Shows

The Carnival of Mysteries at the Melbourne International Arts Festival

Where: fortyfivedownstairs 45 Flinders Lane When: Tues – Thurs: 7pm – 9pm & 9pm – 11pm Fri & Sat: 6pm – 8pm; 8pm – 10pm; 10pm – 12 midnight Sun: 4pm – 6pm; 6pm – 8pm ; 8pm – 10pm What: From Finucane & Smith – the world’s pre-eminent purveyors of Provocative Variety and Intimate Spectacle – comes the surreal indoor CARNIVAL OF MYSTERIES, a complex, multilayered, seductive, beastly and wild exploration provoked by some of the most profound mysteries of human life. Overhead, underfoot, through the senses and in four extraordinary intricate sites, audiences will be engulfed in a lush, powerful, disturbing and beastly indoor Carnival of Mysteries. From 6pm to midnight The Carnival doors are open. Book for a specified Carnival session and take the plunge into a world of mysterious entertainment. Your entry ticket is exchanged for Carnival cash to allow you a tantalising taste of the Carnival’s delights, and throughout your visit you can exchange more currency for more enticing and exciting experiences.

The Carnival seduces audiences into an active and ever deepening exchange inside a surreal, hand-painted, visually thrilling world. Behind the loud spruiking and intricate hand painted hoardings of the long thin SIDESHOW ALLEY intimate entertainments for one to ten people run all night; in the gorgeous surrounds of the PLEASURE GARDENS tables and chairs curve around the walls and spectacles surprise throughout the night and drinks and foods of mystery are served, in the hidden quiet SHRINE people hang up their wishing cards and prayer tablets and artefacts and in THE TENT OF MIRACLES, the heart of The Carnival, with hand painted panels each painted by a different artist, seating just 30 people, a different show can be seen every ten minutes.

In every site and all around you will be Entertainments and Attractions of over 40 artists. Portrait artists, sculptors, circus stars, painters and photographers, burlesque sirens, playwrights, poets, aerialists, dancers, clowns, food artistes, sideshow queens, performance artists, gothic literarists, all creating works that respond specifically to the themes of The Carnival in complex multifaceted and unexpected ways.

This is an ambitious and beautiful project; a rigorous, playful, sinister, innocent, wild and deeply provocative exploration of humanity, human rights and the Mysteries of INNOCENCE, PASSION, FORGIVENESS, MERCY and LOVE, and their loss, absence and destruction.

Finucane & Smith’s Carnival of Mysteries is created by Moira Finucane & Jackie Smith and features the work of artistes across artforms including: David Anderson, Jeanne Brown, Julian Chapple, Catherine Carmody, Carolyn Connors, Yvette Coppersmith, Paul Cordeiro, Maude Davey, Margaret Dobson, Cathy Drummond, Holly Durant, Madeline Farrugia, Ben Harmer, Monique Harvey, The Sisters Hayes (Christina, Esther & Rebecca), Derek Ives, Caroline Lee, Toni Lamond, Heidrun Lohr, Brian Lucas, Peta Murray, Marko Respondeck, Harriet Ritchie, Betty Siemers, Lin Tobias, Yumi Umiumare, Azaria Universe, Timothy Webb, and Darrin Verhagen