Polite Society's Social Diary - December

Is it possible that Christmas is getting bigger each year? Certainly the number of festive activities has exploded like a glitter-filled bonbon over our arts venues this year. Top of our list is the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s performance of the score for Dr Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas (December 5 & 6, Hamer Hall), followed by – of course – Handel’s Messiah on December 13 &14 (also at Hamer Hall). Who doesn’t love a bit of high/low culture at Christmas? Meanwhile, Sir Peter Wright’s beloved production of The Nutcracker plays at the Opera House until December 16, while Big Live’s version is at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre from December 11-31 – reviewed as a charming, traditional ballet from an up-and-coming company.

And if you haven’t already selected all your Christmas gifts from us, you can pick up extras at one of the many Christmas markets: our favourites include the Makers and Shakers Market in Rozelle (December 13 &14), featuring only Australian-made products, and the Trust Makers Market (December 14) at elegant Rippon Lea, Melbourne.

If any gallery knows how to roll out the big guns, it’s the NGV – and its new exhibition Westwood | Kawakubo doesn’t disappoint. Bringing together two of the 20^th century’s most subversive designers, the show features over 140 designs that illustrate how their radical aesthetics changed fashion, even though neither were professionally trained. Rei Kawakubo, aged 83, still works with the ground-breaking label she founded, Comme des Garcons, and she remains hugely influential, just as Vivienne Westwood’s punk looks retain their power to shock. December 7-April 19, 2029

For her latest exhibition, Laissez Faire + The Witzig Archive at Melbourne’s Sophie Gannon Gallery, artist Zoe Young set herself the challenge of a ‘camera detox’, painting only from whatever was immediately there at her Southern Highlands home. These still life and portraits feel quintessentially Australian – just-ripe fruit, sliced figs on a plate next to a carelessly discarded napkin, her young son enjoying the sun on his face. They’re beautiful, mostly sold but still worth seeing. Until December 13

Following its sold-out run in Melbourne, Edward Albee’s excoriating Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf arrives in Sydney, with Logie Award-winner Kat Stewart and her real-life husband David Whiteley as unhappily married Martha and George. After a faculty party, they invite an unwitting younger couple, Nick and Honey, for a nightcap, during which one revelation rolls into another, with increasingly devastating effect. At three hours long, this is a wild, deep-dive into marital disharmony – couples may nod wryly, at best; anyone else could very well eschew wedlock entirely. Until December 14, Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney Opera House

Melbourne-born artist Ron Mueck grew up in the family business of puppetry and doll-making, but there’s little cute or child-like in the unsettling, hyper-realist sculptures he now creates. Now based on the Isle of Wight, Mueck works slowly, over the course of his career producing only 43 sculptures, and they’re arrestingly good. Encounter, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, is the largest exhibition of his work ever seen in Australia, and includes Couple Under An Umbrella, an older man and woman recognisable from any beach (but huge), and his new work, Havoc, a frankly frightening group of monstrous fighting dogs. A must-see. December 6-April 12

And finally, speaking of monsters, what better way to wrap up the year than by joining Lady Gaga on The MAYHEM Ball tour? The winner of 14 Grammy Awards hasn’t visited Australia since 2014, which means plenty of new songs for her ‘Little Monsters’ to sing along to. Given this is Lady Gaga, we’re expecting plenty of theatricality, huge sets (the main set piece being a Colosseum-like opera house) and incredible costumes. Can’t wait. December 5 &6, Marvel Stadium, Melbourne; December 12 & 13, Sydney Olympic Park