Melville Theatre Company - Whats The Show

Captain Moonlite

02/08/2026 Manuela Kacomanolis🥈🦉🎭

Captain Moonlite Rating

★★★★★

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Most Aussies are familiar with the legendary Ned Kelly but there’s another Irish born bushranger that perhaps few have ever heard of and that is Andrew George Scott, also known as Captain Moonlite.

After the show I had to look him up to check whether he was a real person or fictious and indeed, he was real whose bushranging adventures spanned from the 1860s to 1880.

The Melville Theatre Company brings his life to stage in the musical Captain Moonlite created by Jye Bryant. The musical follows Moonlite as a run of bad luck and circumstance leads him toward an unlikely gang of bushrangers. Rather than presenting the familiar colonial outlaw as a rough, swaggering folk hero, its central figure is educated, articulate and homosexual. As such, the show challenges the audience to look beyond the romanticised image of the Australian bushranger and consider the human being behind the legend.

The production is particularly effective in its attempt to move beyond the conventional bushranger myth, presenting Moonlite not simply as an outlaw, but as a complex man shaped by misfortune, identity, and circumstance.

One of the production’s strongest features is its live instrumental music. The Irish influence in the music brings a sense of authenticity to Scott’s background.

Presenting Moonlite’s life as a musical form however, does not always feel essential to the telling of his life. His story is already dramatic and compelling enough as a clergyman, a prisoner, an outsider, and ultimately a bushranger whose personal identity challenges many preconceived ideas about Australian colonial masculinity. There are moments when the song and dance interrupts rather than strengthens the force of that narrative. The attempt to present the show as comedy also felt unnecessary. The material has enough theatrical power to stand as a straight dramatic work without needing to be framed as a musical. The production is most successful when it focuses on Moonlite himself.

Nevertheless, the production team did a terrific job in presenting the show, with Jamie Lea in the lead role.

I was impressed with the production’s achievements of the seamless transition between locations, particularly from the confinement of the jail cell to the formality of the courtroom then to intimacy of the boarding lodge room. The shift from jail cell to courtroom becomes almost symbolic from isolation to spectacle.

Captain Moonlite is an ambitious reimaging of the Australian bushranger and portrayal of Andrew Geroge Scott.

To book tickets to Captain Moonlite, please visit https://melvilletheatrecompany.au/seasons-2026.

Photographer: Alan Gill

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Breaking The Code: The Turing Test

30/06/2026 Davros Dark🥈🦉

Breaking The Code Rating

★★★★★

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Hugh Whitemore’s Breaking the Code is built around one of the great contradictions of the twentieth century: Alan Turing helped change the course of history, yet was punished by the very society that benefited from his genius.

Presented by Melville Theatre Company and directed by Barry Park, Breaking the Code is based on Andrew Hodges’ biography Alan Turing: The Enigma. It is a biographical drama about genius, secrecy, sexuality, punishment and the moral contradictions of mid-twentieth-century Britain. It is also a play about codes in more than one sense: wartime codes, mathematical codes, legal codes, social codes, and the private codes by which people try to survive.

At its centre is Thomas Dimmick as Alan Turing. It is a demanding role, and Dimmick carries a large share of the evening. Turing is rarely absent from the action, and the performance requires stamina as well as emotional and intellectual precision. Dimmick gives the role a thoughtful intelligence, holding together the contradictions of a brilliant, awkward, playful, stubborn and vulnerable man.

What gives the story its continuing force is that Turing was not only a victim of legal and social cruelty. He was also a mind looking far beyond his own age. His work helped lay the foundations for modern computing, and his thinking around machine intelligence now feels strikingly prophetic. In an era where artificial intelligence is no longer theoretical but part of daily life, the play’s glimpses of Turing as the man who helped imagine the “electronic brain” are among its most intriguing moments.

The production is strongest when it allows us to see that larger figure: not only the man who helped break Enigma, but a kind of national superhero, now recognised with his image on the British £50 note. The cruelty of his treatment lands most strongly when set against the scale of what he gave, and the scale of what his country failed to honour in his own lifetime.

The supporting cast bring considerable strength to the production. Patrick Downes diligently inhabits Detective Mick Ross, giving him the firmness of a man of the law as he conducts several interrogations of Turing. Anna Head successfully represents the motherly perspective of the 1940s and 1950s as Sara Turing, loving her son while remaining unaware of his sexuality. Jack Riches plays the mildly scheming and villainous Ron Miller, the low-level thief and lover whose actions help set Turing’s downfall in motion.

Grace Edwards brings warmth and clarity to Pat Green, giving insight into Turing’s wartime years and accurately portraying a relationship in which his homosexuality is accepted rather than condemned. Martin Forsey portrays Turing’s wartime boss, Dillwyn Knox, with strength and empathy, with many of their scenes providing thoughtful debate around social codes, judgement and compassion. Rounding out the ensemble, Nicholas Mountain, Nate Tonkin and Jamie Brooker ably help fill out the emotional and social world around Turing.

Barry Park’s direction treats the material with seriousness and respect. Mark Nicholson’s lighting and the simple, functional staging support the shifting locations, while Merri Ford’s costuming helps anchor the period. This is a sincere and committed community theatre production, led by a strong central performance and a clear respect for the man at the heart of the story.

When Breaking the Code was first staged in 1986, it was undoubtedly working to break taboos. Its treatment of homosexuality, state persecution and moral hypocrisy would have carried a sharper social charge in the era in which it was written. In 2026, those injustices are no less appalling, but they are less likely to shock an audience in quite the same way. For that reason, the play is most effective when it moves beyond the fact of persecution and into the more complicated territory of Turing’s mind, isolation, contradictions and historical significance.

Turing emerges as a man who broke codes for his country, imagined the future for the world, and was constrained by the moral codes of his own society. Melville Theatre Company’s production gives that story a thoughtful and respectful staging, with a committed cast and a strong sense of care for the remarkable life at its centre.

To book tickets to Breaking The Code, please visit https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1569149.

Photographer: Curtain Call Creatives

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The Chairs

26/11/2025 Manuela Kacomanolis🥈🦉🎭

The Chairs Rating

★★★★★

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The Chairs is a creative vaudeville, circus style play about an elderly couple, simply known as the Old Man and the Old Woman presented by The Melville Theatre Company and directed by Virginia Moore Price.

Written by Eugene Ionesco in the 1950s, it is quite an absurd tale in which the elderly couple reflect on their life over the 70 years they’ve been married. This indicated that they would be in their 90s. At the beginning I struggled to understand what was happening and their conversations seemed nonsensical. A sign of the deterioration of their memories and their minds.

The couple prepare to receive guests for a lecture of some sort which never eventuates and their guest of honour, the Orator. They frantically gather chairs for the guests and dump them onto the rotating floor in a comedic fashion. The guests, however, are invisible to the audience. Whether the old couple are imagining them or whether they are actually real to the couple, left me unsure.

The couple’s fragmented recollections and contradictory chronologies evoke signs of dementia. This is particularly evident when the Old Woman recalls having a son who died when he was a child and reflecting on the grief of losing a child but the Old Man recalls the couple not being able to have any children and instead reflecting on the grief of his mother’s death.

Although it is clear they both deeply care for each other, there are moments of regret and a sense now that their lives are very soon coming to an end. Throughout the play the Old Woman continuously reminds the Old Man how he could’ve been a head general or a head comedian much to both of their despair. The Orator Raven who whilst is visible to the audience throughout the entire play as he sits on the rotating floor, is only visible to the couple towards the end perhaps signifying death.

Ionesco gives plays into the delusional state of mind of the elderly couple by having them set in a circus ring with both dressed as clowns and the Old Man performing as a mime artist.

Zane Alexander and Solanje Burns deliver a phenomenal performance as the Old Man and Old Woman holding the attention of audience for the entire play without an interval. There were moments of interaction with the audience when they both tumble off the stage and weave themselves into the audience while they continue their nonsensical dialogue.

At the heart of The Chairs is two people longing to be seen and heard, trying to make sense of the lives they have lived.

To book tickets to The Chairs, please visit https://melvilletheatrecompany.au/current-production.

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Letters To Lindy Review: Melville Theatre Company

19/09/202519/09/2025 Guest Author🥉🦉

Letters to Lindy Rating

★★★★★

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Letters to Lindy, presented by Melville Theatre Company, is a profound and deeply affecting theatrical work by Alana Valentine that offers a poignant and genuine look into one of our era’s most gripping legal and human stories. The court case captivated a nation: a mother accused of murdering her child, her claim – that the baby was taken by a dingo – denied and discredited by zealous police and a flawed legal system.

The media circus, the rumours, the nation’s prejudices laid bare. And in the eye of the storm: Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton. Valentine draws on thousands of real letters sent to Lindy, along with interviews with her, to create an enthralling and long overdue dialogue between Lindy and the nation. A portrait of the wisdom and resilience of a grieving mother. Themes of national obsession, group mentality and prejudice feel uncomfortably familiar today, leaving you pondering the nature of truth, justice and humanity.

I was immediately struck not only by the sheer force of the script but also by the formidable strength and commitment of the four-woman cast; they delivered monologue after monologue with precision, nuance and emotional depth. The actresses portraying the supporting roles (referred to as the “figures”) segued between a multitude of characters with remarkable clarity and agility, often shifting tone, physicality and voice in a matter of seconds.

I was particularly impressed with the technical skill and emotional range of Ellin Sears, whose scenes resonated with quiet intensity and left a lasting impression. Her ability to convey vulnerability and determination in the same breath was extraordinary.

The minimalist set is stripped back in scenery, costumes and décor, yet makes striking use of numerous props. Boxes of letters line the backstage area like a looming archive of public opinion, and multi-purpose wooden crates are shuffled and reassembled to signify different settings and moments.

The “figures” double as stage managers, shifting the crates almost subliminally as the story progresses, and the precision of this choreography reflects impressive, well-rehearsed direction. There is no backdrop, and I did feel the addition of one could have further immersed the audience and provided clearer geographical context. All the costume changes are carried out in full view from a portable clothes rack; an interesting choice, though at times it distracted from the performances unfolding. The lighting design is harsh and intentionally so, bathing the stage in an unforgiving glare that mirrors the scrutiny surrounding the case.

This powerful play balances warmth, delicacy and moments of in-your-face dark humour, offering both emotional weight and surprising levity. Theatre critics have rightly described Valentine’s work as a “masterclass in verbatim theatre,” and this production shows why.

It handles sensitive material with care while retaining dramatic potency. Melville Theatre Company has not only done justice to “Letters to Lindy” but delivered it with conviction, heart and finely tuned craft.

To book tickets to Letters to Lindy, please visit https://melvilletheatrecompany.au/current-production.

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