Forum Theatre

As you leave Federation Square, you’ll be instantly wowed by the immense and ornate building right across the street. It’s the Forum Theatre, a historic theater and former cinema, now converted into a concert hall. It was built in 1929 by the famous Austrian-American architect John Eberson, famous for his “atmospheric theatres”, a type of movie palace design, popular in the late 1920s. He built over 500 of them worldwide. Fun fact: he’s also behind the iconic Grand Rex in Paris! So what’s an “atmospheric theater”? To put it simply, it’s a theater designed to offer the spectator a immersive sensory and emotional experience. To transport them to another world, and prepare them for something extraordinary. When it opened as State Theatre, the Forum was a real showstopper. Its neo-Moorish architecture, inspired by Islamic art with its intricate stonework and minarets, was unlike anything people had seen before. Plus, it had the largest seating capacity in the whole country at the time! The interior is reminiscent of a Florentine walled garden, topped with a sky blue ceiling dotted with lights to look like the starlit sky at dusk. Talk about setting the mood! In 1962, it was renamed Forum Theatre, and the following year, the Greater Union cinema chain, mindful of the growing number of moviegoers, decided to split the oversized auditorium into two separate movie theaters. Then, in 1985, the theatre was bought by a Christian organization and gradually fell into disrepair. And yet today, it’s in great shape, because, some ten years later, it changed hands once again, this time for good, and was completely renovated and converted into a cinema and concert hall, now known as Forum Melbourne. It’s even listed as a Victorian heritage building by the National Trust of Australia. So, if you were planning to see a show, here’s your chance to do it right. This is the place to be!