BOOK TICKETS HERE DOWNLOAD PROGRAM HERE Tickets now on sale for Barry Jones & Friends Celebrate the Arts 3pm Sunday 11 October The October birthday of one of Australia’s most remarkable men, Barry Jones AC, has become an annual opportunity…
A very special gift to fortyfivedownstairs to share with you all. Over a decade ago one of our great friends, the distinguished Melbourne academic Colin Nettelbeck, demonstrated his talents as a jazz pianist and composer at fortyfivedownstairs in a concert that…
Thursday throwback to 2016 and the remarkable production of Resident Alien by Tim Fountain - produced by our very own Cameron Lukey. Paul Capsis was captivating as Quentin Crisp, the legendary author for whom no topic is off limits. Expertly directed…
Two tales of performers at fortyfivedownstairs 1: Max Gillies In 2017, Max came to us with a proposal to perform in our theatre. Eventually we whittled the wishlist down to one of the greatest 20th century classics, Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s…
We’re still around, and still working on the survival and regeneration plan for gallery and theatre! Thank you to all the friends who have contributed so generously to our appeal for help in opening our doors as soon as social…
A Monday dive into the archive, and it's a production that's sure to brighten this drab day. Anni & Maude Davey, Anna Lumb and Gabi Barton performed the first Retro Futurismus in our theatre in 2015. Their post-apocalyptic variety show…
A dive back into the archive for a moment, and what a dive it is - into the stunning, spectacular, explosive, electrifying Glory Box that first came to our theatre back in 2004! Finucane & Smith's 'Franken-Spectacular that shoves a…
If you’ve enjoyed an experience at fortyfivedownstairs, chances are you understand the enormous value the arts bring to our quality of life. You’re probably also well aware that our industry is in crisis. Thanks to the support of our staff,…
Now we ask you to think back to 2012 and The KIN Collective's debut production, 'Glimpse'. Michala Banas, Tom Barton, Keith Brockett, Mark Diaco, Marg Downey, Dan Hamill, Linc Hasler and Laura Maitland joined forces to devise the work. This…
The intimacy of our theatre space has meant we've had some stunning solo performances over the years. One such performance was by New Zealand actor, Te Kohe Tuhaka, in the 2012 Taki Rua production of John Broughton’s Michael James Manaia.…
fortyfivedownstairs COVID-19 UPDATE April 2020 Thanks to the immediate and generous response of our landlords, fortyfivedownstairs is still in residence, but we’re paddling very hard beneath the surface to stay in a position to re-open when the current health crisis…
EP 3 ASSASSINS & COMPANY from WATCH THIS on Vimeo. A flashback to last decade and the seasons of Assassins (2013) and Company (2015) presented by the Sondheim specialist musical company Watch This at fortyfivedownstairs. This video is part…
The 37th Green Room Awards for Theatre were announced last night via an online presentation, thanks to some clever reshuffling by the Green Room Awards Association. Although we couldn’t be there in person to whoop and cheer the winners and…
★★★★ Fiona Gruber Monday 2 March 2020 A boarding house, late evening. Two elderly men pace fretfully, unable to settle. They are, we learn, waiting for their landlady to return home. She goes out rarely; tonight she is later than…
Suzanne Sandow Monday 27 January 2020 AS ONE is a beguiling, absorbingly unique contemporary opera experience. The music is sublimely hypnotic and the singing exquisite. It portrays an intense, very personal and individual reassignment of gender, from puberty to young…
★★★★ Cameron Woodhead Thursday 12 December 2020 Simon Stephens’ study of adolescence takes us into a Manchester grammar school, where seven students wait for their final exams. We get a fly-on-the-wall portrayal of teenagers in their natural habitat – a…
★★★★1/2 DEBORAH STONE Monday 4 November, 2019 I’ve been meaning to read The Year of Magical Thinking since it was published to great acclaim in 2005, but it never seems the right time to choose a book so soaked in grief.…
Fly review: an emotional slice of Australian opera history Bridget Davies August 26, 2019 ★★★½ If there is an art form where one is to be commended for bucking trends, it's the grand old world of opera. And it's a…
Cameron Woodhead August 7, 2019 — 2.11pm ★★★★ A cabaret set amid the horror and deprivation of Jewish ghettoes in World War II? You’d have to be crazy. Totally meshugah. Yet Galit Klas has created one of the most…
Wednesday, 24 July 2019 Lisa Gorton ★★★★ In this intelligent and unusual play, director Peta Hanrahan arranges Virginia Woolf’s great essay A Room of One’s Own into an hour-long play for four voices. Curiously, perhaps, it works so well as…
Monday 17 June Cameron Woodhead ★★★ Highbrow types won’t need reminding that Sunday was Bloomsday. Named after the central character in James Joyce’s Ulysses, it’s the date on which that towering monument of modernist fiction was set, and it has…
Saturday 8 June Alison Croggon Love and Shit, an exhilarating double bill by Patricia Cornelius at fortyfivedownstairs, expose the uncomfortable realities of Australia’s underclass. In doing so, these plays remind us how vital theatre can be. Sometimes, I really do…
Sunday 17 March 2019 Irene Bell Heartfelt examination of life and memory World Problems, written and performed by Emma Mary Hall, is a tender look at the way we experience life. Hall recounts memories for the audience, giving equal weight…
Friday 1 March 2019 Alison Croggon ‘As a post-apocalyptic imagining of a US “bombed back to the Stone Age” by its own energy industry, it expresses the dread that pierced the brittle armour of western invulnerability when the proxy wars…
Friday 1 February 2019 Leeor Adar From the get-go, Beng Oh’s direction of Mike Bartlett’s witty work is sharp and arresting. We are thrust into the ring of a domestic dispute between John (Matthew Connell) and his long-term boyfriend, M…
★★★★ March 26 2017 Cameron Woodhead Dubbed the "poet laureate of the chemical generation", Irvine Welsh came to prominence with Trainspotting in 1993. The novel captured the nihilistic hedonism of the zeitgeist – the '90s were also a high-water mark…
Following on from its debut season in 2015, SHORTS@45 returns on Monday 6 June at 6pm with a fresh programme full of surprises. Each SHORTS programme features excerpts of new releases of fiction and non-fiction, lovingly read by their authors.…
Chris Boyd The Australian April 20, 2016 Here’s a production to rescue The Merry Wives of Windsor from the remainder pile of Shakespearean history. If you know the plot at all, chances are you picked it up from Verdi’s last…
Stage Whispers Patricia Di Risio This is a gripping performance that will have your toes tapping and pull at your heartstrings all at the same time. Helen Yotis Patterson has written a truly exceptional piece of theatre and found true…
Chris Boyd The Australian March 4 2016 Taxithi: An Australian Odyssey relates dreams of Greek community The unspoken word in this powerful and touching celebration of the Greek community in Australia is “refugee”. Aside from the initial waves of migration…
Review from The Age by Cameron Woodhead: March 4, 2016 ★★★★ A moving tribute to the courage and resilience of migrants, and an open road into the Greek soul, Taxithi: An Australian Odyssey sprang from interviews Helen Yotis Patterson conducted with…
Louris van de Geer’s Triumph at fortyfivedownstairs full of ideas Chris Boyd The Australian February 22, 2016 A small group of men and women gather in a community hall to share their experiences of a recent terrorist attack. After hearing…
Review from Theatrepeople by Adam Rafferty: February 8, 2016 Meekatharra in Western Australia’s remote mid-west is a naturally evocative Australian setting. Flat, red earth as far as the eye can see, dry, isolated and with a population of only about…
Four perfect killers. One perfect crime. Now all they have to fear is each other. Human Sacrifice Theatre presents a one off live cold reading of Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic Reservoir Dogs. Some of Australia’s finest actors have volunteered their…
Sex, art and the search for connection. A young man leaves his family and hometown to broaden his horizons. Nothing unusual in that. But, when the young man is Tennessee Williams and the horizon is the French Quarter of New…