Malthouse Theatre has announced that its artistic director and co-CEO, Matthew Lutton, will step down from his role at the end of March.
After nine years at the helm of one of Victoria’s major theatre companies, his sudden departure comes as a surprise, with the search for his successor to commence in late February.
Outgoing Malthouse artistic director and co-CEO Matthew Lutton.Credit: Simon Schluter
Lutton, whose final program for the company kicks off with Truth on February 13, will still direct two of the company’s 2025 shows, The Birds and Troy, before turning his attention to working in theatre and opera internationally.
His departure follows that of former co-CEO and executive producer Sarah Neal in late 2023 after 10 years in the role. Neal was succeeded by former CEO of Melbourne Writers Festival, Vivia Hickman.
While staff and the public are being notified of the news today, both Lutton and Hickman say the decision was made late last year.
“I always thought I would be doing this role for eight or nine, maybe 10 years,” says Lutton. “So it’s been on my mind for a while.”
In an interview with The Age in 2024, Lutton said changes in audience behaviour and cost-of-living issues were having a significant impact on theatre companies. “I do think it’s probably the hardest time I’ve ever seen to make theatre right now,” he said.
Asked this week if that had factored into his decision to depart, he insisted it had not.
Malthouse has faced headwinds following COVID-19 and finished 2023 with “a rather large deficit”, says Hickman, which saw the company quietly cancel the show Under the Skin. However, both Lutton and Hickman say Malthouse is in a more stable position now, and point to strong ticket sales for the 2025 season.
“[We’re] back to the strength that we were pre-pandemic, so it felt like to me that this was a good moment,” says Lutton. “The company’s in a really healthy place creatively and financially, and I can pass the baton to someone else.”
Matthew Lutton (centre) directing a rehearsal of Cloudstreet in 2019.Credit: Eddie Jim
Hickman and Lutton have shared the CEO position, but whether this model will continue is uncertain. “There’s every chance that it will, but the board and I will be having discussions,” says Hickman.
In his nine years at the helm, Lutton has driven a lot of new programming and directed shows himself. He counts among his proudest accomplishments the works the company has taken overseas, as well as centring previously untold stories and supporting both established and emerging artists.
“That’s been really important to me, to be able to rethink what we consider the canonical stories in Australia,” he says.
Both he and Hickman point to Because the Night, a sprawling and ambitious immersive show staged at the height of the pandemic, as a particular highlight.
“It was a very bold move of us as a company, and I think we were rewarded for our boldness,” says Lutton. “I was very proud we did that together as one big community.”
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