What Others Say
“I have been led through familiar cities, glimpsed moments from the lives of strangers and caught fragments of their overheard conversations. Joachim Matschoss’ poems are imbued with disdain for privilege and compassion for those without it. Every now and then the poet turns his gaze upon himself evoking places he has been and moments he has lived. This juxtaposition between the lives of strangers and the deeply personal captures something very true about travelling, and about living. Through the lives of strangers, we are reminded of past intimacies and the things and people we have lost. ”
“Exploring and performing challenging texts, devising work, and practicing a variety of styles and methods of theatre-making had a huge impact on me as a theatre student, when I was fortunate to work with Joachim. Furthermore, the opportunity to perform internationally as part of an ensemble and be exposed to art and culture in other parts of the world informed my own development as an emerging artist immeasurably. ”
“Joachim has an amazingly broad knowledge of Theatre and performance including notable companies, theorists and influential works. He was able to articulate this understanding for myself and my students in a way that allowed for practical exploration as well as theoretical discussion and debate. Joachim’s teaching provided highly valuable insight into the ever-developing realms of drama and performance, particularly as this pertains to the IBDP Theatre course. My students and I benefited enormously from his wisdom and experience in the field and will use his lessons as a platform for future theatrical work and investigation.”
“Joachim is a fabulous teacher, artist, and director who is incredibly knowledgeable of his craft and holds students to a high standard while remaining open and approachable. My students came away from his workshops on fire for Theatre and with a new set of tools in their belt!”
“The Royal Shakespeare Company and I wholeheartedly support the exploration of and engagement with Shakespeare and your production of Romeo, Hamlet, Helena and Juliet was the perfect example of this. We looked forward to your arrival in Stratford.”
Hedda, Nora, Julie and Me, BackYard Theatre Ensemble, EdFringe 2022, ★★★★☆
This play had me in it with them from the very first beat. The tension of bringing together four incredibly diverse and intense women from the theatrical canon was captivating. This show is an hour of watching a realistic take on four old friends who stayed in contact out of obligation. The brilliant awkwardness made me remember those old worn-out friendships that may be time to let go of. Relationships, old flames, hidden emotions, frustration, creative dreams, and unresolved issues. The perfect storm.
A high-school reunion-style set-up brings together four of the theatrical canon’s most iconic women. Hedda- Hedda Gabler and Nora- A Doll’s House, both Ibsen classics, Strindberg’s Julie from Miss Julie and Nina from Chekov’s The Seagull. Hosted at Noras’ house, the play reveals all their unshared burdens, secrets, dreams, and old grudges.
Made almost entirely out of monologues and closely translated script from the original plays, it’s impossible to review this piece and not mention the extensive work it would’ve taken Joachim Matschoss to write. I was admittedly a little sceptical when I heard about the concept, but Joachim has intelligently strung together these four women in a setting that allows them to come to life with integrity and a bucket load of exciting twists and turns. It almost felt that the excerpts from each play were meant to be brought together in such a thoughtful manner.
While a more modern-day woman would probably prefer to see these four characters engage with content other than the men in their lives, this is forgiven knowing the script’s origins. In these plays, these characters spent a lot of their voice on men’s actions, infatuations, and attitudes.
(Georgia Stone, Binge Fringe, Edinburgh 2022)
Having Joachim work alongside my IB MYP Drama and DP Theatre students over the past few years has been a real highlight within their artistic journey, as well as within my own. His passion, expertise, creativity, and general approach are so invigorating, and every workshop moment relevant and invaluable to the developmental of my students’ theatrical, as well as transferable, skills vital to being a global citizen of the world in the 21st century.
- Rachel Jackson, Colombo/ Sri Lanka
BYTE tells stories that reflect the world in which we live in.
- Teacher, United Kingdom
“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.”
‘Joachim’s masterclasses, delivered remotely to pupils, were a highlight of the course so far. The series of workshops far surpassed my expectations, and he was able to build steering relationships with pupils very quickly. His subject knowledge and industry experience shone through the exercises he led the students in. I would recommend him without reservation and am looking forward to booking him again soon.’
- Samuel Jones, Shanghai/ China
By the End of the Year (Melbourne Season)
I took my students to an International Theatre Conference and Joachim was an ensemble leader. The ensemble work he did with my students was innovative and exciting. I was then privileged to take students of mine to see some of the pieces he created with BYTE and found the work innovative and unlike other work being done with young people.
- Mark Eckersley, Australia
“The audience was blown away by the professionalism, ability, skill and sheer fun they saw when viewing ‘Fake Is Real’ at the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne. There was a great depth of maturity and understanding of the material by every cast member.”
Joachim is an inspiring creative that develops his original ideas and concepts into sensitive and creative work. He is exceptionally knowledgeable and well connected in both the Australian and international theatre and drama worlds. Joachim is truly passionate about creating innovative theatre.
- Liane Campbell, Australia
Romeo, Hamlet, Helena and Juliet was bloody brilliant. Strange, but bloody brilliant. The actors were amazing. A million times better of what I’ve seen at schools here. It would have been amazing if they had more than one night in Rome. That would mean that I could go and watch it again!
- Padraig Downey, Dubai
Joachim is a fantastic theatre workshop leader and poet! He is ability to create an ensemble with young people that leads to create play and trust is outstanding.
- Sherri Sutton, USA
The musical play 'Shivers' was written and directed by Joachim Matschoss and brought to us by BYTE. It told the story of inmates working in commercial convent laundries in the 1950s. The homes housed girls who had been deemed wayward, homeless, deviant, at risk of moral danger or pregnant. The intensity of the performances by the young actors was electrifying. The staging was highly non naturalistic using Bunraku puppetry in a highly effective way.
- Madeleine McNeil, Ireland
“Loved the puppetry and original music”
Joachim conducted an intensive online BERKOFF WORKSHOP for the Solo Theatre Project with my Y12 Theatre students. Joachim brought incredible focus, energy and expert knowledge to the workshop. The students were engaged in the creative process throughout. Though Joachim was not physically with us, the workshop was still highly invigorating and energising for the students. He is a very engaging Director and Theatre Educator who can offer practical workshops on Brecht, Bausch, Berkoff, Directing, and these are just the ones that I have had the opportunity to bring to my students. We also witnessed an invigorating online work 'SPACE BETWEEN RAINDROPS' directed by Joachim. We watched the show online and were given a Director's talk in order to understand intentions and the creative processes.
- Georgia Crinis, Hanoi/ Vietnam
“The touring piece of BYTE was moving, challenging and full of hope. Alone is Bliss, written by Joachim Matschoss dealt with the issues of self-harm and abuse. The performances were outstanding. Matilda Reed played the lead role with a frightening authenticity and terrifying intensity.”
Our students have been starved of Drama workshop opportunities over the past year due to COVID restrictions. Joachim's workshop (via Zoom) was a breath of fresh air and reignited the 'Drama fire' within the students. His masterclass was impressively informative, and students were engaged in practical activities throughout. Since the masterclass, students have demonstrated a stronger understanding of the course content and have delved deeper during the exploration process for devising and practical tasks. I highly recommend Joachim's workshops and masterclasses.
- Josh Taylor, Singapore
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Joachim is the artistic director of BYTE and he is a theatre director with much finesse who creates student performances which focus on 'real' young people issues. Not only does he create these works but he inevitably takes them on intercontinental tours and thus touches many people of different cultures through his outstanding and exciting work.
- Michal Pasternak, Switzerland
explore - enjoy - create - understand - challenge - work together
'Nightduty' (International Tour 2014/15) is an absorbing and moving account of the lives of unmarried mothers, confined to a convent in the charge of nuns. BYTE Ensemble portrays the cruel injustice of removal of the infants into adoption with powerful conviction. The young ensemble of players exhibit sensitivity and compassion that lend Matschoss’s writing gripping authenticity. At a time when the appalling treatment of young people in the care of the church or as wards of the state in Australia is being exposed and investigated, the treatment of the young women in Ireland in the early Twentieth Century holds particular resonance, and reminds us that we all have a duty to care for those disadvantaged and deprived by heartless institutionalization. BYTE’s Ensemble of eight young women and one young man have afforded the play a truth that comes from extensive research and admirable performance skill, a skill that belies their youth and affords an audience riveting involvement in the tragic tale of the women and the sister who strives to bring them comfort and consolation. Nightduty, is performed with effective minimalism and song that sways the emotion and reminds us that those less fortunate deserve our concern, our compassion and our help in achieving justice and building a better world. I was deeply moved by the performances, enlightened by the script and reminded that we all have a responsibility to create a finer and more caring humanity. This is a production that should not be missed.'
- Peter Wilkins, Canberra Times
“They are a highly disciplined ensemble and their stories are fantastic.”
What they do is amazing.
- Student, Edinburgh
“The stories they tell are concerning our issues. They tell our stories.”
As I reflected afterwards, ‘Romeo, Hamlet, Helena and Juliet’ is a production which ‘runs away with itself’. It is an emotional journey (with much of it funny and happy) exploring many different themes but with the central theme of love evident throughout.
- Peter Spencer, Stage-whispers
BYTE performed Louis Nowra’s play Cosi to a sold out house in Carcavelos/Lisbon. The play is set in the 1970s, during the Vietnam War. Inmates of an asylum are trying to perform Mozart’s opera ‘Cosi van Tutte’. The cast had impeccable timing and an amazing contrast between calm, emotional moments and sudden bursts of confusion.
- Georgia Munnion, Theatre Journal, Lisbon/Portugal
The Deep Freeze Option
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.
Mark Eckersley
“Walking in the cold, it took a bit to cut my ties to the rational and engage the poetic. However, the cast and writer of ‘The Deep Freeze Option’-production in Melbourne hooked me in and had me considering that the differences between the two worlds were frighteningly small.”
— peter spencer, sydney