PROJECTS

2024

RHINOCEROS by Zinnie Harris (after Ionesco) | Spinning Plates Co.

Directed by Cassandra Fumi

Oct 31 - Nov 17, fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne

BOOK TICKETS

2023

THE CROCODILE by Tom Basden | Spinning Plates Co.

Directed by Cassandra Fumi

Feb 16-26, fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne

“★★★★½…every element of stagecraft merges with guillotine-sharp synergy” - The Age

“★★★★½…everything about Spinning Plates Co’s The Crocodile works”- Theatre Matters

“★★★★½…the social criticism is biting and the comedy is on point” - ArtsHub

“impeccable…a polished, professional, coruscating, very entertaining evening that speaks to our times now. See it.” - Stage Whispers

“James Cerché takes the leading role of Ivan, portraying him with all of the set-eating quality of a manic David Tennant. His energy on stage is infectious.” - Theatre Matters

Ivan is a struggling actor who hasn’t yet achieved the recognition he feels he deserves. But all that is about to change when, one afternoon at the zoo with his friend Zack, he is swallowed whole by a crocodile.

Based on Dostoevsky’s short story, Tom Basden’s THE CROCODILE is a ferociously funny, eye-poppingly theatrical play about art, animals, and what happens when you try to take on the system from within… a crocodile.

PAST PROJECTS

2019

YOU ARE THE BLOOD by Ashley Rose Wellman | Spinning Plates Co.

Directed by Peter Blackburn

July 12-26, Meat Market, Melbourne

“simultaneously chilling and hilarious with some of the best performances I've ever seen on stage” - Gabriel Bergmoser

“Cerché and Stanley play well off each other, their lighter moments contrasting beautifully with their conflicts. Their scenes with their mother, [Vivienne Powell] are at times so real it feels you really are sitting in their dining room...” - Theatre Travels

“excellent performances by the talented ensemble” - Australian Stage

Shelby Boden is a cynical stand-up comedian trying to survive in the shadow of her father, a man who's done bad, bad things. When she discovers that her father is marrying Sylvia, an eccentric young performance artist that writes to criminals, morbid curiosity leads these two women to develop a strange, charged friendship. With the looming and dangerous presence of the bloodshed in their bloodline, the entire Boden family is left contending with damages that could be irreparable.

2018

PHILTRUM by Anthea Greco | North of Eight

Directed by Peter Blackburn

July 13-29, The Portable, Melbourne                                                                 

"Greco’s clever writing, Peter Blackburn’s direction and the cast’s layered performances suggest that under the banter, or the sit-com comedic aggression, there’s a very real subtext." - Stage Whispers

When a salt of the earth family is reunited with its favourite daughter, emotions run high as love, joy and rivalry ricochets around the seemingly iron-clad fortress of the nuclear home. At once the Clarke family reminisce upon and unwittingly rewrite their defining history, as through the chaos a finger is lifted from the philtrum.

2017

RAINBOW MAN by Peter Dawncy | Goodnight Darlings

Directed by Dann Barber

November 15-26, fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne

"Boldly conceived and strikingly imaginative." - The Australian

In a post-apocalyptic setting, former thespian Bibsby has been tasked with digging graves for countless dead and maintaining the city’s crumbling graveyard.

Bibsby must also care for Garm and Derb: two vexing fools who have literally grown from the grave of their mother and are stuck in the ground. Garm and Derb engage in humourous banter, tell tales, discuss the art of performing, and demand that miserable Bibsby partake in their storytelling.

Rainbow Man explores the many functions that stories have in people’s lives, particularly at grim times, and the role that fiction plays in the construction of people’s realities.