Malthouse Theatre Season 2023

Photographer: Teniola Komolafe

Malthouse has unveiled its first five productions of 2023, running the gamut from bloodthirsty vampires in Tasmania to an exposé of life as an artist in China, and the murky waters of colourism to a sweaty night at The Peel

Malthouse Theatre kicks off its 2023 season in January with the Melbourne premiere of the comedy seven methods of killing kylie jenner (rescheduled from 2022). This deep dive into the commodification of Black women was written by award-winning British playwright Jasmine Lee-Jones and co-directed by Zindzi Okenyo and Shari Sebbens.

Iolanthe and Chika Ikogwe star as bawss-babes Cleo and Kara, a duo infuriated by Kylie Jenner and committed to serving the tea hot and keeping receipts. PERIODT.

Photographer: Kristian Gehradte.

Nosferatu, Keziah Warner’s gothic drama based on the iconic 1922 silent film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror inhabits the Merlyn in February. Set in Bluewater, Tasmania, a mining town that time left behind, it stars Jacob Collins Levy (The White Princess), Sophie Ross (The Lockdown Monologues, Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.) and an ensemble of townspeople.

Desperate to restore the place to its glory days, they put their faith in a mysterious investor with a green thumb and an appetite for blood—so long as you’re not the one in danger, it’s easy to turn a blind eye to the horrors on your doorstep.

Photographer: Zixuan Wang 王籽.

In a change of pace for the third work of the year, Wang Chong 王翀, one of Beijing’s most significant theatre directors, returns to Malthouse Theatre following the sell-out success of Little Emperors 小皇帝 _in 2017.

Made In China 2.0 sees Chong collaborate with co-director Emma Valente to shine the spotlight on his own experiences as an artist. In this intimate and unexpected solo, he takes us deep inside his creative process to share a personal manifesto for making trailblazing art back home and abroad.

Part pop culture lecture, part dramatic performance, Made In China 2.0 is an examination of the role of the artist and provocateur in uncertain times.

Photographer: JM Tubera

In the Beckett in May, Loaded takes the mainstage with director Stephen Nicolazzo (Looking for Alibrandi) in collaboration with writers Dan Giovannoni and Christos Tsiolkas (Merciless Gods).

First adapted as the 1998 film Head On from Tsiolkas’ debut novel Loaded, then reimagined as an audio adaptation in 2020 by Malthouse, the production is a portrait of a young man who is restlessly searching for himself in opposing worlds.

Ari (Danny Ball, A Beginner’s Guide to Grief) is 19 and unemployed—he doesn’t want to be gay and he doesn’t want to be Greek. He doesn’t want to be anything. Drawn by the alluring pulse of Collingwood’s gay clubs, he finds an escape, and a family in the form of drag queens and one-night stands.

Photographer: Kristian Gehradte

Ash Flanders’ new work, This Is Living, a semi-autobiographical play that turns the Merlyn into a Hepburn Springs getaway in July, looks at love and friendship.

Hugh has organised a fabulous weekend away for his partner and their best girlfriends to escape a year from hell. But even deli meats, medicinal hydroponics and soaking in spring water can’t fix everything. Try as they might to float on the surface, life has a funny way of bubbling up—and over.

Malthouse Theatre’s Artistic Director, Matthew Lutton said: ‘The stories we are telling in 2023 are not the stories you hear every day. Every story is bringing an infrequently heard perspective to the surface, with creators are drawing on personal experiences to create these deeply felt fictions.

‘They are all stories best told on stage. They are theatrical, and will provoke you in a way that causes you to forget the outside world, and engage in a fiction that you will take with you out into the world again.’

The final three shows for Season 2023 will be announced in detail early 2023, but in a sneak peek of what’s to come:

Company in Residence A Daylight Connection— the self-described motley crew that created 2022’s CHASE at The Malthouse in 2022—will create a new work that will smash the binaries of theatre and radically reimagine what First Nations theatre can be; Telethon Kid is a play about a disability influencer and body positivity activist by Alistair Baldwin, who describes himself as a ‘writer, comedian, and disabled ingénue’; and finally, building on the success of Because The Night, new immersive theatre mystery, Hour of the Wolf, created by Matthew Lutton and Keziah Warner, will transform Malthouse into a maze of 20 nocturnal rooms set at 3am.

Malthouse also announced a major update to its digital archive Stories of M. This first of its kind online database chronicles Malthouse Theatre’s 46-year body of work, featuring over 3600 artists and more than 650 productions. The archive makes connections through stories, which tell Malthouse’s rich history. Stories of M has won multiple awards including Best in Show at the 2022 Australian Web Awards.

Later this year, Malthouse will unveil the Malthouse Outdoor Stage Summer 2022/2023 program in November, and the Comedy Festival at Malthouse 2023 program in December.

TICKETS

Tickets to the first five Season 2023 productions on presale now to Malthouse Supporter Community, and on sale to general public on Monday 3 October at malthousetheatre.com.au