Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre Has Unveiled Its 2020 Season

Malthouse Theatre celebrate their 30th anniversary with a season of world premieres and new Australian work, including Go To Hell, which features original music from Megan Washington. 

The season of ten works spans international coups, favourites reinvented to classic Shakespearean dramas, including a US-Australian collaboration for Macbeth.

The season kicks off with Oscar Wilde classic The Importance Of Being Earnest, from UK theatremakers Ridiculusmus. The company's Co-Artistic Directors, David Woods and John Haynes star in every role. 

Grey Arias follows, written by and starring feminist theatre-makers Adrienne Truscott and La Gateau Chocolat. The collaboration unpacks political correctness and allyship, through the lens of Truscott, an award-winning comedian and storyteller from the US, and Nigerian-born, London-based drag queen La Gateau Chocolat. 

Malthouse and US experimental theatre company ArKtype introduce their suburban take on Shakespeare with Macbeth (This Ignorant Present), as conceived by star Scott Shepherd. He is joined only by a child actor, and Aussie Zahra Newman as Lady Macbeth. 

K-Box by Ra Chapman is about Lucy, a Korean woman, adopted by white parents, who tries to escape her Melbourne life for the country – before her not-so peaceful and quiet rural family life is interrupted by a K-pop star named Kim Han. 

Is This A Room: Reality Winner Verbatim Transcription by Tina Satter does what it says on the tin, transcribing the FBI's interrogation of yoga teacher Reality Winner, over a leaking of classified information about Russian hacking and its influence the US presidential election.  

Director Susie Dee and playwright Patricia Cornelius collaborate on their new work Do not go gentle..., starring Shane Bourne and Brian Lipson, which intertwines the story of Robert Scott's fatal second Antarctic expedition and a man in the present who is also struggling to survive. 

The Return by John Harvey examines the issue of the repatriation of First Nations' ancestral remains –the way the bodily remains of First Nations peoples were dug up, sold and put on display in museums, universities and homes, and how returning them to Country can be a source of healing. 

The Griffin Award-winning Prima Facie makes its Melbourne debut as part of the Malthouse season, with Sheridan Harbridge reprising her role in this story of a young criminal defence barrister who finds herself on the other side of the courtroom. 

Go To Hell stars Australian stage mainstay Paul Capsis, as he performs songs from Blondie, Bob Dylan and Nina Simone, as well as originals from Megan Washington, against film work from Natasha Pincus. 

The Australian premiere of a stage adaptation of Christos Tsiolkas' first novel, Loaded, closes the 2020 season, Tsiolkas working with playwright Dan Giovannoni to bring Ari's grunge story hurtling into the 21st century. 

Check out all the info for the full season HERE.

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