Elling – Melbourne Theatre Company

Overview

We hope you’re not feeling all theatred out after Melbourne Festival, because MTC is launching a new mainstage play this week.

It’s Elling, by British playwright Simon Bent. Adapted from the Norwegian film of the same name, itself based on a series of popular novels, it tells the story of a middle-aged man with mental illness who is thrust into the world after the mother who has cared for him all his life dies. Placed in community housing with a flatmate who is scarcely more capable of handling daily life than he is, Elling finds himself faced with a host of unfamiliar challenges.

Praised for its thoughtful and gently humorous approach to the subject matter, Elling played in Sydney under the same director (Pamela Rabe) in 2009. Darren Gilshenan, of Full Frontal fame, is also back in the lead role, and set to warm Melbourne's hearts as he did Sydney's with this endearing character.