UK theatre collective SUBJECT OBJECT lands in Melbourne this October with a daring two-week season at the Common Rooms, Trades Hall, as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival. The group brings a bold double-bill of acclaimed productions – work.txt and instructions – which can be experienced individually or together in one night.
Known for experimental theatre that blends form and technology, SUBJECT OBJECT has earned international acclaim for its sharp explorations of how we live with and through technology. work.txt removes actors from the stage entirely, handing performance duties to the audience.
Guided through a story about someone who has stopped working, participants collaborate to piece together the narrative. It’s a format that has toured 11 countries in nine languages, redefining what “live theatre” can mean.
instructions, fresh from winning a Scotsman Fringe First Award at Edinburgh Fringe in 2024, invites a rotating lineup of Melbourne performers and personalities into the unknown. Onstage alone and unrehearsed, each is fed directions through earpieces and screens. The result is unpredictable, absurd, and charged with the kind of raw immediacy that epitomises festival theatre.
Creative Director Nathan Ellis says: “Both productions are a lot of fun and have a particular British sense of humour that I think Australians are really going to connect with… I can’t wait to see the kind of conversations it provokes in Melbourne.”
