Love For One Night

“Love For One Night is theatrical magic on every level.”

Australian Stage

**WINNER of 2023 PAC Australia IMPACT Award**

about

Country pubs are gathering places made magic by night, where love begins, blooms and sometimes dies, often all in that night. We never know where, when, why, or who love will strike, filling hearts with joy and torment in equal measure.

Love for One Night is a circle dance of intersecting love stories told in the playful theatrical style of Railway Wonderland and Dreamland. A series of brief encounters mix dialogue, movement and song — with stunning lighting, visual projections, camera and a slick live band adding to the electric ambiance of an iconic live pub venue.

A funny, poignant and moving dive into love — from deep friendship to infatuation, family drama, romance and heartbreak, animal attraction and unbridled lust.

watch

audience insights

Key insights for Love For One Night:

Almost 4,000 people joined us over the three week season in person at the Eltham Hotel and online for the streaming event presented in partnership with the Australian Digital Concert Hall
Received an 88.7% excellence rating
Rated almost 1.0 point higher across 5 key sentiment dimensions as part of a survey undertaken in partnership with Regional Arts NSW and Culture Counts

Learn more about what the audience thought of Love For One Night here.

The audience insight dashboard was created with thanks to Paper Giant.

reviews

“As a work, Love for One Night is a salve. Like those Love for Lismore hearts, it beats for its people. Watching it from a crowd of local community members, all of them learning forward in their seats – is a gift.”

The Guardian

“What joy. Pure joy. As the last song played us into the night, the audience knew they had found pure gold.”
Australian Stage

“Love for One Night talks to our community, it comments on our experiences as a collective and the universal theme of love in its myriad expressions.”
Byron Echo

“…the pub and the play seamlessly merge into one – patrons I’d seen drinking at the bar now reveal themselves as the actors”

Paradiso Magazine

“Funny. Poignant. Deeply moving. Visionary Director Julian Louis has done it again.”
Ben Franklin MLC, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, the Arts and Regional Youth (2021-22)

“Seriously the most fun I’ve had at a play ever. Laugh out loud again and again. Such a clever use of the pub!”

Audience member

“I absolutely LOVED it! Classic NORPA magic plus some! The production was incredible, the projections, the live videographer, the sound, all sooooo good!”
Audience member

“Living proof that from adversity comes great opportunity and strength.”
Audience member

read the program

Read our Love For One Night program from the Premiere Season.

creative team

Love For One Night was devised through a collaborative creative process.

Performers/Devisors Lloyd Allison Young, Claire Atkins, Phil Blackman, Zoe Gameau, Katia Molino
Director & Devisor Julian Louis
Writer & Devisor Janis Balodis
Video Producer Mic Gruchy
Video Designer Poppy Walker
Production & Costume Designer Charlotte Haywood
Lighting Designer Alex Torney
Movement Consultant Kimberley McIntyre
Musical Director Jamie Birrell
Musicians Luke Bennett, Ben Cox
Stage Manager Kylie Fuad, Adrienne Megan Lester
Assistant Stage Manager Ava Jarrett
Associate Artists Anna Marais, Jo Turner
Production Manager Steve Gooding
Production Consultant Karl Johnson
Producer Sasha Bradbury
Camera Operator Marcus O’Brien
Video Switchers Rohan Langford, Eden Crawford Harriman
Audio Technician Steve Shaw
Technicians Patrick Bollinger, Rich Morrod, Nat Rolls-Gordon, Andrew Thompson
Security Daniel Dynan

presentation history

2022 Premiere — presented in Eltham NSW by NORPA and the Eltham Hotel

PARTNERS

Love For One Night was developed with the support of the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, the NSW Government through Create NSW, Performing Lines, the Eltham Hotel and Southern Cross University.