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  • Spoken Word Circle

    Featuring new and established wordsmiths.

    A special one-off evening of spoken word, art and ideas.

  • Perspective

    Rory Fink

    This mixed media series looks at the way in which society lives under the power and influence of the various media outlets, whose published material has decidedly far-reaching effects on how we think, look and feel.

  • Mycalicoes

    Gyungju Chyon, John Sadar, Rebecca Nel, Yurika McGuire

    Unlike industrially processed materials such as timber, steel and plastics, a living material such as mycelium is unpredictable and hard to control. Mycelium is sensitive to its surrounding temperature, humidity, and light.

  • Robbie Melville’s smallCHESTRA

    Robbie Melville's smallCHESTRA

    Featuring Melbourne jazz veterans Ronny Ferella (drums), Tamara Murphy (bass), Robbie Melville (guitar), Gideon Brazil (tenor saxophone, alto flute) and Flora Carbo (alto saxophone/bass clarinet), and classical cellist Zoe Knighton, the smallCHESTRA creates a spectacular range of dynamic and timbral possibilities in a relatively small package, and blurs the barriers between contemporary folk, jazz and classical.

  • Emerging Artist Award 2022

    presented by fortyfivedownstairs Emerging Artist Award 2022 27 September - 8 October 2022 hours: Tuesday - Friday: 12pm - 6pm Saturdays: 12pm - 4pm Tuesday and Friday evenings: 6pm - 8pm admission: FreeView Exhibition Onlinefortyfivedownstairs presents the eighth annual Emerging Artist Award 2022. It is a pleasure to announce that fortyfivedownstairs will once again be filled with the work…

  • Spoken Word Circle

    Featuring new and established wordsmiths

    fortyfivedownstairs presents Spoken Word Circle Tuesday 4th October 2022 6pm - 8pm admission: Free ..An open mic night for anyone with pen or keyboard and a fire in their belly for words. All are welcome... fortyfivedownstairs Spoken Word Circle In the first week of October, fortyfivedownstairs continues the widely-enjoyed Spoken Word Circle happening for writers of every…

  • Subtle Realms

    Naomi Bishop

    Naomi Bishop’s paintings search restlessly for connections between the terrestrial and celestial spheres, between geology and astronomy, science and myth.  Intense and luminous, the paintings point to an invisible, unseen world that exists just beyond us.

  • Sombras

    Sal Cooper

    Sombras means shadows or spectres in Spanish.  Sal encountered it as a title translation of the 1970’s song Feelings by Morris Albert. These etchings, drawings and photographic works are also attempts at translation. They express a bleak and magical landscape she once inhabited, with all its fragility and potency. 

  • View to Joy

    Becky Phiri

    Phiri learned to sculpt and mix different coloured clays by decorating the wall plastering of the huts where she lived and grew up. Phiri channels and repurposes these skills in her artwork today, choosing to work instead on canvas and with acrylic mediums. Her artwork focuses on life through positivity. Through her work she seeks to engage the viewer with stimulating colours and a whimsical joy that draws from the beauty of everyday life.

  • Close to Home

    Liane Keegan, Juel Riggall, Naomi Summers and Isaac Mouskovias

    A recital program of classical and contemporary music featuring acclaimed dramatic contralto Liane Keegan, mezzo soprano Juel Riggall, soprano Naomi Summers and pianist Issac Mouskovias.

  • Birdsong

    Carolyn Roberts

    Informed by botanical and scientific illustration, Carolyn Roberts deconstructs her environment in order to better understand it.

  • Bird Call

    Mike Nicholls

    The works in Bird Call reflect humanity’s social conscience regarding the natural environment, and the impact we collectively impose on the ecosystem and the self through ignorance and greed.

  • What Made Lesley Pratchett so Mad?

    Donna Hughes and Julian Dibley-Hall

    A reading of the new play 'What Made Lesley Pratchett so Mad?' by Donna Hughes, directed by Julian Dibley-Hall.

  • M A D: Mutually Assured Destruction

    Mike Green

    Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy and security policy where a full scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would cause the annihilation of both sides. It is based on the theory of deterrence, which holds that the threat of using strong weapons against the enemy prevents the enemy's use of those same weapons. As ridiculous as such a thing sounds, it is still today the modern deterrence of such an event

    Free

  • Spoken Word Circle

    fortyfivedownstairs presents

    This is an un-ticketed evening open to anyone from the curious to the ambitious who have an interest in sharing or experiencing living, breathing literature. The Spoken Word Circle encourages emerging and established writers of poetry, creative writing, lyricists, playwrights, novelists, biographers, diarists — all with a pen or keyboard and a fire in their belly for words are welcome.

  • SMALL!

    Group Show

    fortyfivedownstairs is excited to once again be hosting our community-sourced, small works exhibition SMALL!

    Free

  • The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven

    Ben Anderson and fortyfivedownstairs

    Winner of the Green Room Award for Best Independent Production in 2021, Kitan Petkovski’s acclaimed production returns as part of the 2023 Midsumma Festival. Join Queen Jesus (Kristen Smyth) for a revolutionary queer ritual in which bread is shared, wine is drunk, and familiar stories are reimagined by a transgender Jesus.

  • An Hour with Queen Jesus – Jo Clifford

    Jo Clifford

    In this Melbourne exclusive, revolutionary trans icon Jo Clifford hosts a deeply personal introduction to her ground-breaking play, 'The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven'.

  • Trophy Boys

    The Maybe Pile

    A new Australian play by Emmanuelle Mattana, 'Trophy Boys' is a queer black comedy and drag extravaganza about power, privilege, and high school debating. Directed by Marni Mount and presented as part of the 2023 Midsumma Festival.

  • Where the Ocean is the Sky

    Soile Paloheimo

    This body of artwork embraces and examines the interference that occurs when technology and nature exchange properties, rational and random patterns interpenetrate, and regular structure produces irrational effects.

  • Transcending Spaces

    fortyfivedownstairs presents

    This exhibition will showcase trans artists from all mediums and challenge gendered spaces, whilst acknowledging the vital role of community in making us feel loved and safe.

  • Off the Well Worn Path

    Ryley Clarke

    Observing the relationship of the human condition, time, family and place Off the Well-Worn Path seeks to connect the past and present through inheritance and regeneration.

  • Symptoms of Mortality

    Kashi Ruffilli-O'Sullivan

    To create is to exercise the faith to attempt understanding. To understand is to surrender to empowerment from the intangible.

  • Can’t See for Looking

    Oliver Bradley

    The view becomes a window when a fly hits the glass; the next thought is which side is the fly on.

  • Gould: Elizabeth Acknowledged

    Bronni Krieger

    In a contemporary portrayal of Elizabeth Gould, Krieger has set her against a backdrop of the Australian bush. Gentle triggers allude to her uncertainty in an unknown land, perhaps a fear of finding herself unwelcome.

  • The Portable Park

    Gretchen Kaye

    Parks can be places of hushed silence until we allow them to speak to us. Until we halt and listen carefully to the poetry.

  • CUT

    Talking Walls Theatre

    The Melbourne premiere of Adelaide playwright Duncan Graham's acclaimed psychological thriller about a stalked flight attendant, performed by Christina McLachlan and directed by Laurence Strangio ('L'amante anglaise' and 'Krapp's Last Tape').

  • “Meet Me Under the Clocks”

    Pamela Reid

    Growing up, going into the city to catch-up with friends was always, “Meet me under the clocks” at Flinders St Station. Collins Street was ‘the Paris end’ and Federation Square was the Gas & Fuel building site.

    Free

  • The Peace Tune

    Abiy Sahle (saxophone), Alexander Nettelbeck (piano), Conrad Henderson (bass), and Lawrence Grifa (drums) perform original instrumental compositions highlighting the unique scales and rhythms of Ethiopian Music in an uplifting performance. This concert will highlight the music of Abiy Sahle’s recent album release, ‘The Peace Tune’.

  • CUOROSENSA: A Reverse Archaeology

    Marco Luccio

    In Cuorosensa, the artist’s bold, energetic and confident mark-making coheres into recognisable Luccio-esque themes — we see his Eiffel Tower, his Trojan Horse, his meditations on the myths and figures of classical antiquity — but closer inspection reveals a canvas of interlocking postcards with tantalising glimpses of the messages they once conveyed.

  • True West

    HSTheatre

    Actors Mark Diaco and Justin Hosking – co-founders of HSTheatre ('The Long Red Road' at fortyfivedownstairs) – will alternate the roles of brothers Austin and Lee in a new production of Sam Shepard’s modern masterpiece about the double nature of sibling rivalry.

  • Spoken Word Circle

    Featuring new and established wordsmiths

    fortyfivedownstairs presents Spoken Word Circle 22 April 2023: Saturday from 4:30 - 5:30 pm admission: Free ..An open mic night for anyone with pen or keyboard and a fire in their belly for words. All are welcome. fortyfivedownstairs Spoken Word Circle In the third week of April, fortyfivedownstairs continues the widely-enjoyed Spoken Word Circle happening for writers…