Malthouse Theatre has unveiled the second half of its 2023 season, including a large-scale immersive theatre work set in a haunted town, Hour of the Wolf.
“Immersive theatre is one the most exciting theatrical forms I have ever worked in,” said Matthew Lutton, Malthouse Theatre Artistic Director & Co-CEO. “I’ve always wanted to create fantasy worlds you can surround yourself in, and this is the live, theatrical form that can achieve this.
“I’m thrilled to continue innovating what immersive theatre means in an Australia context with an incredibly talented team.”
“Announcing our 2023 season in two parts, without a subscription model, is about freeing up the institutional models to allow more creativity and accessibility. We could never create Hour of the Wolf in the old model.”
“And I suspect this approach has also allowed us to program works in the second half of 2023 that have a more diverse breadth of artists and reaches out to a greater plurality of audiences.”
“Malthouse Theatre has always been a champion of diversity and eclecticism. Our approach to 2023 allows us t0 amplify this further,” said Lutton.
Building on the landmark success of 2021’s Because the Night, Malthouse Theatre ambitiously realises Australia’s next chapter of large-scale immersive theatre. In October, Hour of the Wolf welcomes audiences to Hope Hill – a town that is yours to freely explore on the longest night of the year.
Featuring a cast of 11 and created by Matthew Lutton and Keziah Warner (Nosferatu), interweaving stories unravel the disturbing disappearances occurring between the hours of 3am and 4am.
Wearing headphones, audience members choose which of the many characters to follow, pick left or right at the end of every scene, and trace this night from different points of view.
Alistair Baldwin’s debut comedy Telethon Kid comes to the Beckett in July. After rising to fame as the poster child of Perth Children’s Hospital 2007 Telethon, Sam reunites alongside his paediatric doctor-come-lover when they are nominated for a coveted research grant from big pharma.
A DAYLIGHT CONNECTION is Malthouse Theatre’s Company in Residence for 2023. Artists Carly Sheppard, Kamarra Bell-Wykes, Daniel Nixon and smallsound present Whose Gonna Love ‘Em? I am that i AM – a post-traumatic performance thesis that won the 2021 Patrick White Playwriting Award.
The Company also presented last year’s hit Chase, which will return to Malthouse’s Beckett Theatre after a short, sold out season at Malthouse, and successful tours at Hothouse Theatre and at Carriageworks in Sydney as part of World Pride 2023.
Equally offensive and endearing to theatregoers from every walk of life, Carly Sheppard has been developing and performing the character of Chase for nearly a decade. The two productions run back to back as a double bill in November.
The year has started strongly for Malthouse Theatre, opening with the sold out, smash hit seven methods of killing kylie jenner, followed by Nosferatu, Keziah Warner’s scintillating gothic drama based on the iconic 1922 silent film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, and the extraordinary Made In China 2.0 by Beijing artist Wang Chong – a moving examination of the role of the artist and provocateur in uncertain times.
Already announced, but still to come, is a stage adaptation of Christos Tsiolkas’ debut novel Loaded in May, with director Stephen Nicolazzo (Looking for Alibrandi) in collaboration with writers Dan Giovannoni and Tsiolkas (Merciless Gods), plus Ash Flanders’ new work, This Is Living – a semi-autobiographical play that turns the Merlyn Theatre into a Hepburn Springs getaway in July, with a salty, sweet and honest look at love and friendship.
For more information and Malthouse Theatre’s 2023 season, visit: www.malthousetheatre.com.au for details.
Image: Maurial Spearim, Corey Saylor-Brunskill and Maggie Church-Kopp (Whose Gonna Love ‘Em? I am that i AM) – photo by Tiffany Garvie