Written by Michele Lee
Red Stitch Theatre
17 March – 22 March / 2020
6 Feb – 14 March / 2021
‘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.
Director: Bagryana Popov
INK World Premiere
Featuring: Jem Lai, Caroline Lee and Andrea Swifte
Dramaturg: Emilie Collyer
Set and Costume: Romanie Harper
Lighting: Rachel Lee
Sound: Elissa Goodrich
Stage Manager: Rain Shadrach
Assistant Stage Manager: Lowana van Dorssen
In 2020, unfortunately, due to COVID-19, we had to suspend the season of Single Ladies. But, before the suspension we did get to perform five of the six previews, which was great. We had an experience of the play in front of live audiences, and it felt like it was going really well. Then we closed. The theatre fell silent. And it was silent for about 11 months. The set sat alone in the theatre, waiting for us.
While we were waiting, the playwright, Michele Lee, received some grants to write three new monologues for the Single Ladies characters: Lilike, Anne and Rachel. These new pieces Single Ladies NOW, dovetail into the original text, and have been produced as audio works to be listened to in connection with Single Ladies, or as stand-alone pieces.
And then, in March 2021, miraculously, we rehearsed again for a week, previewed again, and then performed a whole season for a very happy, enthusiastic and delighted audience. It was fabulous. The play was received very well, it had deepened and settled in the time between, and we had a successful and happy season.