Malthouse acknowledges the unceded lands of the Kulin Nation. We acknowledge their sovereignty and their Songlines. We pay respect to their Elders and their Children. We embrace and celebrate the oldest culture in the world.
I don’t know if you’ve ever spent two years resisting a metaphor but writing a vampire play is about the world’s most fertile ground. Love, death, sex, money, power. What do vampires mean? I’m still dodging an easy answer.
I’m writing this sitting in a blood workshop. The actors are testing different ways of biting and bleeding. I just ate a small cap of dyed-red baby food. I didn’t need to, I just wanted to feel involved. Everyone’s here— director, stage manager, assistant stage manager, intimacy coordinator, set and costume designer, dramaturg, sound designer.
It’s amazing how many problems you create with a few stage directions. There’s always this wonderfully bizarre moment in rehearsals when everyone is buying deeper into your story than you are. The way characters think, react, speak. The rhythm, meaning, pace. How the world sounds, looks, feels.
In this case, that’s meant a lot of blood meetings. Fight choreography. Intimacy workshops. It’s the rarest of privileges.
But also, occasionally, I swear they look at me like ‘you know this is all your fault, right?’
One thing I don’t know heaps about is vampires. That’s ok. Writing a play doesn’t mean you’re an expert, just means you’ve made a few choices. And there are things in the bloodsucking canon that stuck out to me—the humour, seduction, loneliness, the wanton chaos, the monotony of immortality, the grief of those left behind.
Do you know why we invite vampires in? I didn’t (forgive me), and of course the folklore varies, but I read that vampires - as monsters - represent the transition of terror from an external threat, to an internal one. We’re inviting them in— not just to our houses, but to ourselves. We are the monster.
So look, you’ve got a couple of choices— this play is entertainment. Have fun.
But if you’re still wondering: what’s the metaphor?
Well. What are you scared of? What do you hate about the world? About yourself? What do you think evil is? What makes you feel guilty? What do you hope no one ever finds out?
That’s vampires.
That unease you’re feeling? That’s all your fault.
KEZIAH WARNER / WriterReal life on stage can be such a trap for artists, you sometimes find yourself chasing accuracy and convincing simulation, instead of truth. They’re not the same thing. You can easily labour over cinematic realism, investing time in a task that may or may not add meaning to the story.
I love working with genre because it’s an immediate release from that trap. As a director, it’s permission to play, permission to find truth by looking sideways at something. Genre is a playground for your brain, letting you push ideas around in a place where you’re not as confined by the constraints of logic, culture, or history.
It’s also (I hope) a release for the audience, an agreement between you and us, the creative team, where there is absolute pleasure in knowing the players, the world, and the rules of the game (or most of them.)
When I first read this play, I was struck by Keziah’s treatment of the vampire horror genre— it at once satisfies and challenges, it isn’t scared to engage with tropes but there’s also a subversion of our expectations. Keziah’s writing contains both an acknowledgement of tradition and a clear defiance of it. It is this kind of approach that allows these myths to persist— their ability to contain the present moment, to show us a mirror, and to evolve with us.
Campaign Photography / Kristian Gehradte. Printed on 100% recycled paper. © Malthouse Theatre, the artists, designers, photographers, collaborators and contributors. All rights reserved, 2023. BRIDGET BALODIS / Director
KEZIAH WARNER WRITER
MARK PRITCHARD DRAMATURG
BRIDGET BALODIS DIRECTOR
BERNADETTE FAM PRODUCTION DRAMATURG
MAX BROWN CAST
KEEGAN JOYCE CAST
JACOB COLLINS-LEVY CAST
SOPHIE ROSS CAST
SHAMITA SIVA CAST
ROMANIE HARPER SET & COSTUME DESIGNER
PAUL JACKSON LIGHTING DESIGNER
KELLY RYALL COMPOSER & SOUND ENGINEER
CECILY RABEY STAGE MANAGER
HARRY DOWLING ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER
BOARD
FIONA M c GAUCHIE (CHAIR)
JADA ALBERTS
DEBORAH CHEETHAM AO
DEBBIE DADON AM
LINDY HUME AM PHD
DANIELLE LEIGH (OBSERVER)
ANDREW MYER AM
SUE PRESTNEY
PAMELA RABE
MARY VALLENTINE AO
JACOB VARGHESE
ALAN WONG
EXECUTIVE
MATTHEW LUTTON
SARAH NEAL
ARTISTIC & PROGRAMMING
ANNIE BOURKE
BERNADETTE FAM
LAURA HALE
MARLINE ZAIBAK
FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION
NESS HARWOOD
LIZ WHITE
ALLIE STAPLETON
CONNIE STELLA
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
DAVEY SIMMONS
SABRINA ALDAY
JULIA ANTIQUE
TAMARAH SCOTT
PUBLICITY
TS PUBLICITY
GRAPHIC DESIGN
HOURS AFTER
DEVELOPMENT
ALEX BELLEMORE
PATRICK CRUMMY
EDUCATION
LYALL BROOKS
TICKETING & BOX OFFICE
PRUE SUTHERLAND
FIONA WISEMAN
BOX OFFICE STAFF
PAUL BUCKLEY
EMILY BURKE
PERRI CUMMINGS
BRONYA DOYLE
MELLITA ILICH
MIN KINGHAM
ISA MUNHOS
EMMA WHITBY
LIZ WHITE
PRODUCTION
BLAIR HART
BAIRD M c KENNA
DEXTER VARLEY
TIA CLARK
ZOE RABB
ROB BALLINGALL
BRENDAN JELLIE
DELIA SPICER
GOFFREDO MAMELI
ELIZABETH WHITTON
LENNON FOWLER
LYNDALL GRANT / FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY
SUZANNE HEYWOOD / VOCAL COACH
CESSALEE SMITH-STOVALL / INTIMACY CHOREOGRAPHY
VENUE
DANIELLE GIORDANO
EMMA CORBETT
STEVE HEARNE
RYAN JONES
FRONT OF HOUSE STAFF
LUKE BRADY
MITCHELL BROTZ
LOUISA CARPINTERI
CHIARA GABRIELLI
DANIELLE GODER -
ZOE HADLER -
CATHERINE HAMILTON -
GEORGINA JEFFORD
SOPHIE MCCRAE
HAYLEY NEWMAN
TEXAS NIXON-KAIN
SARAH ONN
JULIE O’REILLY
ELLIE ROTH
CLAUDE SARMIENTO
LUCY SEALE
ELISABETH SHAW –
EMMA SHAW -
FLYNN SMEATON
BARNEY SPICER
KENNY WAITE
HENRY WALTER
OLIVE WEEKS
HAYLEY WOLTERS
HOLLY-JANE COHLE / BESEN PLACEMENT (SET & COSTUME DESIGN)
GIOVANNI YATE-GONZALEZ / BESEN PLACEMENT (LIGHTING DESIGN)
