DIRECTED by Jordan Best, Echo Theatre is reviving John Kolvenbach’s offbeat comedy “Love Song” in a staged reading featuring Jenna Roberts, Joanna Richards, Tim Sekuless, Jim Adamik and Damon Baudin. At The Q, Queanbeyan. Bookings via 6285 6290.

QL2 DANCE’S new show “Leap into Chaos” is a double bill running at Canberra College Theatre from October 15-18. It has Chaos project “Touch” in the first section and Quantum Leap’s show “Sympathetic Monsters” in the second. Choreographers are Alison Plevey, Olivia Fyfe, Ryan Stone and Jack Ziesing. The live shows are sold out but Wildbear Entertainment will be filming and it can be viewed by the public between 6pm and 9pm, on October 23. Tickets at sidestage.live/ql2

SIXTEEN years ago, a group of Australians created a political uproar and media circus with “Escape from Woomera”, a video game putting players in the shoes of a refugee escaping detention. Now, the collective Applespiel presents an evening of live gaming, performance, discussion and political debate, rescheduled from April. At Link Bar, Canberra Theatre Centre, 7.30pm, October 15-16. Bookings via canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 6275 2700.

. AS part of Australia Miniseries, the Canberra Symphony Orchestra premieres “Distant Solo” by Elena Kats-Chernin this Friday, performed by the CSO principal percussion, Veronica Bailey. With broken chord formations and narrow harmonic shifts, the work was written in response to the global impact of the pandemic on the arts. Accessible from 6.45pm, October 16, here.

Katy Mutton’s visual arts happening, “Panopticon”, part of the Contour 556 festival, will take place in the forecourt and then inside the ANU Drill Hall Gallery from 6-8pm, this Friday, October 16, alongside the “Lightworks” exhibitions. Mutton’s “Space and Light gown” will be worn by Estelle Briedis, accompanied by Stedman Watts. The “Space and Sound” jacket will worn by Brendan Leigh-Taylor, accompanied by Stedman Watts, with soundscape by Chris Endrey. Bookings essential here. 

ALSO during Contour 556, Mural and graffiti artist, byrd, will be exhibiting paintings using reclaimed gallery furniture and industrial shelving as the basis for primarily Australian birds, rendered in handcut, multi-layer aerosol stencil prints. At Nancy Sever’s City Walk Gallery, Level 1, 131 City Walk, Civic (next door to King O‘Malley’s pub) October 14 to November 7.

BEAVER Galleries has Thornton Walker’s “Studies in solitude”, which are paintings that experiment with the dynamics of composition, perspective and spatial depth, alongside Kirrily Humphries’ vignettes of abandoned interiors, small-scale, luminous works built up in many layers of oil glazes, “A fundamental pause”. At 81 Denison Street, Deakin, 10am-5pm, Tuesday to Sunday, October 15 to November 1, or online at beavergalleries.com.au

THE National Film and Sound Archive of Australia has a lineup of creepy classics for the Halloween season. This weekend there’ll be an interactive screening of gay cult film “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge”. At Arc Cinema, NFSA, 8pm, Friday, October 16. Bookings here

M16 has four new openings this week: “Facets” features paintings inspired by a journey from the Kimberleys to Perth and back to Canberra by Manuel Pfeiffer and Eva van Gorsel; “I’ve Had Nightmares That Make More Sense Than This” by David Hempenstall; “Make It Darker” has hundreds of blackened wooden tiles by Jodi Woodward; and in Chutespace “Viral series” #4 sees an artistic response to COVID-19 by Jenny Cox, Rebecca Hodgkin, Stephen Hodgkin and Michael Hodgkin. At 21 Blaxland Crescent Griffith, from noon, Friday, October 16 to November 1.

THE ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences is hosting an intimate virtual conversation between the head of advancement, Andrea Morris, and the creative director of the 2020 Canberra Writers Festival and ANU alumna Jeanne Ryckmans. The conversation is set for 5pm, Thursday, October 15, with bookings here.

“DARK Matter”, a contemporary exhibition, is opening in the PhotoAccess Garden at Manuka Arts Centre tomorrow. The exhibition will feature “State of Change” by artist Emilio Cresciani, which explores the phenomenon of climate change through integrating the transformation of ice into water with photographic processes, and “Found” by David Flanagan, which shows his experimentation with the photographic technique of liquid silver gelatin emulsion printing. The recipient of the 2021 Dark Matter Residency will be announced during the opening that starts at 6pm Thursday, October 15. 

STREAMED Shakespeare will present “Richard III”, directed by Jamie Collette, as October’s live-streamed performance, following Shakespeare’s tale of the rise and fall of one of England’s most infamous monarchs. At 11.30am, October 16, 7pm, October 17 and 2pm, October 18. Accessible here.