ARTISTIC PROGRAM From an institutional perspective, Kantor and Stephen Armstrong have left a shining legacy to Melbourne’s cultural life, transforming a moribund company with an exclusively Australian focus into a vibrant, outward-looking and progressive theatre hub. Cameron Woodhead, The Age In 2010, Malthouse Theatre’s mainstage program continued to invest in high impact, high risk productions across a range of theatre forms, often in collaboration. Over 245 performances on our home stages, paid attendances for the mainstage program increased to 65% of overall capacity: a total of 41,904 tickets sold, a 5% increase on 2009. Of sixteen productions, the 2010 program included nine Malthouse Theatre commissioned world premieres. Of the remaining seven: one was a new production of an international classic with a text adapted by an Australian writer; four were remounts of local, independent productions; and two were international buy-ins. Commissions and artform development remained a priority with at least six new commissions entered for future repertoire programming. Participation in the company’s Education program grew by more than 11% and a new work commissioned exclusively for secondary students was produced and presented. Malthouse Theatre productions were also presented in Sydney (five seasons), Adelaide (one season), Perth (one, a second is scheduled for early 2011), and Darwin (one season).
SEASON ONE The world premiere of Furious Mattress, Melissa Reeves’ tragi-comic tale of a rural community motivating itself through righteous delusion into an act of unspeakable cruelty was in equal parts disarming and terrifying. This four-hander play was stunningly realised in the Beckett Theatre with a design by Anna Cordingley and Paul Jackson and an outstanding central performance from Kate Kendall. Alongside Furious Mattress, in the Merlyn Theatre, Chunky Moves’ brilliant Mortal Engine again proved its class and broad audience appeal with a sold out return season.
We followed with our Indigenous Theatre Program commission, Ngurrumilmarrmiriyu (Wrong Skin) a coproduction with Adelaide Festival, Sydney Opera House, Performing Lines and Darwin Festival. After its very short technical rehearsal for the Adelaide Festival premiere, this complex new work was afforded a full week of technical rehearsals and previews before opening to strong houses in the Merlyn Theatre - the benefits of this strategy were all too apparent in realising a high standard work of cultural collaboration and artistic daring. Collaborating with Nigel Jamieson and the Chooky Dancers and Elcho Island community was a memorable and rewarding experience for the entire company. For the Melbourne Comedy Festival we invited nouvelle burlesque artist, Ursula Martinez to perform her outrageous and poignant My Stories Your Emails, a bare-all self-portrait (in conversation with unsolicited correspondents). Direct from its opening season at London’s Barbican, Martinez performed her hilarious, genre-busting work to capacity houses in an extended season.
Louise Fox and Luke Devenish’s adaptation of Dario Fo’s Italian language political burlesque, Elizabeth: Almost By Chance A Woman was originally commissioned by Malthouse in 2006. When the perfect cast finally became available - a flawless ensemble cast led by Julie Forsyth – we let loose our resident artistic team to create a spectacular production which realised the theatrical anarchy and satire of Fo’s original without sacrificing the emotionally charged portrait of an ageing and loveless absolute monarch. This was intelligent, moving, and disorienting chicanery of a high order. In the Tower Theatre, the world premiere of Declan Greene’s Moth, an Arena Theatre co-commission, featured an unforgettable performance by Dylan Young as the teenage anti-hero, Sebastian. Director, Chris Kohn’s meticulous production of this highly unorthodox play of isolation and fantasy, played to capacity houses before transferring to the Sydney Opera House. Moth will have a return Malthouse season in 2011. Another highly successful collaboration with a key organisation. Malthouse Theatre’s coproduction with Victorian Opera, The Threepenny Opera directed by Michael Kantor with Music Direction by Richard Gill, achieved popular ‘event’ status virtually selling-out all 23 performances prior to opening. A major undertaking with 19 artists on stage and the largest support crew yet contracted for a single presentation, the partnership with Victorian Opera was extremely fruitful, both artistically and as an example of artform and major organisation collaboration. We were thrilled with the production and it has since been bought by the Sydney Theatre Company who will present it in their 2011 Subscription Season for four weeks at the 900 seat Sydney Theatre.
Season One delivered a program of high calibre, overwhelmingly new-work productions across a generous spectrum of theatre genres. Contemporary dance, cabaret, opera/music-theatre, local drama, reinterpreted international classics, and Indigenous story-telling and performance - all attracting a broad audience base in a program unique to Australian mainstage theatre.
Season Two Full marks to the Malthouse team for their tremendous program of restaging independent works, giving them new life and new audiences. Martin Ball, The Age With principal support from the Goethe Institute, Maybe Forever by radical American choreographer, Meg Stuart, played for four performances in a season much anticipated by the contemporary dance and performance cognoscenti but, it must be admitted, a largely underwhelmed general public. In collaboration with Perth Festival and Lucy Guerin Inc, Malthouse Theatre commissioned Lucy Guerin to create Human Interest Story, a sublime but rigorous imaginative expression through dance, text, media and sculpted space exploring our emotional and social response to the omnipotence of media and 24 hour news coverage. Collaborating with some of the country’s best dancers and creative artists, including a design by Gideon Obarzanek and Paul Jackson – and a stunning original score by Jethro Woodward - Human Interest Story has since been programmed by Belvoir and is expected to have an extensive touring life.
Sappho… in 9 Fragments, written and performed by Jane Montgomery Griffiths, was originally presented at Stork Theatre, a small independent space in Melbourne. Re-commissioned with a full script development, design and production support, Sappho… in 9 Fragments was presented in the Beckett Theatre in partnership with Monash University’s ARC project, Investigating New Methodologies in Performance Reception. Anna Cordingley’s exquisite design and Jane Griffith’s witty text and scrupulous performance, staged by Marion Potts, was extremely well received. Neither didactic nor afraid of its intellectual investigation, the performance was as theatrically entertaining as it was beguiling. Louise Fox’s adroit adaptation of Kafka’s novel, The Trial was a coproduction with ThinIce and STC. Matthew Lutton’s assured direction of his ensemble cast - led by Ewen Leslie - drew mixed critical responses but enjoyed good attendances most notably in Sydney. With seventy-three performances nationally, this was a major under-taking for Malthouse Theatre and an excellent example of creative and capital capacity building through collaboration between two MPAB companies and the small independent company, ThinIce. Malthouse’s Company in Residence program proved wildly successful for the third year in a row with The Hayloft Project’s scarifying interpretation of Seneca’s Thyestes. Critically lauded for its outstanding performances, sound and visual design, the production played to capacity houses and enjoyed an extended season, winning the Melbourne Fringe prize for Best Production. National seasons are in discussion for 2012. After an extensive development and rehearsal period, our Melbourne Festival co-commission with Ranters Theatre company enjoyed a sell-out season and excellent, if occasionally qualified, critical acclaim.
A follow up to our successful 2008 programming of Ranter’s Holiday, the company have continued to develop their highly unique style: a gentle and unpretentious theatre of hyper-real conversation placed in a highly theatrical frame – the result was tender and often profound. The remarkable UK performance group, 1927 returned to Malthouse with The Animals and Children Took to the Streets, a follow up to their 2008 sell-out Between The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea. This new work was a commission between Malthouse Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre, and utilises their trademark vintage style of live music, storytelling and remarkable animation and projection. The deceptively naïve story is actually a wonderfully subversive and twisted morality fable. Playing to strong houses of delighted audiences, the company also offered a Workshop Intensive on the subject of artistic and technical integration of animation in live performance. Janice Muller’s A Woman in Berlin is a finely charged solo performance by Meredith Penman who delivers a riveting performance. This remount of an indie Sydney production was fully supported through re-rehearsal, redesign and a fully underwritten season. The production played to 100% capacity and enjoyed excellent reviews. A return season of Malthouse Theatre’s production of Barrie Koksy’s The Tell Tale Heart fittingly closed the year and Michael Kantor’s tenure as Artistic Director. First presented in Melbourne in 2007 before touring to the Edinburgh Festival and Sydney Festival, the performance of Austrian actor and singer, Martin Niedermair stunned audiences. Niedermair was accompanied by Michael Kieren Harvey (replacing Barrie Kosky) under rehearsal director Michael Kantor: “Quite simply one of the best works of theatre I have ever seen.” (Alison Croggon, Theatrenotes).
2011 ANNUAL REPORT/ 7