Opening Night is Sold Out! 🎉
We're feeling pretty jazzed about the fact that opening night of our upcoming production of Eurydice is sold out. The ongoing support and commitment that audience members like you offer us is so incredible to witness. We're grateful to have you along for the ride.
Like our last email update, we've got an exclusive discount to share with you for a show from some friends of ours. This is from an incredible set of theatre makers and is sure to be an unforgettable night of theatre.
Theatre Works is offering our subscribers (that's you!) 20% off tickets to their upcoming season of Lazarus. This is an extraordinary play which details the true story of Larry Walsh, Taungurung Elder, activist and storyteller who was taken from his family before becoming a leader, a fighter, an Elder, and a voice for those who were silenced.
The season runs from the 21st of May to the 6th of June in St Kilda. Details can be found on the Theatre Works website.
Image: SMW Image
Meanwhile, our cast and crew is deep in rehearsals for Eurydice, and the show is starting to come to life. We're coming to grips with Sarah Ruhl's poetic language and beginning to build the world and characters to make this story sing.
We chatted with our artistic director, Jen (who might have emailed you a discount code to one of our shows earlier in the year), about why she programmed Eurydice.
She was working on Hadestown at the time and "working on that show reminded me how timeless and devastating this story is. When I revisited Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice, I knew instantly this was the version I wanted to bring to Melbourne, the writing is just extraordinary.”
It's a real treasure to get to work with a script as significant as Eurydice. There's a reason that Ruhl has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and it shows in the machinations and language of the play.
Jen also discussed the thought process behind choosing Gary Abrahams to direct the play: "Gary has this extraordinary ability to balance theatrical imagination with emotional truth. His work is visually inventive, but always deeply human, exactly what this play demands."
During rehearsals we came across Ruhl's afterword for Eurydice which speaks to what inspired her to write the play. Her care and insight comes across in these reflections written almost twenty years after the play premiered.
We wanted to share a little snippet with you. In this one, Ruhl is reflecting on why she keeps coming back to playwriting:
In some ways the theater is a kind of incarnation. Unlike the film world, which takes an actor’s body and turns it into image; the theater world takes language and makes it live with the body of an actor. And the language can be alive, in the present tense, every time it is performed with a new voice. I’ve never seen a more thrilling magic trick.
A thrilling magic trick, indeed. We love it too.
If you haven't got your tickets already sorted for Eurydice, you can book via the link below. Don't delay, because if this production is anything like our previous shows at fortyfivedownstairs, it'll be sure to sell out.
Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl
A luminous, poetic reimagining of the Greek myth, directed by multi-award-winner Gary Abrahams.
Dates: Thursday 28 May – Sunday 14 June, 2026
Times: 7:30pm (Tuesday to Saturday) and 5:00pm (Sunday) – 90 minutes
Venue: fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne VIC
Tickets: $39.00 – $55.00
That's all from us for the time being. Have a lovely (and warm) week. Chat soon!
With warmth,
Team MSC ❤️