Arts Centre Melbourne is celebrating a major milestone with the reopening of the Ian Potter State Theatre on 3 October 2026, six months ahead of schedule, following its first major refurbishment since opening in 1984.
The theatre, home to resident companies The Australian Ballet and Opera Australia, is the largest stage in the Southern Hemisphere and forms the centrepiece of the Victorian Government’s Melbourne Arts Precinct Transformation project.
The first performance at the upgraded theatre will be Gugu Dindi Gunyah (Many Rivers. One Home) on 3 October, a world premiere First Nations-led concert created by Songman Kutcha Edwards (Mutti Mutti, Nari Nari, Yorta Yorta) and sung entirely in the Aboriginal languages of Song Keepers from across Victoria.
To mark the reopening, Arts Centre Melbourne has commissioned Housewarming (9–12 October), a series of free performances featuring more than 100 Victorian artists across dance, circus, music and theatre, directed by Melbourne theatre-maker Michael Kantor. Eighteen thousand free tickets are available for the programme, which includes award-winning musical comedy star Jude Perl, Principal Artist Brett Chynoweth from The Australian Ballet, singer-songwriters Emma Donovan and Eliza Hull, Circus Oz, Opera Australia, Melbourne Theatre Company and Bell Shakespeare, among others.
The reopening programme continues with Opera Australia’s Wagner Gala Concert on 16 October, The Australian Ballet’s season of Sir Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker (24–31 October) and Opera Australia’s 70th anniversary production of My Fair Lady (14 November 2026 to 17 January 2027).
The refurbishment has improved accessibility across all levels for audience members with mobility challenges, with two new lifts, new wheelchair positions in the Stalls, new aisles in the Stalls and Circle, and upgraded heating, cooling, lighting and sound systems. The theatre’s original interior, designed by John Truscott, has been carefully preserved throughout.
Karen Quinlan AM, Chief Executive Officer of Arts Centre Melbourne, said: “The reopening of our renewed Ian Potter State Theatre is a huge milestone for Arts Centre Melbourne and a great achievement for all who have worked to make it a reality. We can’t wait to welcome audiences back into the theatre and for the community to enjoy all it has to offer.”
The celebrations come, however, amid an ongoing industrial dispute. Workers at Arts Centre Melbourne took protected industrial action on 27 August, the first such action in decades, stopping work ahead of a scheduled Melbourne Symphony Orchestra performance.
Members of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) and the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) are in dispute with management over pay and working conditions, with almost 40 per cent of the workforce employed on the lowest pay band. The MEAA has warned that further industrial action may follow, including at the Ian Potter State Theatre reopening events in October, and is calling on the Victorian Government to increase funding to Arts Centre Melbourne to ensure workers receive fair pay.