Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd

Step back in time to a place where the great Vaudevillian Halls were filled with dime museums, knife-throwing dancers, comedians and minstrel musicians. It's 1914 and Melbourne's swelling Swanston River threatens to consume all in its wake, but not before one final night on the stage, one last chance to perform!

Charlie Mudd’s Castle is a hangdog vaudeville haunt, struggling to stay above water. Inhabited by the dead spirit of the last great starlet, it’s a place where men of mystery rub shoulders with mute acrobats and crook-finger pianists. And then there’s Violet the new girl trapped on this sinking ship, who may just hold the key to their very survival. But time is running out and the modern age is fast approaching - the great war, technology, the demise of Vaudeville.

Part funhouse ride, part creepshow nightmare, Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd unearths a half-remembered world of highly questionable character, in which a ghostly, clamorous chorus rails against the din of the modern world.

This play was the recipient of the 2008 R.E. Ross Trust Playwrights Award, and the 2008 Malcolm Robertson Prize.

Images that contain past practices that are harmful have been withheld from this production. For further information, please see the About The Archive page.