Marginalia: the scribblings, doodles and quotidian commentary you find vandalising the edges of a well-worn page. The uncomfortable, nagging, niggling thoughts pushed to the side of story, shouting over the top of the original or shamelessly wedging their way in. 

We are back with a new play about shame, delusion, and the tyranny of normalcy. It starts with Nikolai Gogol’s classic story The Nose, where a civil servant finds his nose has escaped his face and taken on a life of its own. But then it becomes The Government Inspector, and Kafka’s Metamorphosis, and maybe Cyrano de Bergerac and The Raven or Heart of a Dog, we’re not sure… 

What starts as one man’s humiliating journey to get his nose back becomes a cacophony of tall-tales, testimonies, disputes and non-sequitors that’ll all wrap up neatly in the end, they promise. 

Directed by the brilliant Katy Maudlin (Meet Me At Dawn, MTC) this original play by Pummel Squad offers a hilarious look at the feelings we push to the margins, and the foibles that are as obvious as the nose on your face.

August 6th-16th 2026

fortyfivedownstairs - 45 Flinders Ln, Melbourne

Book your tickets here

Created by Pummel Squad

Featuring a cast of 6 including Molly Hollohan, Ludomyr Kemp-Mykyta, Cooper Donald McDonald and Harry McGee

Director Katy Maudlin

Dramaturg & Producer Mark Pritchard

This project is supported by Maribyrnong City Council’s Artist Residency Program.

Presented by