Russian as Hell: Shaun Micallef’s rare and ‘challenging’ new role

The man who brought us the much-loved (and missed) Mad As Hell is back – in his first theatrical role in a decade.

Shaun Micallef is wearing a dapper navy pin-striped suit when we meet in the Playhouse Theatre at the Arts Centre, where he will soon be treading the boards for the Melbourne Theatre Company in Uncle Vanya. “It’s from the wardrobe department at the ABC,” he tells me. “In fact, everything I’m wearing is.”

As ever with Micallef, it’s hard to tell if he’s serious. It’s that twinkle in the eye, that wry smile, that keeps you guessing.

Next month, the former lawyer turned sketch comedian turned host, co-creator and executive producer of the long-running and much-missed Mad As Hell will be bringing some of that sense of mischief to the stage. He plays Professor Serebryakov in Anton Chekhov’s famous play, adapted by Joanna Murray-Smith, as part of a top-notch cast that also includes Daniel Henshall as Vanya, Philippa Northeast as Sonya, Fayssal Bazzi as Astrov and Catherine Van-Davies as Yelena.

It’s his first stage role in a decade, since he and long-time collaborator Francis Greenslade performed in The Odd Couple in 2016.

“Every 10 years I come back to haunt the MTC,” he jokes. “I mean, it’d be nice if I was called a little more frequently, but that’s all right.”

Uncle Vanya is a social comedy, of sorts. But being Chekhov, it’s also rather dark. So when the call came from Anne-Louise Sarks, the play’s director (and the MTC’s artistic director and CEO), Micallef was a little surprised.

“I thought, ‘Oh, that’s out of left field, that’s new, that’s a challenge’. And so I said yes to it. It had never entered my head that I would ever be in that world, so I was in straight away.”

Only then, he quips, did he begin to wonder why he had been approached.

“Oh, hang on, he’s the old fellow,” he told himself. “And I thought maybe it’s just my hair, no makeup required for this role. Maybe I just saved them money.”

You didn’t worry that it might have been because he’s old, pompous, and a bit of an A-hole?

“I think these are certainly very important ingredients I have obviously exuded over my career,” he jokes. “But also, you know, it’s a funny play.”

Micallef has been a fixture on our screens since 1994. But, he insists, “my natural sympathies lie with the writer. If I was to fill out a form before entering a country, my occupation would be writer, with a lower-case W. I’m a little embarrassed about calling myself an actor or a comedian. Performer sounds like I’m on some sort of rope or pole.”

“Yeah. But isn’t that what we all are? We’re all displ