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“ The Festival ’ s theatre programs have ranged far and wide , representing a who ’ s who of the world ’ s theatre .
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Josephine Ridge worked closely with the independent sector to present and , where possible , commission new works . Daniel Schlusser Ensemble ’ s M + M , a contemporary response to Mikhail Bulgakov ’ s The Master and Margarita , was one of two collaborations in 2013 with Theatreworks , which along with Arts House and La Mama , is one of Melbourne ’ s main producing and presenting venues for the sector . In 2015 , the Festival returned to Theatreworks with St Martins and Fraught Outfit ’ s The Bacchae .
The Festival ’ s theatre programs have ranged far and wide , representing a who ’ s who of the world ’ s theatre . In 1988 , under Menotti , a visit by the Comédie-Française , with Molière ’ s classic Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme , was a highlight of Melbourne ’ s year . The next year , under Truscott , The Suzuki Company of Toga came from Japan with its idiosyncratic take on Euripides ’ The Bacchae , which melded ancient Japanese theatre , Zen and a contemporary aesthetic .
Richard Wherrett created a seismic impact in 1992 when he presented Robert Wilson ’ s production of Einstein on the Beach . Kristy Edmunds followed up in 2006 and 2007 with two other works from Robert Wilson : a category-defying theatre work inspired by the Indonesian epic poem I La Galigo in 2006 and The Temptation of Saint Anthony after the text of Gustave Flaubert , with music and libretto by Bernice Johnson Reagon .
Leo Schofield introduced audiences to Theatre de Complicite with The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol in 1995 , the only production by the groundbreaking UK company , headed by Simon McBurney , to have been presented in Melbourne . In 2001 , Mills presented the Melbourne debut of American theatre makers Chicago ’ s Steppenwolf Theatre Company with the Tony Award-winning play Safe Man . In the same year , he brought New York ’ s The Wooster Group with Eugene O ’ Neill ’ s The Hairy Ape , starring Willem Defoe . Barrie Kosky , by then Director of the Schauspielhaus Vienna , returned in 2003 and 2007 with The Lost Breath and The Tell Tale Heart , after Edgar Allan Poe .
Thomas Ostermeier is one of the most acclaimed directors of his generation and four of his productions for the Schaubühne Berlin , where he is Artistic Director , have now been brought to Australia by Brett Sheehy , two of them for the Melbourne Festival : Hedda Gabler in 2011 and An Enemy of the People in 2012 . Sheehy also brought back acclaimed Québécois theatre maker Robert Lepage whose work had not been seen in Melbourne since Leo Schofield brought the Canadian Opera in 1994 . That same year , in 2010 , he presented Heiner Goebbels ’ unforgettable sonic performance Stifters Dinge . In 2014 , Josephine Ridge presented When the mountain changed its clothing , another category-defying work from this celebrated composer and theatre maker , created for 40 teenage girls , all members of the Vocal Theatre Carmina Slovenica .
Ireland has been well represented over the years with a number of visits by the Abbey Theatre and The Gate Theatre of Dublin . The latter memorably performed five Beckett plays in Clifford Hocking ’ s 1997 Festival . More recently , Brett Sheehy brought the Gare St Lazare Players Ireland with three more Beckett plays and Josephine Ridge presented Brokentalkers with Have I No Mouth , a deeply personal account of a family dealing with grief and forgiveness . Many of these artists and companies were seen in Australia for the first time , continuing a founding ambition of the Festival , which has not diminished despite the explosion of the city ’ s cultural scene in the past 30 years .
The 2015 program featured the work of renowned director Peter Sellars with Desdemona , for which Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison wrote the text and Malian musician , Rokia Traoré , the music . Anticipating where influential and inspirational voices of the future will come from goes to the heart of the Festival ethos . In this vein , the Headlong ( UK ) production of 1984 , a searingly relevant adaptation of George Orwell ’ s book by two exciting new writer-directors , Duncan Macmillan and Robert Icke , was programmed in Ridge ’ s final year .
MELBOURNE FESTIVAL : 30 YEARS