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Artwork for The Removalists
Artwork for The Removalists
Artwork for The Removalists
Artwork for The Removalists
Artwork for The Removalists
Artwork for The Removalists
The Removalists

11 MAR  —  17 APR 2025

Southbank Theatre, The Sumner

Set in an inner-suburb of Melbourne, David Williamson’s classic dark satire is just as sharp and relevant today as ever.

Approx. 2 hours, no interval

Experience the raw energy, gripping tension and physical intensity of The Removalists up close by choosing on-stage seats. A limited number of seats are available! Find out more here.

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This is rated 4 out of 5 stars

‘Sharp and savage: This iconic story is still shockingly relevant.’

The Age
This is rated 4 out of 5 stars

‘Lost none of its power to shock.’

The Guardian
This is rated 4 out of 5 stars

‘Leaves you laughing one moment, then gasping in disquiet the next.’

ArtsHub
This is rated 4 out of 5 stars

‘A welcome, well executed revival.’

Limelight

ABOUT THE SHOW

David Williamson’s The Removalists is still as provocative and relevant as it was at its debut.

When The Removalists premiered at Melbourne’s La Mama Theatre in 1971 it put a wrecking ball through the walls of genteel Australian theatre. Profane, honest and arresting in its depiction of the animal side of humanity, its most surprising revelation is in how little has changed.

Set in an inner-suburb of Melbourne, Fiona and Kate report an act of violence to the police hoping things will be resolved peacefully. However, the local constabulary like to handle things their own way. Over the course of one evening the hidden currents of competition, desire and brutality flowing beneath polite society will be dragged out into the open.

Anne-Louise Sarks directs the bracing revival of this dark satire in a production that sets its gaze on Australia – right here, right now – and refuses to blink.

Melbourne Theatre Company celebrates the ongoing legacy of La Mama Theatre's bold, unflinching contributions to the independent theatre scene by contributing $5 from the sale of each on-stage ticket during our 2025 season of The Removalists.

Join us for a free panel talk on Saturday 29 March with Artistic Director Anne-Louise Sarks, La Mama CEO Caitlin Dullard, arts critic Alison Croggon and playwright Andrea James. Learn more.

Accessibility

  • Wheelchair Accessible

  • Hearing Assistance

  • Audio Described

  • Tactile Tour

  • Open Captioning

  • Closed Captioning

  • Auslan Interpreted

Performance Type Performance Date(s)
Audio Described
by Vision Australia 		Saturday 29 March at 2pm
Tuesday 1 April at 6.30pm
Tactile Tour
at venue 		Saturday 29 March at 2pm (Tactile tour commences at 1pm)
Open Captioning
via screen 		Saturday 5 April at 2pm
Closed Captioning
via GoTheatrical App 		Saturday 5 April at 2pm
Auslan Interpreted Tuesday 8 April at 6.30pm
Martin Blum

Martin Blum

Removalist

A graduate of the VCA, Martin Blum has worked extensively throughout the Australian theatre, television and film industry. Selected theatrical credits include The Season at Sarsaparilla and The Distance (Melbourne Theatre Company); Waiting for Godot (Queensland Theatre); Macbeth (Essential Theatre); Boy Out of the Country (fortyfivedownstairs); Girls In Grey (Critical Stages); Welcome to Thonnet (Brisbane Festival); How to Make Love to a Dragon (Melbourne International Comedy Festival); Thicker Than Water (The Public Theater, NYC); Light (OzAsia Festival); Hearth (La Mama) and Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (Union Theatre, Melbourne University). He appeared in the feature films Undertow and The Red and in the television series It’s a Date, City Homicide and Cops LAC.

Artwork for Jessica Clarke

Jessica Clarke

Kate

Jessica Clarke is a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), making her Melbourne Theatre Company debut. Her theatre credits include Iphigenia In Splott, Shhh, Caught, The Cane, Pomona, Rules For Living (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre); Macbeth (An Undoing) (Malthouse Theatre); Therese Raquin (Critical Stages); Please Continue, Hamlet (Melbourne International Arts Festival); Good, Die Young (Sydney Fringe Festival); Starchaser (Arena Theatre Company); Waltzing the Wilarra (Yirra Yaakin); Heaven (La Mama) and more. Her feature film credits include The Menkoff Method, The Moon And The Sun and 2:22. For television she has featured in The Beautiful Lie, Home and Away, Harrow, Neighbours, Offspring, Sisters, The Doctor Blake Mysteries, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Blue Heelers and more. Jessica won Most Outstanding Performance for Iphigenia In Splott at the 2021 Green Room Awards, and was nominated for Best Ensemble for Pomona at the 2019 Green Room Awards.

Artwork for William McKenna

William McKenna

Ross

William McKenna returns to Melbourne Theatre Company following roles in Admissions and Bernhardt/Hamlet. His other theatre credits include Miked (fortyfivedownstairs) and the Australian production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. William’s TV and screen credits include The Messenger (ABC/Lingo Pictures); Queen of Oz (BBC); Thou Shalt Not Steal, Good Cop/Bad Cop (Stan); Nowhere Boys (Matchbox Pictures). William performed and wrote his first solo comedy play as part of the 2022 Melbourne International Comedy Festival called Appellation, for which he was nominated for Best Newcomer at the MICF awards. He was also nominated for a Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play and won the Green Room Award for Best Performance in a Theatre Production for his role as Scorpius Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. William was awarded the Casting Guild of Australia Rising Star Award in 2023.

Eloise Mignon

Eloise Mignon

Fiona

Eloise Mignon has performed in Australia, Europe and Asia in both English and French. Previous credits for Melbourne Theatre Company include The Cherry Orchard, Return to Earth, The Grenade (with STC). She was last directed by Anne-Louise Sarks in Malthouse Theatre’s production of Blasted. Other stage credits include Les Trois Soeurs (L’Odéon Théâtre de l’Europe); Je Suis Fassbinder (Théåtre National de Strasbourg); Complexity of Belonging (Chunky Move); Strange Interlude, Private Lives and Every Breath (Belvoir), as well as The Wild Duck, which was invited to the International Ibsen Festival. Select film and television credits include Ladies in Black, Lacerate, The Clearing, Lost Gully Road, Three Blind Mice, The Leunig Fragments, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, City Homicide, Neighbours, Silversun, The Legacy of the Silver Shadow. Eloise has a PhD in English and Theatre Studies from the University of Melbourne.

Steve Mouzakis

Steve Mouzakis

Simmonds

Steve Mouzakis’s previous Melbourne Theatre Company roles include A Streetcar Named Desire, What If If Only, The Lifespan of a Fact, Golden Shield, Death and the Maiden, The Cherry Orchard. Other recent theatre credits include Melancholia (Malthouse Theatre) and Cafe Rebetika (Arts Centre). Numerous screen credits include feature films Homeward, Inside, Last Night with the Devil, The Stranger, as well as television series Irreverent, Why Are you Like This, Clickbait, US series Prison Break, Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries, Wentworth, Jack Irish and The Secret Life of Us, to name just a few. Other credits include Sugar Mountain, I Frankenstein, Where the Wild Things Are, Darkness Falls, The Unknown Man, My First Summer, Acute Misfortune, Scare Campaign, Downriver, The Suicide Theory and Big Mamma’s Boy. Awards include Green Room Best Male Performer for The Cherry Orchard, the MIFF Best Actor in 296 Smith Street and Best Actor St Kilda Film Festival for Joey.

Artwork for Michael Whalley

Michael Whalley

Kenny

Michael made his proud debut with Melbourne Theatre Company in A Very Jewish Christmas Carol in 2023. Audiences will also recognise him from his celebrated portrayal of Ron Weasley in the long-running hit Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Michael Cassel Group). Other lead and supporting roles across prestigious productions include the title role in Romeo and Juliet (Auckland Theatre Company); the critically acclaimed Hir (Belvoir St Theatre); Cock (Redline Productions); and as the lovable Perry Heslop in Muriel’s Wedding the Musical (Sydney Theatre Company). His performance in Hir earned him the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actor. On screen, Australian audiences know him as Lance Greiner in Netflix’s Wanted, Halifax: Retribution, The Principal and Love Child. Globally, his film credits include Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken, the indie favourite The Pretend One, and the cult western Slow West.

Artwork for David Williamson

David Williamson

Writer

David Williamson is Australia’s best known and most widely performed playwright. Some of his 55 produced plays over the last 50 years include The Coming of the Stork, The Removalists, Don’s Party, The Club, Travelling North, Money & Friends, Dead White Males, The Jack Manning Trilogy, Up for Grabs, Soulmates, Nothing Personal, When Dad Married Fury, Rupert, Cruise Control, Dream Home, Odd Man Out, Sorting Out Rachel, Nearer the Gods, The Big Time, Family Values and Crunch Time. His plays (also in translation) have been performed internationally, including in London, Los Angeles, New York and Washington. David has adapted many of his plays into feature films to great acclaim and his many original feature screenplays include Gallipoli, Phar Lap, The Year of Living Dangerously, Balibo (as co-writer) and On the Beach (adapted for television). David’s many awards include 12 Australian Writers’ Guild Awards, five Australian Film Institute Awards for Best Screenplay and, in 1996, the United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Award.

Artwork for Anne-Louise Sarks

Anne-Louise Sarks

Director

Anne-Louise Sarks is Artistic Director & Co-CEO of Melbourne Theatre Company, where her directing credits include My Brilliant Career, A Streetcar Named Desire, Escaped Alone & What If If Only and Bernhardt/Hamlet. Previous work with the Company includes Minnie & Liraz and The Seed. An internationally acclaimed director, writer and dramaturg, Anne-Louise’s work has been seen in Melbourne, Sydney, London, Helsinki, Mexico City, New York, Warsaw, Dublin, Auckland, Mumbai, Perth and Basel. Recent productions include Avalanche (Barbican); Our Town, Medea (Theater Basel); and Stop Girl (Belvoir). Her production of Blasted at Malthouse Theatre was nominated for four Green Room Awards. Medea, co-written with Kate Mulvany, won five Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Direction. It was also awarded an AWGIE for Best Stage Play. Anne-Louise was previously Artistic Director of the Lyric Ensemble at the Lyric Hammersmith in London and of Melbourne independent theatre company The Hayloft Project. She has been Resident Director at Belvoir, Director in Residence at Malthouse Theatre, and in 2010 she was Emerging Resident Director at Melbourne Theatre Company.

Dale Ferguson

Dale Ferguson

Set Designer

Dale Ferguson’s most recent credits for Melbourne Theatre Company include 37, Come Rain or Come Shine, Emerald City, Cosi, An Ideal Husband, Born Yesterday, The Weir, The Speechmaker, The Crucible and Top Girls. Other recent credits include Death of a Salesman (GWB Entertainment); Julius Caesar (Melbourne Shakespeare Company); A German Life (STSA/Adelaide Festival); L’Appartement (Queensland Theatre); The Jungle and the Sea, Counting and Cracking (Edinburgh and Adelaide Festivals), Sami in Paradise, The Blind Giant is Dancing and The Judas Kiss, the latter of which transferred to West End (Belvoir); Because the Night, Away, Brothers Wreck, Night on Bald Mountain, Dance of Death (Malthouse Theatre); Exit the King (Broadway); Les Liasions Dangereues (Sydney Theatre Company). Dale received Helpmann Awards for August: Osage County and Counting and Cracking. He has also received six Green Room Awards, most recently for Because the Night, as well as Tony and Drama Desk nominations for Exit the King.

Artwork for Matilda Woodroofe

Matilda Woodroofe

Costume Designer

Matilda Woodroofe’s work spans theatre, dance, TV, film and events. Matilda completed a Bachelor of Production Design at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2014. Previous credits with Melbourne Theatre Company include Set & Costume Designer for Cost of Living, Design Associate on Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes and Minnie and Liraz. She was also the stylist on the Melbourne Theatre Company 2023 and 2025 season images. Other credits include Set and Costume Designer This is Living and Stay Woke (Malthouse Theatre); Set Dresser Hour of the Wolf (Malthouse Theatre); Design Associate Because the Night (Malthouse Theatre); Going Down (Malthouse Theatre/Sydney Theatre Company); Costume Coordinator The Picture of Dorian Gray (Michael Cassel Group/Sydney Theatre Company); Design Associate Random (Belvoir); Set Decorator Spear (Bangarra Dance Theatre); Set and Costume Designer You Got Older, Sunshine (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre) and Design Associate Rising Festival 2021 and 2022. Matilda was the 2016 Emerging Designer placement with The Rabble and has been nominated for four Greenroom awards for design.

Niklas Pajanti

Niklas Pajanti

Lighting Designer

Niklas Pajanti is an award-winning lighting designer whose practice ranges across theatre, dance, opera, circus, musical theatre, comedy, events, exhibitions and public spaces. His design credits include A Streetcar Named Desire, Berlin, Così, A View from the Bridge, Astroman, A Doll’s House Part 2, Rupert, The Cherry Orchard, The Beast and Queen Lear (Melbourne Theatre Company); When the Rain Stops Falling, Spring Awakening, I Want to Dance Better At Parties (Sydney Theatre Company); One Night the Moon, Not Like Beckett (Malthouse Theatre); My Urrwai, Angels in America, Wild Duck, Babyteeth, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Pillowman (Belvoir); Much Ado About Nothing, The School for Wives (Bell Shakespeare); Sunday in the Park with George (Victorian Opera); Lucrezia Borgia, La Boheme (Melbourne Opera); Death of a Salesman (GWB Entertainment); Biographica (Lyric Opera / Theatre Works); In The Club (TheatreWorks). Exhibitions include Wonderland, Game Masters, Star Voyager: Exploring Space on Screen (ACMI); Tim Burton the Exhibition (MOMA); Hollywood Costume (V&A Museum). Niklas is the winner of three Green Room Awards.

Marco Cher-Gibard

Marco Cher-Gibard

Composer & Sound Designer

Marco Cher-Gibard is an artist working with sound to explore contemporary culture, expression and experience. He is a constant collaborator and deviser working in live performance contexts. Select compositions and sound designs include: English, Laurinda (Melbourne Theatre Company); Complexity of Belonging (Melbourne Theatre Company/Chunky Move); Super Discount (Back to Back Theatre/Sydney Theatre Company); Lady Eats Apple (Back to Back Theatre); Homo Pentecostus, Monsters, KBOX and I am a Miracle (Malthouse Theatre); Nayikia A Dancing Girl (Belvoir St Theatre); Mohini and Narasimha (Raina Peterson); We All Know What’s Happening (Samara Hersch and Lara Thoms). Recent awards include The Venice Biennale Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre, the International Ibsen Award with Back to Back Theatre, and Green Room awards for Composition and Sound Design (I am a Miracle, Siren Dance), Visual Design (Mohini), Technical Achievement (…Derelict in Uncharted Space…) and Innovation in Site Specific Work (MASS).

Nigel Poulton

Nigel Poulton

Fight Director

Nigel Poulton is an award-winning movement and fight director, intimacy coordinator/director, SAG-AFTRA stunt performer and actor with over 30 years of professional experience. He specialises in kinesthetic movement processes, choreography, interdisciplinary collaboration, weapons pedagogy, performance, teaching. He is a practitioner of Theatrical Biomechanics, a certified Intimacy Director and Coordinator with IDC, a Fight Master with the Society of American Fight Directors (one of only two awarded this outside the US); a Fight Director and past President of the Society of Australian Fight Directors Inc; and an Honorary Fight Director with Fight Directors Canada. Choreography credits include the Finnish National Ballet, Australian Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Metropolitan Opera, and leading Australian theatre companies such as Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company and Bell Shakespeare. Film and TV credits include Monarch, Boy Swallows Universe, Deadloch, Nautilus, Thor: Love and Thunder, Pirates of the Caribbean V, The Bourne Legacy, Boardwalk Empire, and The Sopranos.

Artwork for Amy Cater

Amy Cater

Intimacy Coordinator

Amy Cater is part of the first cohort of qualified Intimacy Coordinator practitioners, training and working since 2018 when the profession first arrived in Australia. Previous stage works include A Streetcar Named Desire, Cost of Living, Is God Is, Seventeen, Jacky, Cyrano, Sunday, Bernhardt/Hamlet, Fun Home, As You Like It (Melbourne Theatre Company); Oscar (The Australian Ballet); and &Juliet (Michael Cassel Group). Selected screen credits include Love Me, The Newsreader, The Rooster, Bad Behaviour, The Clearing, Safe Home, Swift St, Sleeping Dogs, Erotic Stories, Better Man, Inside and Exposure. Amy has 20 years’ experience working with sexuality, embodiment, consent and intimacy; specifically within the adult industry, client therapy and education spaces. Amy was a director/senior photographer of ethical erotica for 4 years. She is a qualified psychosomatic therapist, sexological bodyworker and somatic sex educator. Amy has a trained background in theatre, dance and the performing arts. Amy mentors and consults on sexuality and gender best practice. Her work in LGBTQIA+ advocacy and education is a key component of her cultural influence in the Intimacy Coordinator industry.

Artwork for Liv Satchell

Liv Satchell

Assistant Director

Liv Satchell is a theatre maker, writer and community organiser committed to building platforms for independent artists through her company VIMH. She made her mainstage debut in 2024 with Nayika: A Dancing Girl (Belvoir), co-created and co-directed with Nithya Nagarajan. Her work includes Ballkids (or, scenes from a friendship), co-directed with Julian Dibley-Hall (La Mama); The Grief Trilogy (La Mama); and SIRENS by Benjamin Nichol (Melbourne Fringe Festival). She has been nominated for Best Director four times at the Green Room Awards and both I sat and waited but you were gone too long and let bleeding girls lie from The Grief Trilogy won Best New Writing for Independent Theatre. She was awarded the 2024 Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award and the inaugural New Writing Award, supported by Melbourne Theatre Company as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival, for Ballkids (or, scenes from a friendship).

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The Sumner

140 Southbank Boulevard

Southbank, Victoria 3006