The Highly Strung Players
SHOW DETAILS:
Tuesday 1 December – Wednesday 2 December 2026
duration: 90 minutes
times: 7:30pm
ticket price: $25 – $65
bookings: 03 9662 9966
warnings: TBC
Over the past decade the Highly Strung Players have been entertaining audiences with performances of Peter Rose’s short plays. This absurdist troupe, which began appearing at fortyfivedownstairs in 2017, presents rehearsed readings with a changing ensemble. Now the Highly Strung Players return to fortyfivedownstairs with its most ambitious program yet: a two-night season of four inter-related plays, with Rose’s trademark ironies and satire. Along the way we meet or learn about many of his eccentric characters, including the enigmatic and much-maligned Vanessa. The season culminates with Rose’s latest play, The Volcano. Audiences can expect two nights of sophisticated humour and absurdist leaps.
“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
“The more you see The Highly Strung Players perform, the more you learn. The company’s repertoire comprises not separate plays but is part of an ever-expanding continuum. Peter Rose’s words are naturally poetic, proving the power of poetry in motion and emotion. As with fine chamber music, Peter’s words are designed to make you listen, to pay attention, to focus – to narrow down on all the quirks and frailties and intensities of the human condition.
These are true conversation pieces. At first, the exchanges may seem like small talk – superficial, brittle, even bitchy – but they coalesce gradually, inexorably, to reveal a world of past experiences and associations that have occurred somewhere offstage, remaining unforgotten and often unforgiven. There are epiphanies, too, an ominous undercurrent that is indicative of profound, life-changing force. Surprises, even shocks, can erupt swiftly.” Michael Shmith
The Marriage Game – Tuesday, December 1, 2026
Peter Rose and Ellie Nielsen present three short plays drawn from The Ones, Rose’s celebrated series of satires about publishing and married life. We follow our two publishers over the course of twenty years: from the start of their relationship to the brittle present, when Robert seeks to revisit the ‘pact of infertility’.
The program will run for ninety minutes, including one interval.
The Volcano – Wednesday, December 2, 2026
Rose’s new play (2026) presents four characters not encountered in previous works, but they have deep social connections with those featured in The Ones and other plays. In the first act we meet Dallas and Edward, tourists in Sicily who contemplate a momentous visit to a volcano. In Act 2, five years later, their twin children (Timmy and Melody) recall the events of that day and reminisce about a lost sibling, Teddy. In the final act, Timmy – trying to make sense of why he has been disinherited – is enlightened by an unexpected guest.
The Volcano (performed by Georgina Banks, Ellie Nielsen and Peter Rose) will run for ninety minutes, including one interval.
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. In 2023 she published her first book, Back to Bangka, which was recently featured on ABC TV: Compass, The Myth of the Nurses on the Beach. She first performed with the Highly Strung Players in 2025.
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, memoirist and critic. 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. Since then he has written many plays, including the five-part The Ones. He was for many years Editor of Australian Book Review.
Ticket Prices:
Full: $40
Concession: $25
Group 6+: $25
Double bill full price: $65
Double bill concession price: $45
Concessions:
Pensioners/Full-time students/MEAA members
Ticket sales are subject to a booking fee of $5.00 per ticket
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!