Radical Adaptations, Dramatic Classics and Five World Premieres: Malthouse Theatre Reveals 2026 Program

Malthouse Theatre has unveiled its program for 2026, with a mix of marquee plays, sharp satire and bold new Australian voices hitting the stage across the year.

Featuring 10 timely productions that shed light on our modern world, this season aims to spark conversations with both contemporary stories and reimagined classics.

“[The program] brings together a dynamic range of voices, some iconic and beloved, others fresh and daring, who are shaping the cultural conversation in powerful ways,” Malthouse executive producer and co-CEO Vivia Hickman said in a statement.

“We are opening our doors to stories that not only inspire and entertain but also speak with urgency to our audiences and to the complex times we live in … to imagine more boldly what our shared future might hold.”

The season kicks off with two new Malthouse commissions: Black
Light (February 13 to March 7), a powerful portrait of modern Black motherhood written and directed by Larrakia, Yanyuwa, Bardi and Wardaman playwright Jada Alberts (Brothers Wreck); and Game. Set. Match. (May 1 to 23), written by and starring comedic actor Megan Wilding, which takes audiences on a journey from an opposites-attract rom-com to a “devastating” revenge thriller.

Stage and screen star Kat Stewart (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Offspring) appears in the world premiere of the Australian play Break of Day (August 7 to 29), a moving tale of a mother and daughter navigating life in a town the NBN forgot.

American classic All About Eve will get the modern treatment later in the year, led by incoming Malthouse artistic director Dean Bryant (November 20 to December 12). This biting narrative of ambition stars Christie Whelan Browne in the dual roles of aging Broadway star Margo Channing and ingenue Eve Harrington.

Larger-than-life characters Big and Little Edie, from the cult 1975 documentary Grey Gardens, will come to life in cabaret form for three nights only in Green Door Theatre Company’s House of Rot: Grey Gardens (June 18 to 20, 2026). Paul Capsis (Cabaret) and Adam Noviello (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) will play the two eccentric recluses living in a house slowly falling in on itself.

Jane Austen’s classic romance and society satire Pride and Prejudice (May 14 to 23), set within the depths of a 21st-century housing crisis, is cleverly reimagined by the Bloomshed theatre collective’s signature wit.

Following a sold-out Sydney run, Michelle Lim Davidson’s
Koreaboo (September 24 to October 10) will take audiences to Seoul on a tender journey of identity and belonging.

Winter at Malthouse will feature the world premiere of choreographer Stephanie Lake’s contemporary dance work Vista (July 22 to August 1), along with The Nightline (August 13 to 29), a performance built around real anonymous voice messages from night shift workers, insomniacs, truck drivers, new parents and revellers.

The program will also include Ritual Ritual Ritual (October 19 to 31) by Rae Perks, a world-premiere exploration of climate change through intergenerational hope, commissioned for Malthouse’s award-winning high school participatory program, The Suitcase Series.

Tickets for Malthouse Theatre’s 2026 season are on sale now, with an earlybird discount available until October 31, 2025. Visit malthousetheatre.com.au for details.

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