By Jennifer Beasley
Malthouse has announced its 2025 season, with seven bold interpretations and visionary theatre performances, it’s Malthouse’s most audacious season yet.
At the season launch for 2025, Matthew Lutten, artistic director and Co-CEO of Malthouse Theatre, presents seven mild-blowing productions, stating that ‘intrepid and vigorous storytellers’ will give audiences ‘productions for the curious’.
With this enticing opening, Lutten, excites us further with the promise of affordable ticketing. For the first time, Malthouse tickets will be reduced by 25% before October 31st 2024, this is a generous offer not to be missed.
Morphing straight into the first of Malthouse’s offering, Truth from Thursday 13th February – Saturday 8th March, Lutten hands the microphone to the playwright. Written by the unapologetic Patricia Cornelius (Love and Shit), and directed by longtime collaborator Susie Dee, this bold work explores whistleblowers, the main player Julian Assange (performed by five different actors) and his life leading up to Wikileaks and his imprisonment, and ventures to explore other whistleblowers such as Chelsea Manning and Edwin Snowden. Got you interested yet? We were extremely fortunate to hear from Patricia Cornelius herself as she describes the themes of the play, namely, when you investigate truth, when do you tell it? And at what cost? As Cornelius points out, we have a grand history in Australia of silencing those that speak out, and, she adds, ‘as Australian we turn our back on our own…we don’t respect our art…or our culture.’ This will be the first time Cornelius has written about someone living, so it will be fascinating to discover the metaphysical story that she has authored and anything about Julian Assange, well, need I say more?
Also on stage for the presentation were A Daylight Connection, a First Nations company. Kamarra Bell-Wykes (Yagera/Butchulla) and Carly Sheppard (Wallangamma and Takalaka) describe their musical, A Nightime Travesty, from Wednesday 19th – Saturday 22nd February, as an inversion of the First Fleet story-yet in outer space! Directed by Stephen Nicolazzo, this promises to be a bonkers joy ride, yet still touching on First Nations Diaspora, asking, where do our indigenous nations exist in this post-colonial world? Sheppard, who plays Angel, defines the musical as ‘Monty Python crossed with Hey Hey It’s Saturday’. That description alone would excite any theatregoer! Yet it does have its serious moments amongst the comedy as Angel is the steering element that tells the truth, while the First Fleet seeks out a new world, as she embodies the taboos of living in a no-man’s land and finding one’s place. Fresh from sold-out performances at the Yirramboi 2023 Festival, this crew pushes boundaries and Bell-Wykes coyly asks, ‘is it experimental theatre, or is it just theatre?’
The famed Malthouse Comedy returns from Wednesday 26th March – Sunday 20th April for three big belly laughing weeks as part of Melbourne’s International Comedy Festival. This will feature both local and international participants and the line-up will be released December 6th.
The season also features the frightening The Birds, Friday 16th May- Saturday 7th June. Directed by Matthew Lutton, this solo play adapted by Louise Fox from Daphne Du Maurier’s Gothic novel, promises to bring the creepy back into horror theatre. Introducing headphones to add to the atmospheric experience, this play will allow the accomplished Paula Arundell (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) to thrill the audience in a dark theatre, sound effects heightening the experience of swooping birds, flying feathers, outstretched claws and sharpened beaks. Prepare to scream for help as nature turns against you, and the government turns away.
For something completely different, Echo-Every Cold-Heated Oxygen, written by acclaimed Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour (White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, NASSIM) and directed by Omar Elerian (NASSIM) we once again will have the delight of hearing Soleimanpour’s ninety-minute play read, unrehearsed. Soleimanpour believes this method ensures the intention of the play is kept fresh. Over seven nights, from Monday 14th – Saturday 19th July, a different actor will open the envelope and begin to read the script. Completely unprepared, each actor will interpret the script as they navigate through the story of the playwright and his home in Berlin (is he really there?), promising an unforgettable experience fusing technology with each actor’s delivery, this play will make you question what home means to you, where no one travels, yet everyone is present. This will be a magical and enlightening experience, and one not to be missed. Performers rotating schedule will be available in June.
Next up on Tuesday 5th – Saturday 16th August is The Orchard, by Pony Cam (Burnout Paradise, Grand Theft Theatre). Taking a chainsaw to Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard, this high energy play will explore power dynamics and generational change as Pony Cam throws five actors to perform seventeen characters (one is a tree), interspersed with their usual comedy and existential musings. One not to miss.
The Malthouse becomes the stage for the hauntingly poetic Troy, the epic hundred-minute battle is written by Tom Wright and will be performed from Thursday 4th – Thursday 25th September. Once again directed by Matthew Lutton, this is a story of blood and gore, battles and tragedy, as the Trojans fight to save their home. Wright has adapted other epic literature, notably Oedipus, and is a dab hand at succinct storytelling. But make no mistake, this will be an intense experience. Seven actors, including Mark Leonard Winter, Geraldine Hakewill and Paula Arundell, act out Troy’s ultimate heart-rendering demise under the iconic wooden wonder that is the Trojan Horse. Troy didn’t fall. It was taken.
The season concludes with the ever-wonderful Meow Meow (Little Mermaid, The Little Match Girl) in the last of her fairytale triptych, The Red Shoes. Dance we will and dance we must from Wednesday 19th November – Saturday 6th December as the often crowd-surfing Meow Meow once again sings and performs her cabaret style theatre under the direction of Kate Champion. Co-produced with Sydney’s Belvoir Theatre and the Black Swan State Theatre Company, Meow Meow’s powerhouse vocals will rock the audience and get them dancing in the aisles. Hairy fawns, singing swans and stellar showgirls with get the pulse pounding and the legs a-rocking as this musical frolic will make you glad to be alive.
Lastly, Malthouse’s educational series continues for teenagers (year 9 and 10 students) with The Suitcase Series. The theme for the new season will be the challenge of climate change. Who Kno Go Kno Go, written by Kudakwashe (The Hate Race) is the newest educational piece commissioned. Directed by Effie Nkrumah, the play draws on Magical Realism, Surrealism and Afrofuturism told through puppetry, mask, song and percussion. This promises a fusion of western and non-western disciplines.
Yirramboi, Rising and Ilbijerri will also return for more impactful performances, so keep your eyes peeled for those announcements.
Tickets on sale now malthousetheatre.com.au, with a special 25% offer on Season tickets until October 31st.
