From the daring, artistically conscious works staged by Sydney's Belvoir Street Theater, which recently scored an international success with "
Cloud Street," to the splashy, big-budget musicals associated with Cameron Mackintosh to a similar spectrum that differentiates the more flamboyant movies of directors Luhrmann and Elliott from the more nuanced, character-driven films of Jocelyn Moorhouse ("Proof," "A Thousands Acres") and Scott Hicks ("Shine," "Snow Falling on Cedars"), the Australian performing arts, and cinema in particular, is a mish-mash of influences,
Many of the terms are endearing, such as anvil zits,
cloud streets, horse latitudes, knuckles, mamma clouds, steam clouds and, of course, graupel.