News just in from the Malthouse: artistic director Michael Kantor has been forced to withdraw from directing the upcoming show Tartuffe, due to ill health. Michael was hospitalised with coronary irregularities over the weekend, and although he'll be allowed home by the end of the week, will be away from work for the next month. Best wishes and bunches of get well flowers to Michael, and here's hoping he takes full advantage of that enforced rest.

But there's a silver lining: in a new twist on the understudy's rise to fame, we'll get a chance to see the work of a young talent new to Melbourne. Michael is replaced by rising young WA director Matthew Lutton. He was assistant director on Tartuffe, and has been deeply involved in the production since late last year. Lutton has made a name for himself in the west, working for Black Swan, Deckchair Theatre and the Perth Festival, and with his own company Thin Ice, and was recently AD to Neil Armfield on the Belvoir St hit Toy Symphony. Tartuffe opens on February 15.