THE NIGHTLINE brings Melbourne’s anonymous late-night callers to Malthouse Theatre

Malthouse Theatre is proud to present The Nightline, an intimate and deeply evocative immersive audio experience created by renowned documentary theatre maker Roslyn Oades and ARIA Award-winning sound artist Bob Scott. Playing at Malthouse’s Bagging Room from 13-29 August, The Nightline offers a rare, unfiltered glimpse into the hushed inner world of Melbourne’s nocturnal community.

Inside the space, audiences are invited to take a seat at a solitary table, pick up a vintage telephone, and operate a switchboard to navigate a curated collection of real-life voice messages. These personal recordings were left by the city’s residents between the hours of midnight and 6AM—capturing the unfiltered thoughts of shift-workers, insomniacs, truck drivers, prank callers, emergency workers, new parents, and late-night revellers.

Originally commissioned by RISING for its inaugural 2021 program, the production’s highly anticipated Melbourne premiere was cancelled due to a pandemic lockdown on the festival’s opening night. Since then, the acclaimed work has travelled widely, captivating audiences at the Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival, Gold Coast’s Bleach* Festival, and internationally at Canada’s Carrefour international de théâtre de Quebec.

For each iteration of the work, Oades and Scott seek a new batch of local voice messages from the host city, inviting contributions to their dedicated, anonymous hotline via late-night radio call-outs and night-community networks. For the upcoming Malthouse season, the artists put out a fresh appeal to Melbourne’s night owls, capturing a contemporary, raw, and deeply specific snapshot of the city’s subconscious.

 

Co-creator and Director Roslyn Oades reflected :

There is a distinct, open-hearted honesty to the anonymous messages left for The Nightline under the cover of darkness . Bringing this work back to my home city of Melbourne, the place where the idea was dreamed up–in response to my own overnight experiences–is incredibly special. We look forward to inviting local listeners to pull up a chair, pick up a receiver, and share a deeply human moment in the dark with their fellow Melburnians.

Guided into the space by ‘The Nightline Concierge’ (played by Katia Molino), the production strips away traditional theatrical spectacle to focus on a deeper kind of listening. As the switchboard connects audiences to different voices, the boundary between stranger and confidant dissolves, turning a solitary auditory experience into an act of profound connection.

Malthouse Theatre Executive Producer and co-CEO Vivia Hickman :

Roslyn Oades and Bob Scott have created an exceptionally delicate, moving portrait of a city in its quietest hours. Since capturing the imagination of audiences across Australia and overseas, it is a privilege to bring The Nightline back to the city where it all began.

Roslyn Oades is an award-winning Naarm/Melbourne-based theatremaker and dramaturg pioneering headphone-verbatim and audio-driven performance projects. Her highly acclaimed stage works include Hello, Goodbye & Happy Birthday (Malthouse/Melbourne Festival) and I’m Your Man (Belvoir/Sydney Festival).

A recipient of the 2024 Creative Australia Fellowship for Theatre and a Green Room Award for Technical Achievement, Roslyn’s signature practice focuses on intimate, documentary-led audio experiences. Her immersive projects have toured extensively across major Australian arts festivals and internationally.

Bob Scott is an interdisciplinary sound designer, recording engineer, composer and music mixer working predominantly in immersive formats, including Dolby Atmos, and D+B Soundscape. Often working with orchestras and acoustic ensembles, he splits his time between music projects and art and film soundtracks and sound installations.

The Nightline features production design by Clare Britton, lighting design and coding by Fausto Brusamolino, and switchbaord design by Greg Cameron.

The Nightline Message Bank will be open to callers through to the end of the season. Messages left in July may be included in the upcoming run, while any messages recorded after that will be added to The Nightline collection for potential inclusion in future seasons.

 

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Season Details

Venue: Malthouse Theatre
Date: 13 Aug – 29 Aug 2026

For more information click HERE