By Jennifer Beasley.
FortyFive Downstairs goes for BIGGER, BOLDER and EXCITING in their 2026 Season Launch.
Twenty-four years.
Twenty-four years that FortyFive Downstairs has uplifted Melbourne audiences with their eclectic presentations. Plays, opera, chamber music and gallery showings, this theatre is so bespoke there are no words to describe what it is, and how indelible an imprint it makes on the arts scene.
Located at 45 Flinders Lane, this theatre has two gallery spaces downstairs, and in the basement, there is a wonderful performance space for opera, plays, music – well, you name it.
After such an amazing 2025, with the Melbourne Comedy Festival bringing in 5000 extra patrons, the newly appointed Chair, Ian Dunn AM, is sure to steer the direction of this vibrant theatre to great heights.
Under the creative eye of Artistic Director, Cameron Lukey, appointed in 2023 after Mary Lou Jelbart (co-founder of the current location since 2007) stepped down, the FortyFive will have a magnetic line-up for 2026.
As Lukey states, “over 20000 patrons attended this year…so it was a big step up.”
The 2026 season launch will present “every show [that] represents a relationship – like Midsumma.”
With thanks to the donors, staff and audiences, Lukey outlines this fabulous program!
Starting off on the 27th January – 8th February, is The Placeholder, written by Ben MacEllen. Directed by Kitan Petkovski (The Inheritance), the play takes place in a regional town, where grief holds a group of women together. As part of the Midsumma Festival, this is the world premier of MacEllen’s play, which explores the women’s memories, friendships and the meaning of identity and belonging, when one of their own announces he is transitioning.
MacEllen, a transgender writer, is an alumni of the Midsumma Pathways. This play is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and the playwright hopes that this will spark conversations on what it means to support trans and gender diverse people. This will be a thrilling performance so mark this one as a must see!
Next up we have a re-imagining of Cyrano De Bergerac, written by Martin Crimp. Performing from the 11th – 28th February, presented by Artefact Theatre Co. and directed by Matthew Cox (Constellations), this first played in 2019 at The Playhouse Theatre in London. Adapted from Edmond Rostard’s novel, the love triangle between Cyrano, convinced of his own ugliness, the radiant Roxane, and his inarticulate rival for her love, Christian, causes all manner of mayhem when Cyrano ghost-writes Christian’s love declarations.
This very creative play, spoken in rap and rhythm, has been described as a deep dive into the motivations and desires of its principles characters. Featuring Mark Yeates in the title role and a massive, massive cast of sixteen (wow!) this is going to be THE play of the year. Well, that’s my prediction and I’m sticking with it!
Lukey certainly isn’t mucking about this year as he adds the Year Of The Rooster by Olivia Duffault from 5th – 22nd March. If you were super lucky and saw the previous two plays of this ‘Beast Trilogy’, The Crocodile and Rhinoceros, then you will not want to miss this. Classed as the underdog story of our times by the New York Times, you’ll fall in love with loser Gil and the biggest, baddest barnyard chook that has ever existed! Delving into the world of cockfighting with themes of rural poverty, animal cruelty and male toxicity, Duffault addresses current concerns in America with this play.
Directed by the ever-creative Alexandra Aldrick and presented by Spinning Plates Co., the FortyFive proves once again it is the place to be to see evocative theatre.
In a change in direction in 2025, The FortyFive teamed up with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, to great success. Next year, it’s on again, and sure to be wildly successful. I will certainly diarise this as show reviews are paramount to artists, and, with 900 shows earmarked for 2026, it will be important for the creatives to know that their works will be critiqued, and allows them to stand out from the crowd! I’m hoping that the 24th March – 19th April time slot next year will not conflict with Gather Round in Adelaide, so hears hoping the Footy Angels hear my plea.
I’m totally thrilled to see that the Chamber Music Festival will be occurring 21st April – 3rd May. Curated by world renown pianist Coady Green, this festival will be presenting several world premieres. For something different, there will be musical interpretations by numerous classical and contemporary composers. This sounds enticing and will be a fascinating interpretation. There will also be a two-day Melbourne Mozart Project, as twelve young pianist perform Mozart’s Piano Concertos, and then – this blows me away – Coady Green and Kevin Tamanini will be performing Mozart’s complete works – in a single day! Astonishing.
Back now to a play.
Never Closer, by Grace Chapple will be performed on 7 – 24th May. Presented by Patalog Theatre, Chapple is an Australian playwright and screenwriter hailing from Sydney. Never Closer takes place one Christmas Eve as old school friends gather around, their differences now seen as divisive fractures that unleashes power struggles and explosive energies. Directed by Marni Mount (Trophy Boys) this show debuted in 2024 to sell out audiences.
Moving into Greek mythology, Sarah Ruhl has written Eurydice. Showing 28th May – 14th June and directed by Gary Abrahams (who has got a very busy year ahead of him with multiple projects) this classic myth is told from Eurydice’s point of view. Promising a dreamlike experience, this presentation by the Melbourne Shakespeare Company will envelope audiences with a tapestry of memory, love and loss.
Sarah Ruhl is a remarkable writer. Eurydice, written in 2007, is her most beloved play. Ruhl has been a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Tony Award nominee, and the recipient of the MacArthur “genius” Fellowship, and I sincerely thank Cameron Lukey for bringing this artist’s work to The FortyFive.
24th June – 6th July – there is a change of pace.
Mr Big, AKA Tatay, A Transwoman And That tiring Tune! Written by Dax Carnay-Hanrahan and presented by Tayotayo Collective in association with FortyFive Downstairs, this is a story of Diana, a trans Filipina woman in Melbourne. As she prepares for her wedding, her plans become derailed by the return of her estranged father – who happens to be a ghost! Endlessly singing Mr Big’s hit, To Be With You, this performance explores gender, grief and inheritance and will be directed by Beng Oh (Soul of Possum).
Soul of Possum which will be playing at the FortyFive 4th – 14th December this year. Written by Broadie Murry and winner of the Castlemaine State Festival and Yirramboi Festival in 2021, try to sneak this one in before the year ends.
Carnay-Hanrahan previously wrote and performed the hysterical The Six Guys An Immigrant Trans Person of Colour Will Date in Melbourne with the 2023 Midsumma Festival so if this is anything like that show there will be plenty of laughs and sly wit to be had.
The program keeps impressing with And What Will People Say. 9th – 12th July, by Amani Mahmoud. Winner of the 2025 Sydney Fringe Festival Best in Theatre Award, this performance is an electrifying fusion of Indian dance, music and spoken word to confront the hidden domestic violence festering within families. Honest, courageous with cultural depth, this will challenge generational silences and invite the audience to travel with Mahmoud into a deeply personal journey of love, fear, shame and resilience.
6th – 16th August Pummel Squad return. YES!!!
Pummel Squad will be performing this December (18th -20th) with their brand of pantomime that they do oh-so-well! How The King Learned To Live Forever will have a brief but impactful showing.
People queue in droves to see this experimental group’s shows, and I would strongly recommend that these performances are booked as tickets will sell out.
But if you do miss the December show, then Marginalia will set you right. Directed by Katy Maudlin (Meet Me At Dawn), this is a hilarious look at our marginalised feelings, and the shame, the shame (!) of delusion, are mixed with a healthy dose of tyrannical normalcy. What starts as one man’s humiliating journey to get his nose back, becomes a cacophony of lies, I mean, tall-tales, testimonies, disputes, and non-sequiturs that Pummel Squad promise will all make sense at the end!
Now – Shakespeare. (Sigh. Happy place.)
Cleopatra & Antony will blaze the basement 20th August – 13th September. Directed by the industrious Sonya Suares (The Lucky Country, Into The Woods) and known for decolonising Australian Stories, this will prove to be a gripping and modern interpretation on the fateful romance between the two most powerful people in the Roman Empire. I’m a definite for this one as I missed Julius Caesar and Othello during 2025.
After this dramatic energy the FortyFive turns towards the smash hit of Melbourne Fringe last year, Ballkids (or, scenes from a friendship). Written by Liv Satchell and directed by Julian Dibley-Hall (The View From Up Here) this will play 16th – 27th September. Humorous and moving, the two protagonists, Holly and Sam, travel through two decades of a shared dream, and life, in their bid to join the most elite squad as Ballkids at the Australian Open.
We are nearly done, I promise!
Wrapping up the year in 2026 will be two final offerings.
Rhomboid by Eric Jiang shows 1st – 11th October. Directing this premier by Margot Morales (And She Would Stand Like This) is the story of Zavier and Sebastian. A complicated friendship convolutes further as they move from school, university and into the real world. Xavier fumbles through his relationships, constantly orbiting Xavier. This performance will be part of the 2026 Fringe Festival as the perfect play to showcase the touching forms unexpected love can take.
And – now, the pièce de resistance.
Bright Star, by Emmanuelle Mattana, based on the film by Jane Campion will be performed 24th October – 29th November.
Firstly, this play is important for several reasons. The most important being that New Zealander (now residing in Sydney) Jane Campion’s powerful films which have managed to break the super male dominated film industry.
Bright Star burst onto the screens in 2009, and tells of the secret love affair between 23-year-old English poet John Keats, and Fanny Brawne, an outspoken student. Passion and tragedy mar their romance and it is beautifully summed up when Keats writes of Brawne, “I have the feeling as if we’re dissolving.” Very romantic and probably very co-dependent, yet the heart still swoons.
Then, along comes Emmanuelle Mattana, a fabulous Australian, whose debut play, Trophy Boys, is about as close to perfect as a play as you can get.
Bright Star, as imagined by this brilliant playwright, and under the direction of Cassandra Fumi (The Crocodile, Rhinoceros) weaves Keats’ transcendent poetry, and compositions by Rachel Lewindon (The Inheritance) to make pure theatrical magic.
Whew! That’s it.
An exciting and inspiring year ahead. Add the lot to your calendars as it’s near impossible to pick the best.
Many thanks to FortyFive Downstairs for the invitation to cover their launch for 2026.
And everyone, have a Merry Christmas and keep safe.
