By Melissa Reeves
Direction Tom Healey
With Alison Bell, Kevin Harrington, Margaret Mills, Denis Moore, Tony Nikolakopoulos, Luke Ryan, Maria Theodorakis
Voice-overs Peter Houghton, Val Levkowicz
Set and Costume Design Anna Borghesi
Lighting Design Richard Dinnen
Composition and Sound Design David Franzke

Martin Porter is a secret agent. Recruited by ASIO at a local footy match, he is
thrust into a life of deception, bugged conversations, misplaced loyalty,
romance, dark glasses, betrayal and ideas of grandeur. National heroism is
imminent for this nineteen year-old fitter and turner, as he exits a life of the
mundane and infiltrates the bowels of a national threat - the South Bendigo
Communist Party.

It’s 1965, in a South Bendigo garage, a long way from the streets of
Khrushchev's Russia, or the blooming of one thousand flowers in China.
The formal assemblies should be addressing the great issues facing the
revolution, yet here they are, simply grappling with the administrative minutiae
of declining sales of The Tribune and dwindling memberships as a result of
the local Maoist slide shows.

As Martin obsessively attends his evening class in Marxist theory, and Party
members Eli and George Tassekis welcome him into their family like a second
son, life in Bendigo becomes fraught with danger - and our Spy is about to get
his new friends into a whole lot of trouble!

Inspired by a true story, Melbourne playwright Melissa Reeves (Who’s Afraid
of the Working Class) marries whimsical comedy with an astute understanding
of how politics works at a micro-level in Australia, creating a bittersweet
personal odyssey with a twenty-first century bite.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR THE SPOOK

WINNER – Three AWGIEs (Australian Writers’ Guild Awards) including the
GOLD AWGIE for Best New Work, 2005
WINNER – The Louis Esson Prize for Drama 2005

"This is a brilliant script, subversive, comic, suspenseful, sad and a wonderful
allegory for the paranoia of our times. It’s also a great history lesson and it
resonates strongly with contemporary life in Australia. It manages to combine
humour and darkness in just the right measure."
The Louis Esson Prize for Drama, 2005 Judge’s Report



This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the
Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body

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Season One ‘07 shows

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Malthouse Education
The Spook will be included as part of Malthouse Education’s VCE Drama &
Theatre Studies Seminars on Thursday 22 February, which includes a meeting
with the artists and a viewing of the show. For more information contact Meg
Upton, Education Program Manager, or Mark Doggett, Education Program
Assistant on 03 9685 5165 or

Teachers can also make discounted bookings for their students to all
Malthouse theatre season shows. See the School Bookings page for more
information or contact the Education team.

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Other information
The Spook will be performed in the Merlyn Theatre. Merlyn Theatre
performances are by reservation seating. The Time to Talk session is free for
subscribers, please contact Box Office.