International Theatre Hit 'ECHO' Is Bringing Its Completely Unrehearsed and Unpredictable Solo Performances to Australia
The cast for this play's Australian-premiere season: Pia Miranda, Stan Grant, Jan Fran, David Campbell, Michelle Brasier, Nadine Garner and Ben Lawson.
Call it a thrill, call it a joy, call it a delight: whichever you prefer, one of the key characteristics of live theatre is the fact that anything can happen. That said, the exact same show with the exact same cast usually plays out in the exact same way each and every time that it is staged. Created by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour and set to make its Australian premiere at Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre in July 2025, ECHO: Every Cold-Hearted Oxygen definitely isn't that kind of production.
The international theatre hit is the opposite of a night-after-night-after-night repeat performance — and not just because its Aussie-debut season is brief, running between Monday, July 14–Saturday, July 19. Leaning as far into the stage's immediacy and ability to surprise as a play can get, ECHO unleashes a completely unrehearsed and unpredictable solo performances every time that it treads the boards. Not even each evening's lone cast member knows what's coming.
Here's how it works, as audiences at London's Royal Court Theatre have been enjoying: when the night's performer takes to the stage, they're guided through the script by White Rabbit, Red Rabbit and NASSIM's Soleimanpour, plus Italian Palestinian director Omar Elerian. This happens in real time. Cold reads, as the technique is called, are Soleimanpour's signature — and he'll be in Berlin during ECHO's first-ever Aussie run, aiding his latest cast via technology over 90 minutes.
That lineup: actors Pia Miranda (Invisible Boys), Nadine Garner (Savage River) and Ben Lawson (Mixtape); journalists Stan Grant and Jan Fran; presenter and musical theatre veteran David Campbell; and comedian Michelle Brasier. Whatever they each bring to the stage will be unique and never repeated again.
The show's Australian stars are following in impressive footsteps, given that London's 2024 season featured the likes of Benedict Wong (Bad Genius), Fiona Shaw (Echo Valley), Jessica Gunning (Baby Reindeer), Nick Mohammed (Ted Lasso) and Toby Jones (MobLand) — and 2025's includes Daniel Kaluuya (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse), Dominic West (The Agenct), Milly Alcock (Sirens) and Lolly Adefope (The Franchise).
Soleimanpour himself describes ECHO: Every Cold-Hearted Oxygen as a "long-distance magic show". He continues: "It's the unpredictability of this style of performance that I find so thrilling."
"It's the most alive theatre can get. Imagine watching a football match — Melburnians especially will know what I mean — and you already knew who would score and when. It'd be less fun. That's why we don't want to spoil it!"
ECHO: Every Cold-Hearted Oxygen is taking to the stage at Malthouse Theatre, 113 Sturt Street, Southbank, Melbourne, between Monday, July 14–Saturday, July 19, 2025 — head to the theatre's website for more information and tickets.
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