Melbourne Theatre Company

Melbourne Theatre Company — Australia’s oldest professional theatre

Melbourne Theatre Company, founded in 1953, is Australia’s oldest continuously operating professional theatre company and the second-largest theatre company in the country by audience and budget after Sydney Theatre Company. MTC is based at the Southbank Theatre — the company’s purpose-built mainstage venue at 140 Southbank Boulevard, opened in 2009 — and produces a typical year of ten to twelve mainstage productions across the Sumner Theatre (the Southbank Theatre main auditorium) and the Lawler (the smaller chamber theatre upstairs). The company is operated by the University of Melbourne and the artistic director since 2022 is Anne-Louise Sarks, succeeding Brett Sheehy.

What they’re known for

MTC programmes a more conservative mainstage line than Sydney Theatre Company, with a heavier weighting toward the post-war American and British canonical repertoire (Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Pinter, Stoppard, David Williamson) and a substantial commitment to contemporary Australian playwriting (Joanna Murray-Smith, Hannie Rayson, Suzie Miller, Patricia Cornelius). The signature programming threads under recent artistic directors have been the Tennessee Williams revivals, the contemporary Australian commissions, and the international work that suits the room (the recent Tom Stoppard productions, the Lucy Kirkwood Australian premieres).

The company has the strongest educational and dramatic-literacy programme of any Australian theatre — the MTC Education programme runs in approximately 200 secondary schools across Victoria each year, and the company’s playwriting development programmes (the Cybec Electric and the Suzy Miller scriptwriting programme) have been the country’s principal pipeline for emerging Australian playwrights for two decades.

Home venues

• Southbank Theatre — 140 Southbank Boulevard. The Sumner Theatre (480 seats, the principal mainstage) and the Lawler (148 seats, the chamber theatre).
• Arts Centre Melbourne — the Playhouse and the Fairfax Studio are used for selected MTC mainstage productions.

The season pattern — and how to book

MTC announces its annual season in early September. Subscription packages open immediately; single tickets follow in late October. The marquee productions (the Tom Stoppard, the international transfer, the David Williamson) sell out their best seats fastest. The Sumner Theatre’s smaller-than-Sydney-Theatre-Company capacity means availability tightens faster than at the Roslyn Packer; book the marquee productions within three weeks of single-ticket release.

The cheapest reliable strategy is the company’s under-30 ticket programme — selected seats at $35 across the season including the marquee productions. The Sunday matinee and the weeknight previews are the easiest seat-availability slots.

Planning a trip

The Southbank Theatre sits at the heart of the Southbank arts precinct — two minutes’ walk from the Arts Centre Melbourne and the Melbourne Recital Centre, ten minutes from Flinders Street Station. Pair the production with a meal at Florentino, MoVida, Coda or the Vue de Monde rooftop, and a daytime visit to the National Gallery of Victoria (5 min walk). David’s standing recommendation for a Melbourne theatre weekend is the MTC Saturday evening with the MSO Friday night the day before — both venues within ten minutes’ walk.

Tour reach beyond the capitals

MTC’s mainstage productions tour to Sydney (in collaboration with Sydney Theatre Company at the Roslyn Packer Theatre), to selected Adelaide Festival programming, and occasionally interstate to Brisbane and Perth. Regional Victorian touring runs through the Arts Centre Melbourne touring partnership; smaller-scale productions reach Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat most years. International touring is occasional.

Useful links

• Official: mtc.com.au
• Where we cover them: Companies, Reviews