In 2002 Matthew Lutton formed the ThinIce theatre company which staged Ionesco's The Bald Prima Donna at the 2003 Perth International Fringe Festival.
For ThinIce he directed the premiere of Brendan Cowell's play Bed at Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts[1] and devised two new works with Eamon Flack, The Gathering in 2005 and The Goose Chase in 2007.
He became the Associate Director of the Black Swan Theatre Company in 2006, and in 2007 directed Mishima's The Lady Aoi for the Perth International Arts Festival.
[2] He then went on to direct the world premiere of Tom Holloway's play Don't Say the Words at Sydney's Griffin Theatre Company[3] and Red Shoes (a version of the Hans Christian Andersen story adapted by Humphrey Bower) for ThinIce and Artrage.
[7] Directing highlights include the 5-hour stage adaptation of Tim Winton's Cloudstreet co-produced with the Perth International Arts Festival, the Australian premiere of Tom Waits' musical The Black Rider co-produced with Victorian Opera,[8] the world premiere of the stage adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock, which was invited to be performed at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh and the Barbican in London, The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man,[9] David Grieg's Solaris in a co-production with the Lyric Hammersmith London and the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh, John Harvey's First Nations epic, The Return, co-directed with Jason Tamiru as part of RISING Festival, and Australia's largest immersive theatre production, Because the Night[10] (2021).