Lineup Announced for 2nd Searchlight Festival; Opens 2/17

Searchlight Festival is a curated festival of explosively diverse and eclectic performance which is on this week; starting on Wednesday 17 and running through until Sunday 21.

The exciting programme is full of litle gems, talent both burgeoning and highly developed, laughs and new discoveries... check out the listings below and click on the links to book. Or give us a call on 9662 9966.

Searchlight Festival is produced by fortyfivedownstairs and Tashmadada. We acknowledge the invaluable support of the Portland House Foundation in making this event possible.

We are also are grateful to our programme advertising partners and neighbours Cumulus Inc and Sofitel Melbourne, as well as La Trobe University, Victorian Writers Centre and Cloudwine Cellars.

 

We open the 2nd Searchlight Festival with drinks between 6.30 and 7.30pm on Wednesday 17 February. There will also be a screening of Cathy Vogan's Live at MIFF ‘09 performance Mimosis.
RSVP to abby@fortyfivedownstairs.com

8.00pm Wednesday 17: Intimate Apparel
Michael Dalley and Paul McCarthy accompanied by Adrian Portell risk professional suicide in this cruel anti-cabaret, Intimate Apparel.

Entry: $15/$18
Book online here

6.00pm Thursday 18: Tyrant With Sharks
‘A rock and roll memoir to the heart of a family's tragedy' A work-in-development reading of a new script by Sandra Fiona Long.

Entry: $10
Book online here

8.00pm Thursday 18: Waiting for Isabella and Black Bag

1. Waiting for Isabella is the long-awaited sequel to Miss Furr and Miss Skeene (2006) by avant-garde playwright, novelist and painter Antoni Jach.

2. Black Bag
Vivaciously dark, witty and wonderfully contaminating, Black Bag combines stunning music with deadpan shtick. Written and performed by Wes Snelling and Benn Bennett.

Entry: $15/$18
Book online here

6.00pm Friday 19: The Home Stretch
Tom Davies' new work-in-development: urged on by dread and an unruly imagination, a man keeps running...

Entry: $5
Book online here

8.00pm Friday 19: Directors Cut
An irregular gathering and an evening of wonderful subversion, creation, performance, ingestion, desire, adulation, laughter and especially imbibing...
With performers: Kate Hunter, Jeff Stein, Ben Rogan, Sally Smith, Penny Baron, David Wells and Carolyn Connors.

Entry: $15/$18
Book online here

3.00pm Saturday 20: Speaking Bodies
ACAPTA director, Gail Kelly, hosts an ‘in conversation' with independent physical performance artists, followed by a presentation of ‘A Whole Bunch of Clowns'.

Entry: $10
Book online here

8.00pm Saturday 20: House Music + We're Doing Well

1. Benn Bennett and Chas Forrest's House Music
Join duo Benn Bennett and Chas Forrest for an evening of Dark Cabaret, Folk and Electro music.

2. We're Doing Well
New young all women performance company, Forty Forty Home. "Two prime time anchor women find themselves washed up and, horrifyingly, alone."

Entry: $15/$18
Book online here

5.30pm Sunday 21: Meant to be Spoken
A champagne celebration of Australian Playwriting
Some of Melbourne's most exciting playwrights present their own work in a Sunday afternoon celebration of new Australian playwriting. Featuring: Adam Cass, Patricia Cornelius, David Mence, Declan Green, Tee O'Neill, HAnnie Rayson and Amelia Roper, hosted by Robert Reid.

Entry: $20
Book online here

7.30pm Sunday 21: Cordelia, Mein Kind
Deborah Leiser-Moore's duet for live body and film that maps a modern Cordelia and her "Lear-like father" onto the bones of Shakespeare's Lear and his silent daughter.

Entry: $15/$18
Book online here

The Searchlight blog also has lots of extra news, interviews, artists' profiles and images.

Since 2002 fortyfivedownstairs has offered a evocative urban space and a friendly, hands-on, personalised service to an eclectic mix of artists for theatre, visual arts, forum, music and dance events. Described by The Age as "a cultural powerhouse", this not-for-profit organisation prides itself on showcasing the emerging, the independent, the experimental and the thought-provoking. Centrally located in the heart of Melbourne, fortyfivedownstairs is found within a beautiful 19th Century building and features a theatre and two gallery spaces.

Fortyfivedownstairs

45 Flinders Lane
Melbourne 3000
Australia
telephone

www.fortyfivedownstairs.com

Photo of 'Cathy Vogan's Mimosis