Malthouse Theatre

There’s no more rehearsing. In fact, there was none to begin with. Not a single cast member of ECHO: Every Cold-Hearted Oxygen knows the part by heart. Welcome to a spectacle that is deliberately unprepared, unorthodox and unpredictable.  Nassim Soleimanpour is the most performed playwright in the history of Iranian theatre. You may know him for his acclaimed works like White Rabbit, Red Rabbit or NASSIM. This July, he’s joining audiences at Malthouse’s Merlyn Theatre all the way from Berlin for a spectacle that plays with technology and tricks of the trade to redefine the idea of ‘home’.  One of the key characteristics of Soleimanpour’s style is fastracking unrehearsed cold reads to showtime, and Italian-Palestinian director Omar Elerian is bringing his work to life in Melbourne. Each night Soleimanpour will guide a new guest through the script for a performance that quite literally no one has seen before.  Household Australian names taking on the challenge include everyone from journalists Stan Grant and Jan Fran to musician and presenter David Campbell and comedian Michelle Brasier, plus actors Ben Lawson, Pia Miranda and Nadine Garner. Watch them star in what Soleimanpour calls a “long-distance magic show”. ECHO: Every Cold-Hearted Oxygen plays at Malthouse Theatre from July 14 to 19. To find out when each performer takes the stage and book your tickets, head here.