Productions
Merry wanderers of the night has been developed in 2023/24 by the ensemble using works of Shakespeare and having a kind of freefall play with it. Music played a big part. Ben Jamieson, Joachim Matschoss and Emma Snow co-directed. Nikki Green was responsible for movement, Estrella Jurado for costume design and the ensemble collectively for space, properties and sound.
Cast: Talya Callahan, Elsa Caruso, Jackson Cross, Vasi Devi, Nikki Green, Tom Hoskins, Huw Jennings, Amalia Krueger, Georgina McKay, Oscar O’Brien, Anita Perez, Jess Robinson, Giacinta Squires, Jemima Swan, Verity Wood.
In 2025 Fractured Love, a new theatre piece devised by the 2024/25-ensemble, Ellen Kiley, Amalia Krueger, Stevie McKeon and Joachim Matschoss, will tour nationally and internationally.
This new theatre piece has some of Shakespeare’s much-loved heroines at its center. It deals with love, gender and identity. It is comic at heart and a playful dealing with Shakespeare’s motifs and characters. It features original music and songs based on Shakespeare’s sonnets.
Die Spur des Verschwindens (Traces of Vanishing) is a co-production between Jahrmarkttheater Bostelwiebeck, BackYardTheatreEnsemble, Wheels Berlin and Ruess and Vetter.
It is a journey through time right into the heart of 2023. The show will be open air in the middle of 2023 in Northern Germany.
Creatives: Kristina Brons, Konstantin Buchholz, Martin Greif, Anja Imig, Oleksandr Kryvosheiev, Joachim Matschoss, Thomas Matschoss, Kathrin Matzak, Emily O Connor, India Roth, Adeline Rüss, Antje Schiffers, Neele Schmidt, Anna Sinkemat, David Sinkemat, Uwe Sinkemat, Andrii Vanieiev, Anniek Vetter, Markus Voigt, Lisa Pauline Wagner, Rhian Wilson.
It’s not your fault that you’re my weakness is a new theatre piece in development. It tells the story of three women in a derelict apartment block.
Creatives: Jeni Bezuidenhout, Stevie McKeon, Joachim Matschoss, Rod Primrose, Rhian Wilson, Verity Wood.
The Problem is the Ending is a new theatre piece currently in development. Three characters are imprisoned in a theatre or are they ghosts?
Creatives: Florensia Andarini, Talya Callahan, Isabel Knight, Joachim Matschoss
The piece will be at the Butterfly Club December 11- 16, 2023, 7pm.
This new theatre-piece has been developed in a residency in regional Victoria. The piece premiered in regional Victoria and was presented at the Butterfly Club in Melbourne in December 2022. It toured extensively in 2023. Lucy and Emma are best friends. They are also actors dreaming of the big break.
Creatives: Breanna Milliken, Emma Snow, Verity Wood, Amy Smith, Joachim Matschoss.
This new play is based on true events and has been created on a partially verbatim basis. It is currently in development. A season at La Mama HQ occurred from January 17 to 25, 2023.
Creatives: Isabel Knight, Breanna Milliken, Sasha Leong, Giacinta Squires, Amalia Krueger, Michelle Eddington, Philip Roberts, Verity Wood, Nikki Green, Ben Jamieson, Shane Grant, Isabella Anderson, Florensia Andarini, Joachim Matschoss.
The piece looks at the journey that is acting school. The passion - the egos - the drama. It features music and songs by Robert Downie and Tom Pitts. This piece is currently in development.
Writers: Rhian Wilson, Joachim Matschoss and Megan Mitchell
Creatives: Breanna Milliken, Megan Mitchell, Katie Ferraro, Michael Brandt, Talya callahan, Carlo Hengstler, Briannah Borg, Casey Bohan, Verity Wood, Huw Jennings, Jonathan Kuch, Rhian Wilson, Bianca Conry.
This piece is inspired by characters from Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’. It explores the issues of family, trust, love and how for you would go to get head. The piece is currently in development and workshopping.
The Twelfth of Love combines Shakespearean sources such as Twelfth Night, King Lear, As You Like It, Timon of Athens as well Chekovían motifs from notably Ivanov, The Cherry Orchard and Short Stories into a new piece of theatre. The piece was shown in the middle of 2022 at the Abbotsford Convent..
Creatives: Samantha Martin, Capri Walsh, Emma Snow, Amalia Krueger, Breanna Milliken, Briannah Borg, Bridget Sweeney, Verity Wood, Joachim Matschoss.
SMITH STREET is a new play, part verbatim, part fiction, set in and around one of Melbourne's iconic pockets. Thirteen actors shared 30+ characters in this play that spans many years (1850 to today). The piece had been presented in a non-theatrical space with a non-defined audience space.
Creatives: Delta Brooks, Rebekah Carton, Megan Mitchell, Sophia Riozzi, Olivia Brewer, Giacinta Squires, Rosa Leonardi, Verity Wood, Ben Jamieson, Tom Richards, Huw Jennings, Lochie Laffin Vines, Abul Ali, Carlo Hengstler, Shamita Sivabalan, Emma Stewart, Robert Downie, Tom Stewart, Ollie Cox, Michelle Eddington, Joachim Matschoss.
Soul of a street
BYTE’s new play ‘Smith Street’ is an eclectic immersive theatre ensemble piece of Melbourne, its history, with Smith St as its central character. The audience is brought into a room filled with a cacophony of characters, animals and ghosts that make up the soul of Smith Street in all its light and shadows. The piece features fifty characters, animals, ghosts, those in the sunlight and those in the shadows. The promenade staging in the Abbotsford Convent Oratory creates an immersive theatre experience not seen in Melbourne since Jean-Pierre Mignon’s ANT (Australian Nouveau Theatre) of the 1980’s. The audience’s senses are caressed by the sights, sounds and stories of the faces in the street from the soulful Syrian woman outside the Coles to the troubadours in the street to the school kids weaponizing exclusion and abuse from the touchpad of mobile phones. The looped spiral narrative is bound by the ever-present presence and commentary of Abigail (Delta Brooks), the ghost of a 19th century woman whose horrific tale of abuse moved every eye in the space to tears in the climax to the two-hour traffic on the stage. Tales of abuse and shame are balanced like the child portraits sketched by the Syrian refugee with stories of grace, poetry, humour and dignity. This symmetry is balanced by Joachim Matschoss’ direction of almost twenty creatives from ensemble actors to musicians to movement directors and costume, set and graphic designers. This is a rich five course meal that fills the palate while also adding its BYTE.
Dr. Mark Eckersley
Hannah and her brother Freddie are expecting their mother to join them for dinner and to introduce her to Freddie’s girlfriend, Georgie. At some point, Hannah’s partner Melanie arrives and the evening becomes unsettling for all involved. This new play is now in development.
This new theatre piece by Joachim Matschoss and Music by Robert Downie features three female characters, a writer, an actor and an audience member. They are trying to solve existential riddles and the big problems of all time. The piece could be described as an existential farce with some songs. The piece premiered in Melbourne in late 2020.
Creatives: Actors Delta Brooks, Rebekah Carton, Monica Reid and Michelle Eddington. Designer Victoria Nyguen, Composer Robert Downie and writer and director Joachim Matschoss.
This new play deals with love, loss and healing. Performed in February 2022 at the Missing Person’s Arts Space.
Creatives: Capri Walsh, Alyssa Kale, Verity Wood, Darcy Gilkinson, Joachim Matschoss, Indiana Jennings, Shamita Sivabalan, Shannon Stevens.
On a Bridge North from Here by Joachim Matschoss, performed by BYTE Company immerses the audience in the complex world of relationships showing how even those who are gone can still have a hold on the living. The play centres on Rachel and the power that her relationship with the effervescent Erin still has on her life long after Erin has died. Rachel floats in a world where the past and present embrace one another and she is unable to re-anchor her life even when Bec opens her arms and heart to her. This is a play about love, loss and hope which echoes the poetic lyricism of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando.
Dr. Mark Eckersley
By Joachim Matschoss – coming in 2019/2020
The Deep Freeze Option is a new theatre piece devised by the 2020 ensemble and Joachim Matschoss with music by Ross Brooks. The piece is set in the future in a country not unlike our own. Four characters emerge in a netherworld surrounded by water. The Deep Freeze Option will be shown on a bare stage with an ensemble of four actors/singers. This is a piece of theatre that includes original songs and puppetry. It is part comic, moving and thought-provoking. The production will premiere in Melbourne/Australia, before touring in late February and March 2020 to Thailand, Singapore, Germany, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Ireland and the Netherlands.
Cast: Delta Brooks, Georgia Eyers, Tatiana Kotsimbos and Seon Williams
Video: Ariani Adam
Composer: Ross Brooks
Writer/Director: Joachim Matschoss
November/December 2019 at the Abbotsford Convent and the Delatite Hotel, Mansfield.
Kenny is an ordinary Australian, a very valued member of ‘Team Australia’. He works in the construction industry and lives a quiet life with his partner, Primary School Teacher Sheryl. One day a politician appears on the building site where Kenny is working and one moment to another things will change forever. Kenny might even become the new Prime Minister of Australia. Ordinary Australians is a political comedy that doesn’t hold back.
Cast: Nathan Bocskay, Emma Stewart, Anna Lyons, Ben Jamieson, Anton Kuom, Delta Brooks and Seon Williams.
Music: Tom Hoskins
Production Assistance: Rebekah Carton, Konstantina Samartzis
Writer/Director: Joachim Matschoss
Adapted by Joachim Matschoss and the ensemble from the works on Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekov
Touring nationally and internationally in 2021/22
This new theatre piece looks at the four heroines of the classical theatrical canon, Nora (from Ibsen’s ‘Doll’s House’, Julie from Strindberg’s ‘Miss Julie’, Hedda from Ibsen’s ‘Hedda Gabler’ and Nina from Chekov’s ‘Seagull’, meet and talk about their dreams, desires and everything in between. Apart from the original plays, the adaptation uses letters between Ibsen and Strindberg, Chekov’s diaries, short stories and other secondary literature to create a vibrant new theatre-piece.
Creatives: Bianca Conry, Amalia Krueger, Joachim Matschoss, Rhian Wilson and Verity Wood.
By Lorena Mazuera Grisales and Joachim Matschoss– coming in 2020/2021
This one-woman show is written in three languages, Spanish, English and German. Colombian performer Lorena Mazuera Grisales has composed the music to the moving play by Joachim Matschoss which is part song cycle, part theatre-piece with puppetry elements. It explores legends and myths, namely the Eldorado story. The play is in development for some years now and will eventually tour.
Cast: Lorena Mazuera Grisales
Writer/ Director: Joachim Matschoss
Two actors are trying to juggle work-shifts, shared housing, auditions and the constant urge to be creative. Relationships are difficult because the craft gets in the way. This satirical piece looks at dating, being happy and above all trying to be an actor in a country that doesn’t really value the arts as much as say, sport.
This production received a staged public reading at Heidelberg Theatre Company in early May 2021.
Creatives: Olivia Brewer, Huw Jennings, Giacinta Squires, Shamita Sivabalan, Joachim Matschoss.
Creatives: Eva Justine Torkkola, Alisha Eddy, Holly Bohmer, Anna Reardon, Emma Walsh, Nyssa Levings, Lore Burns.
This new play tells the story of a family living on either side of the iron curtain, spanning three decades it is set between 1978 and 2011. It was performed in the Salon at the Abbotsford Convent.
Creatives: Adam May, Rebekah Hill, Georgia Eyers, Matthew Bertram, Ariani Adam, Kate Bailey, Andrew Watson, Esther Schouten, Ben Jamieson, Joachim Matschoss
Joachim Matschoss’s latest play, By the End of the Year is about longing, the longing for a lost brother, killed by the Communists while attempting to escape East Berlin, the longing for a wife who left him for another man, and the pervasive longing for home and family. It is also a play about entrapment. Matschoss’s protagonist, Vitus is trapped by the cruel consequences of history’s judgement, a victim of the time and place that holds him within his spiked walls in Riga. His wife, Lydia, and daughter Anne attempt to escape from the entrapment, only to discover the real meaning of home and family. Only Vitus’s younger daughter, Rosa, is content, bound by loyalty and love. Vitus is trapped by the dark secret of a fateful past and an enforced present. Matschoss’s play is a family tragedy, enveloped in the inevitability of historical events and human longing.
It is told with a directness and compassion that, spanning the years and passing back and forth, casts his characters in the drama of their circumstance and motive. His dialogue is simple and economical, disguising a complex subtext of each character’s longing. The occasional monologues paint the canvas of his drama with the poetic shades of hopes and dreams and desires. Their eloquence is moving and powerful.
By The End of the Year reveals the talent of a playwright, who identifies with his plot and demonstrates a subtle, yet revealing empathy for his characters. It is a play that will resonate with all who bear a sense of loss or long for the fulfilment of their hopes and dreams.
- Peter Wilkins, Canberra Times
International Tour 2018/2019. What country friends is this? is a new theatre piece devised by the 2019-ensemble and Joachim Matschoss with music by young composers Olivia Smith and Tom Pitts. What country friends is this? sees Viola (Twelfth Night’s heroine) to land in Illyria which looks part forest of Arden, part contemporary city. Viola disguises herself to explore this strange place and tries to find employment and bumps into Juliet (who has just met Romeo at that infamous party). Love hits and a confused Cesario (Viola) runs away, meeting other Shakespearean heroines along the way.
The theatre piece deals with identity, relationships, love, gender and what it means to be young in today’s times. Above all it explores Shakespeare’s themes in a fun way. Soliloquies become songs and the audience will not escape the magic of love.
What country friends is this? will be shown on a bare stage with an ensemble of four actors/singers. They share their thoughts and their innermost feelings with the audience. This is a piece of theatre that includes original songs. It part comic, moving and thought-provoking. The show premiered in Melbourne/Australia in 2018, before touring in late February to April 2019 to HongKong, China, Thailand, Singapore, Germany, the United Kingdom, Sri Lanka, France, Switzerland, the USA, Ireland, the Philippines and the Netherlands.
Creatives: Casey Bohan, Anna Lyons, Megan Mitchell, Olivia Smith, Joachim Matschoss.
Missing in Me is a new theatre piece devised by the ensemble and Joachim Matschoss with music by Ross Brooks, Matthew Baker and Matthew Ganton.
Missing in Me tells the story of Samira and her sister Tilly who surrounded by wealth and an absence of love. Samira has about to finish her schooling and tries make sense of what is ahead of her. The theatre piece deals with identity, parent-child relationships, love and what it means to be young in today’s times.
Missing in Me was presented on a bare stage with an ensemble of four actors/singers. This piece of theatre included original songs. It is part comic, moving and thought-provoking.
Missing in Me premiered in Melbourne/Australia, before touring to China, Thailand, Singapore, Germany, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Creatives: Holly Bohmer, Annie Lumsden, Emily O’Connor, Tara Vagg, Joachim Matschoss.
A run-down school. Dr. Andrew Bond arrives with a mission: to drag the place into the 21st century whatever it may take. Deputy Kelly Shoe tries desperately to just reach the end of each day in one piece. Open warfare between the Sports-department, headed by control-freak Lex Ratters and the smarmy academic and part-time poet David O’Keefe. Well, real life really…
We have decided to set Teaching and Learning in a stylized make-shift boardroom with no designated audience area. The audience sat at a long table or took their seats anywhere they liked and moved around if they felt like it…the madness that is education happened all around them, maybe even somewhere where they least expected it.
Creatives: Dom Westcott, Anna Lyons, Sean Paisley-Collins, Cara Whitehouse, Ben Jamieson, Jake Matricardi, Isabel Mulrooney, Bridget Sweeney, Alisha Eddy, Rob Downie, Joachim Matschoss.
This all-female adaptation of Shakespeare’s play is a gleefully mischievous take on what is at heart of this timeless piece and was perfomed in 2016 at the Abbotsford Convent.
In the 400th anniversary year of Shakespeare’s death, the play is given a fresh cut.
Why all female? Simple, in Shakespeare’s time it was all men, it’s time to reverse it.
Why contemporary? Why not!
Spontaneous bursts of song: Beatles, Rolling Stones, David Bowie (alas), even Kenny Rogers. There is more: physical comedy, bad poetry (not the Bard’s), live music, the use of natural light and a bare space.
This DREAM was for our times, a little bit anarchic, raucous and irreverent and bursting with life.
Creatives: Amy Bradney-George, Kate Lewis, Anna Reardon, Holly Bohmer, Eva Justine Torkkola, Seon Williams, Freya Timmer-Arends, Grace McKenzie-McHarg, Emma Walsh, Celia Handscombe, Louise Purcell, Diana Stathis, Victoria Nyguen, Tom Hoskins, Joachim Matschoss.
Star of Wormwood is a theatre piece by Joachim Matschoss with music by Matthew Baker that deals with the issue of prejudice. It tells the story of a High School student researching the life of Mary Webster, a woman accused of witchcraft in 1680. The student becomes so fascinated by her topic that time and space become irrelevant, and she suddenly finds herself centuries ago on a hill in desolate surrounds talking to Mary Webster.
This haunting theatre piece was being presented on a bare stage but soon the empty space is occupied by a strange mix of characters, all part of a shadow-world. They share their thoughts, their innermost feelings, longings and desires. This music theatre piece is based on a true story, researched from articles, interviews, snippets of reality. Star of Wormwood uses physical theatre, dance, song, puppetry and visual elements to create a moving experience. It received an international tour in 2014.
Creatives: Elsa Caruso, Taylor Troeth, Harriet Reid, Jake Rosen, Ben Jamieson, Chelsey Weisz, Robert Downie, Liam Farrell, Joachim Matschoss, Matthew Baker, Rod Primrose.
Small World is a social satire set in a trendy café in a large city. It was performed at the Abbotsford Convent, the Barbershop Cafe and The Produce store in Mansfield in 2015.
Cyclists stop here because of its coffee and this place is also a popular hang-out for actors and those who aspire to be on stage or grace the screen. Ella and Lisa are friends and love performing, sometimes even in real life.
Creatives: Hannah Koch, Sasha Joseph, Nathan Bocskay, Renee St.Clair, Joachim Matschoss.
The Beauty of Scars is a new theatre piece by Joachim Matschoss with music by Tom Hoskins that deals with the issues of abuse and identity or rather the loss of. The piece tells the story of school-friends Sarah and Sally who grew up in rural Western Australia. Events during that time force them to leave everything behind in a desperate attempt to be safe. Years later (at the beginning of the play) we see them trying to make sense of their past and ultimately wanting to find each other again.
Creatives: Shaun Gurton, Michele Preshaw, Tom Hoskins, Joachim Matschoss, Catherine Lewis, Tilly Legge, Amy Cameron.
The Beauty of Scars was performed in the Tower theatre at the Malthouse in 2016.
