Working Class Clown
Tommy Misa
Presented by Arts House and produced by Green Door Theatre Company
Thursday 19 – Sunday 22 November 2026
Thu – Sat, 7:30pm
Sun, 5pm
70 mins, no interval
Post-show artist talk for all ticket holders
Fri 20 November
Tickets
Standard $40
Reduced $25
BLAKTIX $15
Companion Card Free
A small transaction fee will be charged per order.
Content Advice
Suitable for ages 16+
This work contains themes of grief and loss, references to death and dying, and references to physical violence.
The work contains adult themes, triggering content, coarse language, haze, loud music, sudden loud noises, low lighting, lights black out and lights change colour and intensity.
An Access Guide will be available for download prior to the event.
Arts House
North Melbourne Town Hall
521 Queensberry St,
North Melbourne
Wheelchair Accessible
Quiet Space Available
Assistance Animal
Companion Card
Assistive Listening
Visual Rating 50%
Aural Rating 50%Finding joy in the wreckage, Working Class Clown celebrates what’s possible when we create in togetherness.
In a city that keeps concreting over those who bloom in the cracks, Pepe Toa navigates grief, gentrification and the quietly radical act of belonging. With humour and heart, he traces the tension between loss and resilience, finding light in unlikely places.
Drawing on Samoan clowning, weaving and architecture, the work layers stories of sadness, joy and joyful disruption. It asks us to rise from the residue of the past and imagine new ways of being.
Poignant and playful, Working Class Clown reflects on what remains when a city forgets its people, and what becomes possible when a room full of strangers decide to remember together.
This is a work for everyone who has ever found joy in the wreckage and called it home.
In Laughing Memory of Mefiposeta Misa.
About the artists
Artist statement
What pulled me back was joy. Not joy as an escape from grief but joy as its most radical companion. My father understood this better than anyone I have ever known. He had this profound ability to find the best laughter even amongst the pain, to walk into a room and make everyone in it feel held.
I made this show because I needed to find my way back to that. Because I think a lot of us do.
Working Class Clown is my love letter to everyone who taught me that. It is an offering of laughter, of memory, and of a possible way forward, together.
- Tommy Misa
Artistic credits
Director: Bernadette Fam
Set Design: Tommy Misa
Sound Design: Nadeem Tiafau Eshraghi and Ripley Kavara
Lighting Design: Amber Silk
Performance Guide: Emma Maye Gibson
Costume: Katie-Louise and Lilian Nicol-Ford
Original Compositions: Michael Misa
Script Editor: Michael Kennedy
Voice of Creation Story: Sereima Adimate Aka Stelly G
Voice of Gussy: Imbi
Details
Presented by Arts House and produced by Green Door Theatre Company
Thursday 19 – Sunday 22 November 2026
Thu – Sat, 7:30pm
Sun, 5pm
70 mins, no interval
Post-show artist talk for all ticket holders
Fri 20 November
Tickets
Standard $40
Reduced $25
BLAKTIX $15
Companion Card Free
A small transaction fee will be charged per order.
Content Advice
Suitable for ages 16+
This work contains themes of grief and loss, references to death and dying, and references to physical violence.
The work contains adult themes, triggering content, coarse language, haze, loud music, sudden loud noises, low lighting, lights black out and lights change colour and intensity.
An Access Guide will be available for download prior to the event.
Arts House
North Melbourne Town Hall
521 Queensberry St,
North Melbourne
Wheelchair Accessible Quiet Space Available Assistance Animal Companion Card Assistive Listening Visual Rating 50% Aural Rating 50%Supported by –
Working Class Clown was commissioned and presented by Performance Space as part of Liveworks 2025.
Working Class Clown has been co-commissioned by City of Melbourne through Arts House. The work was originally commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney for the 24th Biennale of Sydney and presented by Performance Space and the Biennale of Sydney. Early development of Working Class Clown supported by Create NSW.
Image credit: Joseph Mayers
Image description: Shot from behind, the performer stands bare-backed, tattooed arms at his sides. He wears a straw hat adorned with dried leaves and a skirt of woven foliage at his waist. Warm golden light bathes his skin. The image feels ancestral and ceremonial.
