fiction there are lots of characters who are famous for their hats. Robin Hood. Sherlock Holmes.  Lady Bracknell (she needs a ridiculous hat). In our new series Back Stage, Michael meets theatre milliner Phillip Rhodes, who reveals how hats bring a character to life. Butoh is a dance form that started in Japan in the 1950s and was called 'the dance of darkness'. Dancers often wear white body paint and explore raw psychological states. But it can also be outrageous and funny, as veteran performer Yumi Umiumare tells us about her own life practising Butoh. Yumi's latest show is Butoh Bar: Out of Order II for Asia TOPA.

Shortly before he died, Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto performed a piano concert called Kagami – which was filmed and recorded with mixed reality technology. Thanks to that, the audience can see and hear Sakamoto play on a level of reality which pushes the boundaries of what a concert can be. Todd Eckert was a friend of Sakamoto and through his company Tin Drum, is pioneering this tech for the stage. The tragic heroine Violetta, from La Traviata, is one of the most iconic roles in opera.  Samantha Clarke is reprising her much acclaimed performance as the ill-fated courtesan for Opera Australia's La Traviata and explains why Violetta is so dear to her. She also sings the breathtaking aria Addio del passato for us, accompanied by Brian Castles-Onion.For generations, Yolngu met and traded with other seafaring people in the top end of the continent. From this, language and songs, stories and more was exchanged. Now the Yolngu songman and dancer Banula  Marika and choreographer Rachael Wallis are collaborating with First Nations artists from Taiwan, including Suming Rupi … for a show called Gapu Ngupan (Chasing the Rainbow) at Asia TOPA in Melbourne.

As a teenager in Belgium, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui  grew up dancing with his friends in the street. He’s now a renowned choreographer with his own company and the director of the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, choreographing everything from pop music videos to the new show MANIFEST at Perth Festival - where members of the public can train alongside his dancers for a performance in the city’s Forrest Place.Can love exist between two people on opposite sides of the nuclear debate? In her new play Nucleus, Alana Valentine pits two passionately engaged scientists against each other, basing their arguments on real life interviews, but adding a nuclear force of attraction into the mix. We're also joined by Peter Kowitz playing Dr Gabriel Hulst. from the funny and vernacular Palawa/Pakana playwright, Nathan Maynard. In the era of AFL footballer Adam Goodes' famous war cry, two Aboriginal footy players in a regional club confront the personal cost of either staying quiet or speaking out about racism. We're joined by the show's star, Ngali Shaw (Wiradjuri, Murawari, Kunja) and director, and co-choreographer of the show's breathtaking football sequences, Isaac Drandic (Noongar). First broadcast March 2024

Australian theatre legend Robyn Nevin is directing And Then There Were None, a classic murder mystery by Agatha Christie. She talks to Michael about the darkness in Christie's stories, her view on changing acting styles and how Robyn finds her 'inner clown'. Playwright Patricia Cornelius explains why she has five actors playing the world's most famous hacker — Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, in her new play TRUTH. She's joined by director Susie Dee.And you’ll discover a ballet about the great Russian dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. Michael speaks to Australian Ballet principal artist Callum Linnane, who first danced the part nine years ago in the ballet Nijinsky.

UK director Emma Rice thinks the classic novel Wuthering Heights has many contemporary resonances, particularly around the origins of the character Heathcliff.  Rice turned the story into a rollicking play after successfully adapting other English folktales and films for the stage. She tells us about her career, which included briefly leading Shakespeare's Globe theatre before founding her own company Wise Children.Rwandan writer and director Dorcy Rugamba brings his moving theatre piece Hewa Rwanda: Letter to the absent to the Adelaide Festival. In it, he honours the family members he lost in the 1994 genocide, and the performance has a spiritual significance, accompanied by musician Majnun.Playwright Joanna Murray Smith joins actors Caroline Lee and Peter Houghton for a reading of a scene from her play Honour. Since it was first performed 30 years ago, Joanna says her perspective on the characters has changed. It's being staged at Red Stitch Theatre.