As part of Sydney Fringe 2017, the opening night of The Lady in the Barracks promises to be a cracker of tension and intrigue. See Mary Putland (Genevieve Helson) battle a hostile military to help free her father Governor Bligh (Leof Kingsford-Smith). Set in 1809 in Colonial Sydney, The Lady in the Barracks is a new and original work from Australian playwright Margaret Fitzgerald. Directed by Bron Lim.

WHAT: Theatre Production Opening Night
WHEN: 7:30-8:45pm
WHERE: The Actor’s Pulse, Sydney
HOW MUCH: $25, more info

‘Pressure Sensitive’, is a series of works made around these events, the title alluding to this period in the artist’s life. This exhibition at Vandal Gallery will be the first time these new works have been shown as a series, showcasing his new approach and marking a new period in the artist’s career. The gestural works encapsulate a tension between the modern adult’s state of freedom and imprisonment. Taking flight in a cage.

WHAT: Art Exhibition Opening
WHEN: 6-8pm
WHERE: Vandal Gallery, Redfern
HOW MUCH: Free, more info

The Sydney Asian Art Series presents leading international voices on early, modern and contemporary Asian art. This three-year series of talks and events is co-presented by the University of Sydney’s China Studies Centre, The Power Institute and VisAsia, with support from the Art Gallery of New South Wales and Sydney Ideas. Professor Saloni Mathur will explore the state of contemporary art in India in light of its cultural legacy.

WHAT: Artist Talk
WHEN: 6-7:30pm
WHERE: USYD Old Geology Lecture Theatre, Camperdown
HOW MUCH: Free RSVP, more info

‘Seasons’ will feature a selection of Zhuang Hong Yi’s two dominant yet distinct mediums. One series of works is his Flowerbed series, produced with painstakingly folded origami rice-paper flowers covered in colour-shifting layers of acrylic paint. The other is his hotly anticipated Landscape Flower-field Paintings created using acrylic in heavily sculpted and gestural impasto with unfolded rice-paper flowers. With their mesmerising colour shifts and bold impasto texture these works are a conversation piece quite unlike any other.

WHAT: Art Exhibition Opening Drinks
WHERE: Piermarq, Paddington
WHEN: 6-8pm
HOW MUCH: Free, RSVP, more info

SHTF is an exhibition by Guy Louden, Loren Kronemyer, and Dan McCabe about preppers. Preppers are a subculture of people that prepare for the collapse of society. Prepping is both a hobby and a world view. It has its own aesthetics, vocabulary, and consumer objects, and also its own values and fantasies, centered around the moment of collapse and its aftermath, or, in prepper terms “when shit hits the fan (SHTF)”.

WHAT: Art Exhibition Opening
WHEN: 12-6pm (Wednesday-Sunday, until 29th September)
WHERE: Firstdraft, Woolloomooloo
HOW MUCH: Free, more info

Badgirl Garden is a space created by a team of women smashing into the Sydney arts and music scene. Art, Music, Installations, Performances, Open Mic. Stayfly presents a stellar line-up of DJ’s including performance by LUMISPINNERS, as well a mélange of live art and installation design.

WHAT: Art showcase + music
WHEN: 9pm-12am
WHERE: Slyfox Hotel, Enmore
HOW MUCH: $5 on door, more info

The Latin American Film Festival is a not-for-profit organisation that supports social justice, environmental and community development organisations in Latin America and Latin American communities in Australia. They aim to bring the best Latin American film, events and culture in Sydney. The film festival presents diverse stories, cultures and voices from the Latin American community by carefully selecting films, documentaries and shorts. Opening the festival is On the Roof, and afterwards  the opening night fiesta, complete with latin music!

WHAT: Latin American Film Festival

WHERE: Dendy, Circular Quay and Casula Powerhouse

WHEN: 7th-11th & 24th September

HOW MUCH: $14.50-$50. More info here.

Ever wondered what living in a sex saturated world when you’re just not really into it? Asexual Healing confronts assumptions made about people who are asexual and will leave you thinking about your basic assumptions about the world. Nikki Spunde is a comedian and improv performer who fronts the show, using her own stories of a shag-free life and talk about a rarely examined part of human sexuality.

WHAT: Nikki Splunde’s Asexual Healing, Sydney Fringe

WHEN: 9:30pm

WHERE: The Factory Theatre

HOW MUCH: $10-15. More info here.

Australia’s largest contemporary art fair is back in action this year at Carriageworks! Sydney Contemporary celebrates Australasia’s art and is a platform for Sydneysiders to discover and buy local art. Welcoming work from over 90 galleries, this four-day event includes ground-breaking installations, live performance, video art and panel discussions. Sydney Contemporary is a must-attend art event for any art lover, with opportunities to see works from world famous artists and discover emerging talent.

WHAT: Sydney Contemporary

WHEN: Thursday 7 September 5pm-9pm continuing until the 10th of September

WHERE: Carraigeworks, Redfern

HOW MUCH: $10-$50. More info here.

“Wabi-Sabi is an intuitive appreciation of a transient beauty in the physical world that reflects the irreversible flow of life in the spiritual world. It is an understated beauty that exists in the modest, rustic, imperfect, or even decayed, an aesthetic sensibility that finds a melancholic beauty in the impermanence of all things”.- Andrew Juniper’s ‘Wabi Sabi; The Japanese Art of Impermanence’ (2003).

WHAT: Photography exhibition opening
WHEN: 6pm-8pm
WHERE: Black Eye Gallery, Darlinghurst
HOW MUCH: Free, more info

Balik Bayan will transform every corner of Blacktown Arts Centre into a gathering space of intersecting contemporary art forms: video, installation, painting, performance, film, community activations and events, featuring local and international artists with Filipino ancestry.

WHAT: Art Exhibition Official Opening
WHEN: 6pm-8pm
WHERE: Blacktown Arts Centre
HOW MUCH: Free RSVP, more info

Two Up is a monthly talk series that combines two seemingly unrelated topics in a series of back to back lectures. After two short lectures, the floor opens up to an impulsive round of questioning. Two Up is bringing together two emerging artists whose practice are worlds apart. Performance artist Angela Goh is a dancer and choreographer whose work explores the dance as a form. While Sabella D’Souza’s performance based practice considers cultural identity in public and private spaces, particularly the internet.

WHAT: Artist Talk Series
WHEN: 3-4pm
WHERE: Carriageworks, Sydney
HOW MUCH: Free RSVP, more info