This month we profile one of Australia’s most remarkable creative exports, playwright Suzie Miller. Since Prima Facie transformed her from an acclaimed Australian dramatist into an international theatrical phenomenon, Miller has continued to tackle complex social issues with intelligence and humanity.

As Jo Litson discovers, her latest work, Strong is the New Pretty, explores another revolution – the birth of the AFL Women’s competition – examining not only the struggle for equality in sport but the broader question of who gets to shape our cultural narratives. It’s a reminder that theatre can still change minds as well as move audiences.

Questions of identity and reinvention surface elsewhere in this issue. Countertenors were once regarded as a curiosity, even an oddity, by many concertgoers. Today, they occupy a central place in opera houses and concert halls around the world. Shamistha de Soysa traces the extraordinary journey of the high male voice, from the controversial legacy of the castrati to today’s flourishing generation of singers reclaiming repertoire and expanding expectations.

A musical, yes, but one with uncommon depth, Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods is a sophisticated meditation on morality, responsibility and the stories societies tell themselves....