MARCH 6 - MARCH 28

MALTHOUSE THEATRE AND
ARENA THEATRE COMPANY PRESENT

GOODBYE VAUDEVILLE CHARLIE MUDD

A KATZ & KOHN CREATION
WRITTEN BY LALLY KATZ
CONCEPT BY CHRIS KOHN
DIRECTED BY CHRIS KOHN
SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER JONATHON OXLADE
COMPOSER MARK JONES
SOUND DESIGNER JETHRO WOODWARD
LIGHTING DESIGNER RICHARD VABRE
DRAMATURGE MARYANNE LYNCH
CAST INCLUDES
MARK JONES, ALEX MENGLET, CHRISTEN O’LEARY, JIM RUSSELL, MATT WILSON, JULIA ZEMIRO

Step back in time to a place where the Great Vaudevillian Halls were filled with dime museums, knife-throwing dancers, comedians and minstrel musicians. It’s 1914 and Melbourne’s Swanston River threatens to consume all in its wake, but not before one final night on the stage, one last chance to perform!

Charlie Mudd’s Castle is a hangdog vaudeville haunt, struggling to stay above water. Inhabited by the dead spirit of the last great starlet, it’s a place where men of mystery rub shoulders with mute acrobats and crook-finger pianists. And then there’s Violet the new girl trapped on this sinking ship, who may just hold the key to their very survival. But time is running out and the modern age is fast approaching - the great war, technology, the demise of Vaudeville.

From the fierce minds behind internationally acclaimed hits The Black Swan of Trespass and The Eisteddfod, co-creators Lally Katz and Chris Kohn are proving time and time again to be among the most original voices of their generation. Winner of the 2008 R.E. Ross Trust Playwrights Award and the 2008 Malcolm Robertson Prize, Lally Katz’ work is commanding international attention from New York to Dublin.

Part funhouse ride, part creepshow nightmare, Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd unearths a half-remembered world of highly questionable character, in which a ghostly, clamorous chorus rails against the din of the modern world.