WATCHING: An audio play

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.

Watching is unabashedly ‘Melbourne’, exploring experiences shared by inhabitants of the city in 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).

Written by Vidya Rajan and Morgan Rose
Directed by Ella Caldwell
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
Sound design and composition and recording by Daniel Nixon

www.redstitch.net