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The Highly Strung Players
SHOW DETAILS:
Monday 2 February 2026
duration: 80 minutes
times: 7pm
ticket price: $25 – $40
bookings: 03 9662 9966
warnings: TBC
Following a sellout performance in 2024, The Highly Strung Players return to fortyfivedownstairs with two plays by award-winning author Peter Rose, who founded this absurdist troupe more than thirty years ago. These are rehearsed readings, with a changing ensemble. The Highly Strung Players began appearing at fortyfivedownstairs in 2017.
The Innominable – a new play to be performed by Georgina Banks and Ellie Nielsen – introduces us to twin sisters in their fifties. They are waiting to collect their mother’s ashes. One of them (Glen-Rae) was named at birth. The other – known as the Innominable – was never named. Now she wants to know why.
The Siegfried Idyll – a duologue to be performed by Peter Rose and Claudio Bozzi – presents a seemingly contented gay couple contemplating the seismic repercussions of ‘a night at the opera’. Conrad is a capricious restaurateur, Toby a long-suffering arborist. The Siegfried Idyll had one performance at fortyfivedownstairs in December 2024.
“The Highly Strung Players’ original absurdist works are playful, witty and multi-layered. Renowned wordsmith Peter Rose has a fine sense of what lies beneath the surface of relationships and social interaction. His clever duologues highlight our foibles and delusions with sensitivity and humour.” Helen Morse
Georgina Banks – a writer, facilitator, and performer – was a professional actor in her twenties, studying acting in New York and then working in theatre and television for over a decade (including Sydney Theatre Company, Playbox, Theatre South, A Country Practice, and Outback). In 2023, she published her first book, Back to Bangka. She began appearing with the Highly Strung Players in 2025.
Claudio Bozzi has made two appearances with the Highly Strung Players: All Those Sunsets (2023) and The Siegfried Idyll (2024). A barrister and legal academic, he is currently writing a book on the legalities of the Ukraine War. He prefers to spend the southern winter harvesting hay on his farm in Italy.
Ellie Nielsen holds a degree from VCA drama school and a Master of Creative Writing from RMIT University. As a Naarm (Melbourne)-based actor, writer and dramaturg, her work focuses on new and independent theatre. She is the author of the internationally published memoir, Buying a Piece of Paris, and has performed with the Highly Strung Players since 2023.
Peter Rose is a poet, novelist and memoirist. Attention, Please! (2025) is his seventh book of poetry. Rose Boys, a family memoir, won the 2003 National Biography Award. He founded the Highly Strung Players in 1989 and revived it in 2017. His plays include the five-part The Ones. He was for many years Editor of Australian Book Review.
Ticket Prices:
Full: $40
Concession: $25
Group 6+: $25
Concessions:
Pensioners/Full-time students/MEAA members
Ticket sales are subject to a booking fee of $5.00 per ticket plus any merchant charges for payments by American Express
Ticket fees are charged reluctantly. As an unfunded CBD located venue, our expenses continue to rise. If fortyfivedownstairs is to survive, we are obliged to increase our revenue without inflicting costs on already struggling artists. Without support, we risk losing artists or having to close our doors. We do hope for your understanding!