The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Twelfth Night starring Geoffrey Rush top and tail a topical programme.

Melbourne Theatre Company’s 2018 season begins with the Australian premiere of the National Theatre’s hugely popular, award-winning production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and ends with Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night starring Geoffrey Rush as Malvolio. The other 11 productions include a mix of new Australian plays, contemporary international hits and classics, all chosen for the zesty way they speak to the times.

Geoffrey Rush will play Malvolio in Twelfth Night. Photograph © Justin Ridler

“If I take a bird’s eye view of the whole programme, I suppose one of the things I was really keen to do was to look for works, which have genuine contemporary relevance,” says MTC Artistic Director Brett Sheehy.

“You could say almost any play is relevant if it’s got emotion and drama but what I was looking for, quite specifically, was that every production in the programme, even the classics, needed to say something to a 21st-century audience in Australia.”

“That was...