Malthouse Theatre Season 2025

Image — Troy. Courtesy of Malthouse Theatre.

Malthouse Theatre has launched its 2025 season heralding a year of epic theatrics, lush music theatre, in-your-face drama, virtuosic horror and uplifting joy. Unveiling seven productions by Australian and international theatre makers, more than ever, Malthouse is committed to making sure the arts are accessible to more people, more often.

From familiar stories of the ancient past to a script no one has seen, Artistic Director Matthew Lutton sets the tone for next year’s season by affirming that theatre goers will be enticed to step out of their daily lives and into an alternative world. Audiences will also be able to enjoy more extraordinary theatre throughout the year with ticket prices significantly lowered across the season and – for the very first time – an early bird discount offer available for every single Malthouse production in 2025.

Upon helming his ninth program, Lutton says: “This season of theatre is for the curious who are seeking adrenaline, fun, rich ideas, and who want to explore what theatre can be. We’ve found the most enlivening ideas from artists at the peak of their craft; every production is different, and we have made it price accessible for you to see them all throughout the year.”

Opening the season from Thursday 13 February–Saturday 8 March is Truth, a brand-new work by Australian playwright, Patricia Cornelius (My Sister Jill, Who’s Afraid of the Working Class?, Do Not Go Gentle) and directed by longtime collaborator, Susie Dee. This is the story of Julian Assange, from his early teenage years in Melbourne through to his hacking days, the founding of WikiLeaks and his subsequent house arrest. Exploring the world of whistleblowers and the retelling of truth, a chorale of five performers each play Assange as well as Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning at various points. Witness the undertaking of a complicated truth that aims to unpack the costs of not staying silent.

Image — A spangled symbolist portrait of Julian Assange floating in reflection, 2024. Oil and aluminiumflakes on canvas. Shaun Gladwell. Courtesy of the Artist & PALAS, Sydney.

Landing at Malthouse from Wednesday 19–Saturday 22 February, A Nightime Travesty is an epic First Nations vaudevillian musical nightmare that is equal parts sardonic, cheeky and heartbreaking. A non-stop riot of music, parody and political punch by A DAYLIGHT CONNECTION, expect explosions, zany costumes, gruesome decapitations, existential horror, Blak humour, romance, genocide, blasphemy and a raucous live band. Now directed by Stephen Nicolazzo (Loaded), independent artists Kamarra Bell-Wykes and Carly Sheppard (CHASE) bring a revamped version of the hit production from the YIRRAMBOI Festival in 2023.

Image — A Nightime Travesty. Photographed by Gregory Lorenzutti.

Malthouse Comedy brings the laughs for three weeks from Wednesday 26 March–Sunday 20 April as part of Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Meeting at the intersection of comedy and theatre and featuring both local and international guests, projects of all scales will take over Malthouse, attracting more than 20,000 visitors with some 20 different performances on offer. The lineup of shows will be announced later this year on Friday 6 December.

From Friday 16 May–Saturday 7 June, Paula Arundell (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) stars in the adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s classic gothic horror turned Hitchcock classic, The Birds. Lights off and headphones on, audiences will be immersed in a theatrical feat of audio engineering, entering a nightmarish soundscape of flying feathers, murderous swoops and thrilling carnage directed by Matthew Lutton. This one-woman show will have theatre-goers dodge and duck out of reach, leaving audiences to remember: the big-wigs in the city won’t save you from the impending disaster.

Image — The Birds. Courtesy of Malthouse Theatre.

A script no one has seen. The most performed playwright in the history of Iranian theatre Nassim Soleimanpour (White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, NASSIM) and acclaimed Omar Elerian (NASSIM, Misty, two Palestinians go dogging) push the boundaries of Soleimanpour’s signature unrehearsed cold reads to the next level in ECHO: Every Cold-Hearted Oxygen, from Monday 14–Saturday 19 July. Every night, a new performer takes to the stage at Malthouse not knowing what is going to be asked of them. Unrehearsed and deliberately unprepared, the script becomes their only guide as they journey through the story of the playwright, connected live from his home in Berlin. Fused with technology, ECHO explores the fundamental notion of home. It is theatre for the age of climate crisis: an ambitious, magical and profound production where no one travels yet everybody is present. Further announcements revealing the changing roster of well-known and beloved performers and icons will be made in June 2025.

In their first ever main stage commission, Melbourne’s Pony Cam (Burnout Paradise, Grand Theft Theatre) has an axe to grind in The Orchard – the award-winning collective’s new work shaking up the Beckett Theatre from Tuesday 5–Saturday 16 August. Wrestling with what they have inherited and what has been sold from under their feet, bear witness as audiences are welcomed to a crumbling cherry orchard based on Anton Chekhov’s final play. There will be real indecision, real stories, a person in a tree costume, a lot of cling wrap and a chainsaw borrowed from a friend. Pony Cam’s high-energy adaptation demands that classics must be questioned and wood must be chopped.

Image — The Orchard. Courtesy of Malthouse Theatre.

Directed by Matthew Lutton (Elektra, Antigone) and written by Tom Wright (The Odyssey, Oedipus and Women of Troy), be transported to a time when gods walk among us, epic battles are fought on the sands of time and no one escapes the hand of violence in Troy. Set in 12th Century BCE and featuring an ensemble cast including Geraldine Hakewill, Mark Leonard Winter, Paula Arundell, Danny Ball and more, seven actors assemble to deliver a physically demanding and hauntingly poetic performance under the eyes of the Trojan horse, playing from Thursday 4–Thursday 25 September.

Image — Meow Meow’s The Red Shoes. Photographed by Karl Giant.

Finally, the 2025 season culminates with great playfulness and joy with the return of Meow Meow, one of Australia’s most celebrated cabaret performers in Meow Meow’s The Red Shoes, from Wednesday 19 November–Saturday 6 December. Having just wowed New York's Carnegie Hall with a string of sold- out shows, Meow Meow has firmly established herself as the chanteuse of modern cabaret, regularly performing the world over, from Shanghai to Poland. Following Meow Meow’s Little Match Girl and Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid, she now urgently remedies Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shoes, in a fresh staging directed by Kate Champion and co-produced with Sydney’s Belvoir Theatre and Perth’s Black Swan Theatre Company. From a chorus of hairy fawns to singing swans and showgirl stars, experience a frenetic song-and-dance into meaning. The musical celebration will shock audiences out of stagnancy and into the ecstatic, and Meow Meow will remind audiences why we wanted to dance in the first place.

Malthouse Theatre’s education project continues with The Suitcase Series, its award-winning participatory program for Year 9 and 10 students. In 2024–25, the series will empower young people to tackle the greatest challenge of their generation: climate change. Drawing on Surrealism, Magic Realism and AfroFuturism, Malthouse’s newest education commission Who No Kno Go Kno written by Kudakwashe (The Hate Race) and directed by Effie Nkrumah uses physical theatre, song, puppetry, mask and percussion; a cross-disciplinary melding of Western and non-Western dramaturgy.

Further announcements will be made for other shows presented in collaboration with YIRRAMBOI, RISING and ILBIJERRI next year.

Tickets for the Malthouse Theatre 2025 season are now on sale via malthousetheatre.com.au

MALTHOUSE THEATRE 2025 SEASON

TRUTH

Thursday 13 February–Saturday 8 March

By Patricia Cornelius

Directed by Susie Dee

A NIGHTIME TRAVESTY

Wednesday 19–Saturday 22 February

By A Daylight Connection

Directed by Stephen Nicolazzo

Co-presented with Asia Topa

MALTHOUSE COMEDY

Wednesday 26 March–Sunday 20 April

Part of Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Lineup to be announced 6 December

THE BIRDS

Friday 16 May–Saturday 7 June

By Daphne du Maurier

Directed by Matthew Lutton

Starring Paula Arundell

ECHO (EVERY COLD-HEARTED OXYGEN)

Monday 14–Saturday 19 July

By Nassim Soleimanpour

Directed by Omar Elerian

THE ORCHARD

Tuesday 5–Saturday 16 August

By Pony Cam

TROY

Thursday 4–Thursday 25 September

By Tom Wright

Directed by Matthew Lutton

MEOW MEOW’S THE RED SHOES

Wednesday 19 November–Saturday 6 December

Created by Meow Meow

Directed by Kate Champion

Co-produced with