Theatre

The Odd Couple in Brisbane

Queensland Theatre Company’s artistic director Wesley Enoch directs his final play in Brisbane before taking on his new role at the helm of the Sydney festival: Neil Simon’s 1965 play The Odd Couple, famously adapted for the screen in 1968, tells the story of two very different men unexpectedly united under one roof.

Jason Klarwin is Oscar, a slobby sports journo whose once-palatial apartment is a sea of domestic detritus, following his divorce. Tama Matheson is Felix, a pernickety neat-freak (“the only man in the world with clenched hair”) who, until his own recent divorce, had nothing in common with Oscar. Under Enoch’s direction, the play places gender centre stage, looking at how men’s roles have – or haven’t – changed over 50 years.

• The Odd Couple is at Playhouse, QPAC from 17 October to 8 November

Performance art

Party for 1 in Perth

Intimate styles of theatre and performance are ever growing in popularity. The One-on-One festival was a big hit at London’s Battersea Arts Centre in 2010, and two years later, Australia got its own Proximity festival.

Each year since, artists have taken over a building in Western Australia, repurposing it for 12 days of experimental performance, with the emphasis on proximity. This year, the Art Gallery of Western Australia plays host, as curators Sarah Rowbottam and Kelli Mccluskey bring 12 emerging and established artists in for the festival.

Proximity kicks off with an aptly named Party for 1, although everyone, space permitting, is invited. Performers will lurk in unexpected spots, luring individuals into one-on-one performances. The festival continues with tours, talks and workshops.

• Party for 1 opens the Proximity festival at the Art Gallery of Western Australia on 31 October

Film

Love Actually: A Century of British Romance in Adelaide

There might have been a renaissance of Australian film in the past decade, but Australians still have a penchant for British cinema.

Box office numbers suggest an affection for British romantic comedies spiked globally from the late 1990s to early 2000s. But even before then, the Brits had something to say about love. And for the BBC First’s third annual British Film festival, Palace Cinemas will host a series of retrospectives, Love Actually: A Century of British Romance.

From love in the English countryside of the 1900s with Joseph Losey’s Palme d’Or winning The Go Between, to Ken Russell’s take on Women in Love by DH Lawrence; from John Schlesinger’s 1970 Sunday Bloody Sunday, which peaked at a bisexual love triangle, to the classic Oscar nominated romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), the romance series covers it all.

• The British Film festival runs from 29 October to 18 November nationally

Design

Sydney Open in Sydney

In September 2015, Chippendale’s latest urban development opened to provide a Melbourne-style laneway in a heritage listed colonial Sydney spot. The converted 1840s workers’ cottages and warehouses on Kensington Street sit next to the $2bn “urban village” of Central Park, with a paved street of restaurants, cafes, small bars and all things relatively hip.

As part of Sydney Living Museum’s Sydney Open, architects Tom Greer and Tonkin Zulaikha Greer will discuss how their project unfolded, and introduce a monthly alfresco art and design market, showcasing emerging luminaries of Sydney’s artisan makers scene.

• Kensington Street events take place on 1 November in Chippendale

Books

The Next Big Thing in Melbourne

Lucy Treloar’s 2015 novel Salt Creek takes readers back to the South Australian coastline of 1850. There, a family struggles to survive in harsh conditions on the coastal wetland that is the traditional home of the Ngarrindjeri people. At the Moat in Melbourne, Treloar will talk about her writing process, alongside other Australian literary voices in the October edition of The Next Big Thing.

This series of monthly discussions is run by the Wheeler Centre to help readers keep up with all that is new in books and writing. The event also showcases the writers to watch for on the book scene. Treloar will be joined by Claire Varley, Luke Beesley and Rafael SW (long-listed for Guardian Australia’s Richell prize for emerging writers) to discuss their work over food and drink.

• The Next Big Thing is at the Moat, Melbourne on 26 October