fortyfivedownstairs is entering its tenth year – and we can’t believe it either!
Gallery : Identity
Midsumma
Until Saturday 5 February
The year began with a great crowd at the opening of Identity a major group show launching the Midsumma visual arts exhibitions. Nine artists look at who we are and where we are going in a show that ranges far and wide – Catherine Johnston’s foetus eggs and extraordinary handbags raised issues about children as the ultimate accessory that had everyone talking, while Toy to the World, a collaboration involving many artists and designers creates a playful world, with a serious purpose, to raise funds for the Victorian AIDS Council.
Midsumma theatre at fortyfivedownstairs
Performance: Prodigal
Bryant
& Frank
Dean Bryant and Mathew Frank (Once We Lived Here 2009) return with their first, hugely successful, musical Prodigal. Ten performances only of this landmark show, telling the story of a boy who runs away to Sydney from the family business and is then forced to return after coming out.
Dates: Wed 19 - Fri 21, Mon 24 - Sun 30 January
Time: Mon - Thu 7:30pm, Fri & Sat 6:30pm, Sun 5pm
Tickets: Full $35, Concession $28
Bookings: book online here or call 03 9662 9966
Performance: The Book of Spells - A Love Story
2 Women Production
A Midsumma premier event with just one performance at fortyfivedownstairs.
Created and performed by Jan Andrews and Jennifer Cayley (2 Women Productions, Canada) Jan and Jennifer are leading exponents in the art of storytelling, and this moving and honest love story has been performed around the world.
Date: Saturday 22 January
Time: 6:30pm
Tickets: Full $25, Conc $20, Group (10+) $18
Bookings: book online here or call 03 9662 9966
Performance: Diamond & Gallagher - Getting Down and Brassy
Diamond & Gallagher
You’ll have to hurry to book for these two cabaret divas with their wild mix of swing, jazz and modern classics – all backed by a 14 piece Big Band…. If we weren’t down two flights of stairs from Flinders Lane, they’d most likely blow the roof off!
Only 5 performances and they are booking very fast!
Dates: Fri 21 - Sun 23, Fri 28 - Sat 29 January
Time: Fri & Sat 8:30pm, Sunday 7pm
Tickets: Cabaret Seating $39, Full $35, Concession $28
Bookings: book online here for general admission or here for Cabaret Seating or call 03 9662 9966.
Looking ahead
Start planning your theatre year now! We have a wonderful variety of theatre productions coming up after Midsumma, beginning with Skin Tight a hugely successful contemporary work from New Zealand. There are so many splendid New Zealand born actors working here, but here is a chance to see what their writers have been up to.
Theatre: Skin Tight
SaySIX Theatre
Directed by Justin Martin
Holly Shanahan is known to fortyfivedownstairs audiences through an electrifying performance in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot last year, and you may even have met her dancing on the bar during Carnival of Mysteries!
Now she’s returning to us with her own company, SaySIX Theatre, and Skin Tight a powerful physical theatre work which has been presented to very favourable response in Scotland, and the U.S. – and now Melbourne.
It’s been described as “electrifying…fierce…wrenchingly beautiful…” (The Scotsman)
Dates: Wed 2 - Sun 20 Feburary
Season: Previews 2 & 3 Feburary
Time: Wed -Sat 8:00pm, Sunday 6pm
Tickets: Full $30, Conc $26, Early bird $25, Preview $20
Group (8+) $25
Bookings: book online here or call 03 9662 9966.
Discounted early bird tickets ($25) for limited performances are on sale until 23 January.
Theatre: Café Scheherazade
A fortyfivedownstairs production
Directed by Bagryana Popov.
Café Scheherazade the legendary St. Kilda café, returns to life at fortyfivedownstairs from the beginning of March. The play, written by Therese Radic, is based on the best selling novel by Arnold Zable, and is directed by multi award winning director Bagryana Popov.
Café Scheherazade tells a spellbinding series of tales of resourcefulness and courage, tales that have been replicated over many years and in many nations.
The cast of 6 is joined by legendary klezmer musician Ernie Gruner and accordionist Justin Marshall to re-create the character of the café so many people remember so well.
We are still actively seeking support for this landmark production, and have been most encouraged by the interest and support we have received from Melbourne's Jewish Museum.
Their exhibition "Mamaloshn - How Yiddish Made a Home in Melbourne", opens in April, and will tell even more stories of migration, culture and language.
Dates: Tue 8 March- Sun 3 April*
Time: Tue -Sat 8:00pm, Sunday 5pm
Tickets: Full $45, Conc $37.50,+10 Group $40
*No performance on Friday 11 March
Book online here or call 03 9662 9966.
Discounted early bird tickets for limited performances are on sale now until 4 Feburary. Full/ Senior $40, Concession $35.
fortyfivedownstairs news:
Many people who have attended events at fortyfivedownstairs will remember Abby Storey, our amazing gallery and communications manager, who left us at the end of November on maternity leave - the good news is that Senan Arthur Cuffe arrived safely, fine of feature and long of limb, on December 26th. We are all delighted for Abby and her partner Milo, and young Senan (the name is Irish, as is his father) is doing very well. We expect to see him at a keyboard in the near future.
If you want to hear up to the minute news
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Since 2002 fortyfivedownstairs, a not-for-profit organisation, has offered an evocative urban space and a personalised service to an eclectic mix of artists for theatre, visual arts, forum, music and dance .
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Image credits (from top to
bottom); IDENTITY exhibition opening; IDENTITY, New Gold Jeans by Michael Brady; PRODIGAL, promotional image; THE BOOK OF SPELLS, promotional image, DIAMOND & GALLAGHER, promotional image;SKIN TIGHT, promotional image; CAFE SCHEHERAZADE, promotional image;IDENTITY, exhibition opening; FORTYFIVEDOWNSTAIRS, logo
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