Why Has an English Gothic Author Found Sudden Relevance on Melbourne Stages?

“Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”

This is the famous opening to Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. The novel was published in 1938 and hasn’t gone out of print since. Soon after, it was adapted for stage by du Maurier herself, then into a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, winning the 1940 Academy Award for Best Picture.

The story follows an anonymous woman who marries a wealthy widower and moves into his mansion, only to find a staff of hostile, sabotaging housekeepers still devoted to her beautiful and seemingly perfect predecessor, the titular Rebecca. Almost 90 years on, its themes feel eerily familiar in a world where we spend so many hours on social media measuring ourselves against strangers.

Du Maurier’s legacy is so strong that this year we’ve seen two retellings of her work on Melbourne stages. First came the Malthouse’s one-woman adaptation of The Birds , also made famous on screen by Hitchcock. Paula Arundell took on the challenge of depicting multiple characters, while the audience wore headphones that delivered spooky avian sound effects with an intimacy loudspeakers could never match. The play’s focus on creeping dread and the horror of the unknown seemed a suitable metaphor for the current political climate (and perhaps also the literal climate).

And now, we have Anne-Louise Sarks’s adaption of Rebecca for Melbourne Theatre Company. This retelling seeks to reframe the unnamed protagonist’s story, and takes a deeper look at how characters other than Rebecca are complicit in her torment.

Both shows depict people unravelling against the threat of an elusive enemy. And while it might be surprising that two similar texts by the same author have been brought to life in the same city just a few months apart, it makes sense when you consider how du Maurier’s works explore the myth of control and the anxiety created by ecological instability, political unrest and personal turmoil.

“I think it’s the curiosity of the unknown,” says Nikki Shiels, who plays Rebecca ’s protagonist. “It goes back to the Greeks, in a way, like the things that are unseen are the most exciting and thrilling. And of course, a lot of erotic sensuality and tension exists in those genres.

“I feel like in our current culture, we’re looking back at stories from the past through the lens of: how might we read what happened then, versus now?”

Perhaps we can find solace in the notion that although things change, perhaps they also fundamentally stay the same. And so, we sit together in the dark and consume 2025’s version of a love story turned sour, written almost a century ago.

“The theatre-making of it is doing something that only theatre can do,” Shiels says. “[MTC’s Rebecca ] is not a regular play. I can guarantee that audiences will not know what is coming next. It’s so gripping in its construction.”

Rebecca is playing at Southbank Theatre (Arts Centre) until November 5. Tickets are available online.