“I’m standing on the edge of a hill and the sea is roaring towards me. I have to hold on, to anything, the grass, dirt, anything I can get a grip on so that it doesn’t suck me back out with it. Every time it crashes over me I know that I might open my eyes in water.”
A motherless girl and a nameless woman meet in a swimming pool changing room. They both thought they’d be alone here. Neither of them can leave. They sit together and gradually realise that they may find comfort in each other.
I sat and waited but you were gone too long explores the relationship between grief and the female body, the difficulty of speech, and the intimacy of strangers.
Written and directed by Olivia Satchell
Performed by Komang Rosie Clynes and Emily Tomlins
Dramaturgy by Emma Valente
Sound Design by Russell Goldsmith
Set/Costume Design by James Lew
Lighting Design by Kelsey Watt
Image by Sarah Walker
I sat and waited but you were gone too long had a three-night creative development season as part of La Mama Explorations (October 23-25).
It was developed with the support of Playwriting Australia at both the National Script Workshop and National Play Festival 2016 and was shortlisted for Sydney’s Silver Gull Theatre Award and Belvoir’s Philip Parsons Fellowship for Emerging Playwrights.
If you’re keen for some more information, there was a four-part series about the ideas behind this work that appeared on the VIMH blog leading up to the development season.
part one: penelope can be viewed here.
part two: she completes me can be viewed here.
part three: grief and music can be viewed here.
part four: the changing room can be viewed here.
vimh 