Australian rock veteran Paul Norton brings decades of performance and songwriting experience to the sound design of the Australian Shakespeare Company’s new Melbourne production of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming.
by Paul Cashmere
Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming will receive a new Melbourne production at the Athenaeum Theatre 2 from September 17, with musician and songwriter Paul Norton providing the sound design for a production directed and designed by Greg Carroll. For Norton, the theatre role follows a substantial career in Australian rock, including his years with The Runners, Wendy and the Rocketts and Steve Hoy and the Hoy Boys, a successful solo career and a later run of national touring with The Countdown Spectacular.
The Australian Shakespeare Company production runs from September 17 to October 3, 2026, with opening night on September 18. Carroll has assembled a cast including Kate Kendall as Ruth, Richard Piper as Max, Ben Geurens as Lenny, Peter Houghton as Teddy, David Field as Sam and Eddie Orton as Joey.
For Norton, the production represents another chapter in a career that has moved between rock music, songwriting, live performance and theatre. His musical background gives the production’s sound element a direct connection to the Australian popular music scene that shaped his career.
Pinter wrote The Homecoming in 1964 and published it in 1965. Set inside a North London family home, the two-act drama centres on Teddy, a philosophy professor who returns from America with his wife Ruth to meet his family. The reunion develops into a struggle involving sex, power, family hierarchy and competing ideas of identity.
The original London production opened in 1965 under director Peter Hall, while the first New York production followed in 1967. That Broadway production won four Tony Awards, including Best Play, Best Direction of a Play and acting awards for Paul Rogers and Ian Holm.
Norton’s route to the production began in rock music. Playing bass guitar from his teens, he formed the Melbourne band City in the late 1970s before becoming a founding member of The Runners. The group built a strong following on the Australian pub circuit and signed with Mushroom Records. Their catalogue included the singles “Sure Fire Thing” and “Endlessly”, with the album Hitting The Wall released in 1983. Norton also co-wrote songs including “Don’t Apologise”, “Walk Between The Lines” and “Sky Is Falling”.
After The Runners, Norton continued working as a musician. He briefly joined Wendy and the Rocketts in 1985 before becoming part of Steve Hoy and the Hoy Boys, alongside former Runners colleagues. He was recorded on Steve Hoy’s 1987 EP Possession.
Norton then moved into a solo career, issuing “Larapinta” independently in 1987 before signing with Mushroom. His 1989 single “Stuck On You” became his major chart success, reaching No. 3 on the Australian chart and earning a gold certification. His debut solo album, Under A Southern Sky, followed in 1990 and peaked at No. 44.
His second album, Let It Fly, was released in 1992, followed by a further change of musical direction. In 1994, Norton formed Hillbilly Moon with Peter Wells of Rose Tattoo and Cletis Carr. Their Hillbilly Moon Volume One included “She Left Me”, which received airplay on Country Music Television.
Norton returned to the national stage in 2006 as part of The Countdown Spectacular, a touring production featuring 27 Australian rock acts from the 1970s and 1980s. The tour reportedly played to 100,000 people nationwide.
His theatre work has subsequently included musical direction and original scores for the Australian Shakespeare Company, with credits including Much Ado About Nothing, The Jungle Book: The Next Chapter, Romeo And Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, As You Like It, The Dream Fairies, Barassi The Stage Show, Alice In Wonderland and Certified Male.
For The Homecoming, Norton is responsible for sound while Carroll directs and designs. Carroll says the production has been shaped by the ensemble and the demands of Pinter’s writing, describing the work as requiring performers to negotiate complexity, humour and danger within the family dynamic.
The Melbourne season will present Pinter’s unresolved power struggle in the intimate setting of Athenaeum Theatre 2. Performances are scheduled for 7.30pm in the evenings and 2pm for Wednesday and Saturday matinees, with no performances on Sundays or Mondays.
The Homecoming
September 17 to October 3, 2026
Athenaeum Theatre 2, 188 Collins Street, Melbourne
Dates
17-29 September 2026, Melbourne, Athenaeum Theatre 2
23-26 September 2026, Melbourne, Athenaeum Theatre 2
30 September-3 October 2026, Melbourne, Athenaeum Theatre 2
Ticket Details
Adults from $59. Concession from $56.05. Under 30 from $53.10. Bookings are available through the production website or Ticketmaster.
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