Director’s Note: Lee Lewis, THE ROOMMATE
THE ROOMMATE is a serendipitous project in every way. I have loved Jen Silverman’s writing for a long time. I have pitched their play COLLECTIVE RAGE: A PLAY IN FIVE BETTIES to many an artistic director over the years to no avail. They are passionately engaged in the 21st Century global theatre project of writing women into a full theatrical existence. Their writing is nuanced, deceptively simple, elegant and airy: giving space for extraordinary actors to play with all the micro-edits and mini-judgements that colour the ordinary conversations of ordinary women in ordinary rooms everywhere. They have gifted us with a portrait of two very different women attempting to change, two women in their fifties… an extraordinarily unexplored territory in theatre terms… go on, tell me another play about two women in their fifties. And I don’t say that to be smart or smug or glib. The absence of examples is a tragedy, an opportunity and a challenge. Fresh snow to walk through.
Mark Kilmurry loved the play for quite a while (it was written in 2015) but didn’t know someone who wanted to direct it. I had been looking for a project to do with Lucy Bell after enjoying her work so much in Hilary Bell’s SPLINTER. And I had heard on the grapevine that the magnificent Belinda Bromilow was thinking of returning to Australia – what a beautiful welcome back project this could be. Many pieces of jigsaw had to come together to make the rehearsal room for this play so uniquely enjoyable. Serendipity.
I hope the spirit of serendipity extends to you watching this production. I hope it is arriving in your theatre going experience at just the right moment for you to enjoy an intimate, tender, gentle and ultimately very hopeful play about women learning to redefine themselves at a time in their life when society has traditionally been done with them. There is a quiet subversive spirit in this play. It is a celebration of saying yes, a vision of possibilities and a belief that change is always possible. It is funny, but not like THE ODD COUPLE; tense, but not like ZOO STORY; subtle, but with more happening than WAITING FOR GODOT. It rests on a theatrical heritage of great two-handers but is experimental in that it is finding a rhythm and tone suited to a story of two women. It is a sign of stories to come as young writers create great new roles for our great female actors. We have so many great women with huge theatrical talent – we need more plays like this to keep them on our stages. And theatres like Ensemble programming them!
It has been a joy to be back at Ensemble creating a new play for you. I can’t wait for the conversations in the foyer afterwards!
Lee Lewis