fortyfivedownstairs Announces Whiteley’s Incredible Blue And More

The Melbourne Festival comes to fortyfivedownstairs. Whiteley's Incredible Blue by Barry Dickins is the third major production in the past year, following the successes of Do not go gentle and Café Scheherazade. 

Theatre: Whiteley's Incredible Blue
A fortyfivedownstairs production in association with Melbourne Festival
13 - 23 October

It is a tumbling, turbulent text, both lyrical and startling, which director Julian Meyrick first read 9 years ago, As he says "Nine years is a long time to be developing a play" but what happened in that time was "that Whiteley's unique and uniquely tortured soul impressed itself more and more firmly on our minds"

So at long last, we are able to accompany acclaimed actor Neil Pigot as he takes us on a wild ride through the mind of Australia's first superstar artist.

It is the night before Whiteley dies, and Dickins' fabulous and sometimes controversial imagination is counterpointed by the brilliantly inventive free form jazz improvisation performed by the Calvert George Fine trio. The three musicians may play piano, drums and saxophones (tenor and soprano) but they also add melodica, electronics, multiple percussion sources, whistles and toys as they create the musical world that Whiteley loved to surround himself with when he was working.

Dickins says "I decided in the end that a magical monologue would suit Brett Whiteley best. ... I have written about him in the abstract in order to understand him in reality and unreality"

Note for jazz lovers - four special late perfomances on Fridays and Saturdays - time to really enjoy the Festival - attend a performance at the Arts Centre, and come on for the cool performance, and even cooler jazz.

Dates: Thur 13 - Sun 23 October, preview Wed 12 October
Times: Tue- Sun 8pm, additional late show 10pm Fri & Sat
Tickets: Full $45, Concession $37.50, Group 10 + $40, Preview $25

Book online or call 03 9662 9966.

Large Gallery: Shannon McGrath
Evolving Possibilities
Until Sat 15 October

McGrath takes us on a journey to explore the genius of one of the most remarkable and inventive architects of our era, Frank Gehry, creator of the Guggenheim at Bilbao, and the less well known Hotel Marques de Riscal, also in Spain. Using her skills as an architectural photographer, McGrath has focused on the purity of form and surface of these remarkable buildings, with light subtly touching the shell of the buildings in a way that renders them almost other-worldly, mysteriously glowing structures.
Small Gallery: Rebekah Stuart
Toward the Haze
Until Sat 15 October

Stuart's work could also be described as "other worldly" using fragments of landscape and portraiture to create new, imaginary and exquisitely beautiful lands. These photographic images might be construed as a contemporary equivalent of the "romantic sublime" although Stuart regards her work as an alternative aesthetic to the Romantic landscape.

Coming up in theTheatre and Gallery

Large Gallery: Anita Mertzlin
SKIN Deep
Tues 18 - Sat 29 October

Anita Mertzlin has created a beautiful, and enigmatic essay on some of life's journeys from the perspective of a still life artist. In the way that might be said to parallel the 17th century Dutch flower paintings which were a metaphor for the evanescence of life, so Anita Mertzlin contemplates the passing of time with her personal metaphor of skin, a membrane that acts as a barrier between exterior and interior.

Small Gallery: Georgia Thorpe
Sol
Tue 18 - Sat 29 October

Georgia Thorpe celebrates light in Sol, a series of unique woodcut prints on Japanese mulberry paper. Georgia has been inspired by the sun as the provider of light and life, the vivid colours the one associates with the sun's influence.

Theatre: A Stranger in Town
presented by Essential Theatre

Several years ago Sophie Lampel discovered that her Czech born grandfather, whom she never knew, had escaped from war in Europe to find sanctuary, and fame, in Canada. A poet and musician, he became a regular broadcaster on radio, and Sophie was given a recording of some of his broadcasts by her grandfather's widow. So began a search into the story behind the poems and songs and conversations which has led to A Stranger in Town, a musical journey of discovery inspired by the discovery of Otto Lampel's original musical diary.

The actor/collaborators in in A Stranger in Town include Sophie Lampel, and Amanda La Bonte (co-founders of Essential Theatre), Jamie McDonald and Drew Tingwell.

Dates: Thur 27 October - Sun 13 November
Times: Tue to Sat 7.30pm, Sun 5pm
Tickets: Full $35, Concession $28

Book online or call 03 9662 9966.

For the diary. Don't Miss out!

There are only a few weeks left to get your entries in to the Victorian Indigenous Art Awards 2012. The deadline for entries is 28th October 2011.

Bookings for all fortyfivedownstairs shows: www.fortyfivedownstairs.com tel 9662 9966

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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