The latest work from acclaimed American playwright Will Eno, Red Stitch presents the Australian premiere of Wakey Wakey for a limited season from 23 April 2019.
Written during Eno’s five year residency at New York’s Signature Theatre Company, Wakey Wakey is both a celebration and a meditation on life; a joyful exhortation to live authentically.
With the assistance of quirky projected visuals and a supportive music score, Eno’s everyman hero, Guy, invites his audience to join him in exploring the question for which no philosopher, physician or theologian has been able to provide a definitive answer.
One of America’s leading living playwrights, Eno’s evocative imagery and preoccupation with the nature of being has been compared to that of Samuel Beckett and Edward Albee. At once gently perceptive and unashamedly humorous, Wakey Wakey is an idiosyncratic conversation through the trivial and profound, urging us to re-examine our relationship to the world.
The second of Eno’s plays to premiere in Australia at Red Stitch, Wakey Wakey is directed by David Myles in his first production for the Company. David’s directorial credits range from opera to drama to rock musicals in Europe and Australia, including The Merchant of Venice with Laurence Olivier at the National Theatre.
Red Stitch Ensemble member Justin Hosking is joined by guest actor Nicole Nabout in her debut for the Company. Hosking brings an intimate knowledge of the Eno’s work, having performed in The Realistic Joneses for the Red Stitch in 2017.
Will Eno is one of America’s most exciting playwrights, whose breakout play, Thom Pain (based on nothing), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2005. The Realistic Joneses appeared on Broadway in 2014, where it received a Drama Desk Special Award and was named Best Play on Broadway by USA Today.
His play The Open House was presented Off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre in 2014 and won the Obie Award for Playwriting as well as other awards, and was on both TIME Magazine and Time Out New York ‘s Top Ten Plays of 2014. Other works by Eno include: The Flu Season, Oh, the Humanity and Other Exclamations, Middletown (Red Stitch, 2015) and Title and Deed.
“A work of humor, humanity and grace that makes you want to hug your lover, your neighbor and maybe an usher on the way out.” – Variety
Director: David Myles Featuring: Justin Hosking, Nicole Nabout Set & Costume Design: James Lew AV Design: Marshall White Lighting Design: Lucas Silva-Myles Sound Design: Justin Gardam Stage Manager: Alysha Watt Assistant Stage Manager: Tayla Gane Sound & AV Operator: Gabriel Bethune
Wakey Wakey
Red Stitch Theatre, Rear 2 Chapel Street, St Kilda
Season: 27 April – 19 May 2019 (previews: 23 – 26 April)
Information and Bookings: www.redstitch.net
Image: Justin Hosking and Nicole Nabout feature in Wakey Wakey (supplied)