WATCHING by Vidya Rajan & Morgan Rose

Watching is a new 30-minute audio play, written by local writers, Vidya Rajan and Morgan Rose, and voiced by 18 actors from Red Stitch’s Ensemble and associate artists. 

Voiced by the Red Stitch Ensemble and associate artists: Jing-Xuan Chan, Jessica Clarke, Kate Cole, Tahlee Fereday, Casey Filips, Kevin Hofbauer, Darcy Kent, Caroline Lee, Olga Makeeva, Dion Mills, Mollie Mooney, Chi Nguyen, Amarachi Okorom, Joe Petruzzi, Khisraw Shukoor-Jones, Sarah Sutherland, David Whiteley & Harvey Zielinski

Directed by Ella Caldwell
Sound Design, Composition & Recording by Daniel Nixon

Watching is unabashedly Melbourne, exploring experiences shared by inhabitants of the city of one of the longest lockdowns in the world, and the mixed feelings of emerging  towards the ‘other side’. 

The play elegantly shifts between hyper-real first person characterisation and a pop-culture inspired, energetic tapestry of voices revealing brief encounters throughout our city. We meet teenage retail assistants, emergency workers in a hospital cafeteria, tradies and many more. At times heartfelt, at times satirical, the work is an honest, well-observed and funny ode to our strange times. 

Red Stitch Artistic Director, and Watching director, Ella Caldwell said: “Vidya and Morgan are two writers I greatly admire. They each have their own style, yet they share a skill for finding the miraculous and absurd in the mundane. Both write with a strong political and social awareness, and are very funny.

“As we created this play, the prospect of emerging, of finding our way and being (sort of) together again became the main fascination. Realising the project with the whole team has become a celebration.”

Vidya Rajan is a writer, performance-maker and comedian living across Perth and Melbourne. She was a 2019 Malthouse writer-in-residence, and has recently created work for ABC Comedy, Griffin Theatre, Artshouse, Theatreworks, Audible, and The Wheeler Centre.

Morgan Rose was born in New Orleans, grew up in New Mexico, and currently lives in Melbourne. She is an internationally produced playwright and performance maker. Recent works include: Virgins and Cowboys (Theatreworks, Griffin Theatre), Lord Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise (MKA/MTC NEON), and desert, 6:29pm (Red Stitch).

SINGLE LADIES by Michele Lee

Three short audio works written as companions to the world premiere of Michele Lee’s Single Ladies.

Best listened to through your headphones.

Featuring Jem Lai, Caroline Lee and Andrea Swifte

Directed by Bagryana Popov Dramaturg Emilie Collyer
Recording Russell Goldsmith
Sound Design & Composition Elissa Goodrich

Made on Wurundjeri land: always is, always will be Aboriginal country.

ABOUT SINGLE LADIES

“Ya used to get mugged around here. In the 70s, and the 80s. Even into the 90s. All types. The Aboriginals. The Serbians. Punks. Skips. You’d just punch on. People were tough around here. People were surviving.”

Set in the sanitised grunge of Collingwood, Single Ladies is a buddy story of lone women in the city told over the course of a day, from the award-winning writer of Going Down and Rice.

Anne, Lilike and Rachel are from different generations and backgrounds and hold different allegiances to their neighbourhood, but a chance happening outside Coles sets them on the path to an improbable friendship.

Single Ladies was developed through Red Stitch’s INK program.

If you enjoyed Single Ladies Now and you are in the position to do so, Red Stitch encourages you to make a donation to Justice Connect.

RACHEL

When it’s hard to sleep, just stay awake all night.

Suggested listening time: 2am. And 3am. And 4am.

LILIKE

We all need little friends to help us fight the big fights.

Suggested listening time: First thing in the morning.

ANNE

Let the afternoon unfold with a call to the past.

Suggested listening time: As you’re making soup.