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Matthew Lutton

Matthew Lutton (born 1984 in Perth, Western Australia) is an Australian theatre and opera director.

Biography
Matthew attended Hale School in Perth graduating in 2001. From 2002 to 2004 he studied Theatre Arts at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts(WAAPA)and in July 2011 he relocated to Melbourne.

Theatre
In 2002 Lutton formed the theatre company ThinIce which staged Ionesco’s The Bald Prima Donna at the 2003 Perth International Fringe Festival. In 2003 Lutton was appointed the Artistic Director of Black Swan Theatre Company’s emerging artists program, BSX-Theatre. Between 2003 and 2006 for BSX-Theatre Lutton directed Pinter’s Mountain Language, Mrozek’s Striptease, Buchner’s Woyzeck and Durrenmatt’s The Visit. In 2006 he was the Associate Director of Black Swan Theatre Company, and in 2007 directed Mishima’s The Lady Aoi for the Perth International Arts Festival.

During these years he also directed and created work with ThinIce. He directed the premiere of Brendan Cowell’s play Bed at Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), and devised two new works with Eamon Flack, The Gathering in 2005 at the Artrage Festival and The Goose Chase in 2007. The Goose Chase was a solo piece for Eamon Flack, co-produced with deckchair theatre.

In 2008 Lutton was Michael Kantor’s Assistant Director on Malthouse Theatre’s production of Moliere’s Tartuffe in Melbourne. Kantor fell ill two days before rehearsals commenced and Lutton was invited to take over the production as director. He then went on to direct the world premiere of Tom Holloway’s play Don’t Say the Words at Sydney’s Griffin Theatre Company.

In 2009 ThinIce was appointed triennial funding from both the Australia Council for the Arts and ArtsWA. Over the next three years ThinIce created six new works in partnership with other Australian arts organizations. These included a new production of Antigone (adapted by Eamon Flack featuring singer Rachael Dease) with the Perth International Arts Festival, The Duel (a Dostoevsky adaptation written by Tom Wright) with Sydney Theatre Company, Tom Holloway’s Love Me Tender with Belvoir Street Theatre and Griffin Theatre Company, The Trial (adapted from the Kafka novel by Louise Fox) with Sydney Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre, Die Winterreise with Malthouse Theatre and the Brisbane Festival, and Strauss’ Opera Elektra, with West Australian Opera, Opera Australia and the Perth International Arts Festival. During this time ThinIce and Lutton also developed work with Bell Shakespeare and Sydney Dance Company.

In 2009 Lutton directed part one of The Mysteries: Genesis at Sydney Theatre Company. Part two and three were directed by Tom Wright and Andrew Upton.

Lutton was appointed as the Associate Artist (Directing) at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre in 2011, which initiated his decision to close down ThinIce and relocated to Melbourne. ThinIce officially closed down in April 2012.

In 2012, Lutton directs for the Malthouse Theatre on The Misconception of Oedipus and Declan Greene’s Pompeii, LA.

Opera
In 2007 Lutton was invited to join the Jerwood Opera Writing program at Aldeburgh New Music in the UK. He created short works under Sir Harrison Birtwistle and Giorgio Battistelli, and collaborated with Czech composer Miroslav Srnka for the first time. In 2008 Srnka and Lutton received a fellowship from Aldeburgh New Music to create a new opera, Make No Noise, based on Isabel Coixet’s film The Secret Life of Words. The libretto was written by Tom Holloway.

Make No Noise was premiered by the Bavarian State Opera at the Munich Opera Festival in 2011, in collaboration with Ensemble Modern.

From the stuttering of the beginning to the unaccompanied dialogue of the finale, this is probably one of the most beautiful, most touching and most barren (love) duets in contemporary opera. Die Welt, 4.7.2011

Music theatre hasn’t been closer to real life for a long time. Abendzeitung 30.6.2011

In 2012 Lutton directed Strauss’s Elektra for West Australian Opera, Opera Australia, ThinIce and Perth International Arts Festival, with Danish soprano Eva Johansson singing the title role.

Awards: Best Production at the Perth International Fringe Festival 2003 (The Bald Prima Donna) Best Production at the Equity Guild Awards 2005 (The Visit) Young West Australian of the Year for Arts 2005 Young People and the Arts Fellowship from ArtsWA (2007) WA Citizen of the Year (Youth Arts) 2010