for new Australian works
30 May - 16 June 2024
fortyfivedownstairs
Two plays, one cast… a gorilla and a dozen or so sheep.
Directed by Green Room Award winner Bob Pavlich (The Winter’s Tale, La Mama Theatre), and performed by a cast of eight, this double bill of Australian plays blends the dramatic and the absurd in a search for truth and reason within the chaos.
Carpet and Sand is a pastiche of narrative threads. Peter Brook and a troupe of actors travel through the Sahara Desert in search of a new type of theatre. Tens of thousands of sheep spontaneously panic and stampede across Oxfordshire. A flock of birds gather for a conference. The play asks: who do we follow and why?
100 Reasons for War is a series of vignettes exploring the very nature of war and humanity. A play about the power of language, the birth of public relations, the difference between a society of baboons and a society of bonobos, and ultimately, why we’ve had so many wars since the “Great War”. Written in 2015, 100 Reasons for War is a funny, provocative, and cautionary response to the 100-year anniversary of Gallipoli.
Review for 100 Reasons for War directed by Bob Pavlich from a short season at La Mama in 2017: “…most impressive and completely engaging” – Suzanne Sandow, Stage Whispers
Cast and Creatives
Carpet and Sand written by Robert Reid
100 Reasons for War (War, what is it good for?) written by Tom Holloway
Directed by Bob Pavlich
Performed by AYA, Clarisse Bonello, Finn McGrath, Lucy Rees, Mark Yeates, Tilly Legge, and Walt Dyson with Robert Reid
Lighting design by Clare Springett
Sound design by Junaid Eastman
Stage managed by Audrey Page
Dramaturgy by Lucy Rees
Produced by Kat Carrington and Helen Mayers
Image by Simon McCulloch
Booking information
30 May - 16 June
Carpet and Sand: Tuesdays & Thursdays 7:30pm
100 Reasons for War: Wednesdays & Fridays 7:30pm
Double Bill: Saturdays 6pm / 8pm and Sundays 4pm / 6pm
Tickets: $35 - $79 (+ booking fee)
Bookings: (03) 9662 9966 or online (see book now button)
Duration: 60 minutes no interval for Carpet and Sand // 90 minutes no interval for 100 Reasons
Warnings: Contains coarse language and adult themes including explicit retelling of sexual violence
Photo by Simon McCulloch