For the first time in over a decade, fortyfivedownstairs brings together the extraordinary creative team: writer Daniel Keene and director Ariette Taylor with designer Adrienne Chisholm, to present the Australian premiere of Dreamers from 6 November.
Originally commissioned by French theatre company, Tabula Rasa, Dreamers deals with questions at the heart of contemporary life – the struggle against intolerance, the fear of difference and a love that is perceived as inappropriate.
Dreamers explores a young man’s experience trying to establish himself in a new country, amid growing fear and animosity as he begins a relationship with an older woman who is also familiar with isolation and loneliness. Can their relationship survive the antagonism of the community they live in?
“In Australia at present, debate is discouraged, exclusion is promoted, intolerance is accepted and complexities are ignored or erased,” says Daniel Keene. “Theatre is a place for complex social conversations, somewhere to broker understanding and to hopefully generate inspiration and discussion – we hope that Dreamers contributes to achieving those ends.”
Daniel Keene and Ariette Taylor previously worked together in the highly successful and ground breaking Keene/Taylor Theatre Project that ran for five years from 1997 until 2002; and together they presented 17 seasons of works with a total of 47 productions, including full length and short plays (four of the last five seasons were presented at fortyfivedownstairs in 2001 and 2002).
The cast of eight includes four members of the original Keene Taylor Theatre Project: Helen Morse, Paul English, Marco Chiappi and Jonathan Taylor. Joining them are Nicholas Bell, Brigid Gallacher, Natasha Herbert and Yomal Rajasinghe.
Dreamers
fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Season: 6 – 30 November 2014
Bookings: (03) 9662 9966 or online at: www.fortyfivedownstairs.com
For more information, visit: www.fortyfivedownstairs.com for details.
Image: by Jeff Busby