1. Malthouse Theatre 2016 exterior day photograph courtesy Malthouse photographer credit Tim Grey
    Photograph: Malthouse/Tim Grey
  2. Malthouse Merlyn Theatre 2019 supplied image
    Photograph: Malthouse/Charlie Kinross

Malthouse Theatre

  • Theatre
  • Southbank
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Time Out says

This former brewery, gifted to the arts by Carlton and United in 1986, is the home of Malthouse Theatre – Melbourne’s innovative producer of new Australian work. The building has two theatre spaces: the 500-seat Merlyn theatre and 180-seat Beckett Theatre.

The onsite cafe and bar should take care of all your snacking, dining and drinking needs.

Details

Address
113 Sturt St
Southbank
Melbourne
3006

What’s on

The Orchard

4 out of 5 stars
When French philosopher Roland Barthes coined the term “Death of the author,” favouring each personal interpretation of art over the creator’s intentions, he probably didn’t envision Pony Cam collective’s drive-by shooting of revered Russian playwright, Anton Chekhov. But so it is when William Strom, deadpan as you like, strolls onto Malthouse’s Beckett stage as the word ‘foreword’ flashes up on a vast neon lighting bank behind him, glaring like the waning sun sizzling on the horizon.  Outlining a brief synopsis and key characters of The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov’s celebrated final play, Strom then delivers a mic drop par excellence. What we’re about to see, in their irreverent take, The Orchard, does not feature a single line from Chekhov’s weighty text. They’ve chopped it all down. Sure, Strom, Ava Campbell, Claire Bird, Dominic Weintraub and Hugo Williams very loosely inhabit the play’s sprawling story, while also deploying a gaggle of up-for-it audience members recruited in the foyer to help capture the spirit of a roiling society. It focuses on a turn of the 20th-century Russian family of aristocratic nitwits too paralysed with indecision to save their failing sour cherry orchard from bankruptcy. All the while, the middle class are on the rise, with opportunities to climb that ladder as serfdom – aka slavery – fell away, presenting fresh competition for those too used to the silver spoon. Set and costume designer Sophie Woodward’s simple staging places the red-tunicked...
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