WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF opens in 3 weeks at Red Stitch
In just under three weeks, Red Stitch Actor’s Theatre welcomes the award-winning Sarah Goodes who directs Edward Albee’s timeless classic, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, rounding out a powerful annual season of work.
Opening on Saturday 18 November, the play features Kat Stewart in an all-ensemble cast, including David Whiteley, Emily Goddard and Harvey Zielinski.
When it burst onto the stage in 1962, it tapped into a growing unease about notions of decency and respectability, in a vicious dissection of a marriage over years of disappointments. Yet Albee’s characters also tell a love story: a story of shared acceptance of an inescapable fate.
In this dark comedy, real-life married couple, Kat Stewart and David Whiteley, will portray Martha and George, whose romance is served up to their unwitting guests, played by Emily Goddard and Harvey Zielinski, as a taste of the humiliations and the inevitable compromises to come. This masterful play is an ode to the heartbreak of middle age.
Book your tickets to witness Albee’s classic slugfest for yourself, with a stellar cast guaranteed to entertain in a searing night of fun and games.
Award-winning theatre director, Sarah Goodes, is recognised for bringing over 15 new Australian works to the mainstage. She was the Artistic Associate Director at Melbourne Theatre Company from 2016 to 2020, and the Resident Director at Sydney Theatre Company prior to that from 2012 to 2016. Sarah most recently directed a sell-out production of Julia by Joanna Murray Smith starring Justine Clarke for the Sydney Theatre Company. Earlier this year she directed the world premiere of Sunday by Anthony Weigh for the Melbourne Theatre Company starring Nikki Shiels. She also directed the sell-out production of Virginia Gay’s Cyrano for the MTC. In 2018, her production of The Children (MTC) won 3 Helpmann Awards including Best Director, Best Actor and Best Production and she was nominated for Best Direction for both the Helpmann and Sydney Theatre Awards for her work on the world premiere of Joanna Murray Smith’s Switzerland (STC) in 2014. She was also nominated for Best Mainstage Production at the Sydney Theatre Awards for her production of The Hanging, and her production of Golden Shield (MTC) by Anchuli Felicia King received 7 nominations at the 2020 Green Room Awards winning for Best Design.
Emily Goddard is one of Australia’s most versatile stage actors, with three Green Room Award nominations for Outstanding Performer under her belt. As a playwright, her critically acclaimed play This is Eden was winner of the 2018 Drama Victoria Award and has had six sell out seasons, including a recent Australian tour. An acting graduate of Ecole Philippe Gaulier, Paris, Emily was recipient of two Ian Potter Cultural Trust scholarships and winner of the Empire Theatres Developing Performer Bursary. Her screen credits include Clickbait, Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries, Neighbours, Newton’s Law and Twentysomething. Emily is a 2023 graduate of the VCA Masters of Screenwriting and a recent AACTA/Sony Pitch Focus Top 5 Finalist. She currently has a dark comedy series in development with Ruby Entertainment.
Kat Stewart has been an ensemble member of Red Stitch since 2002, appearing in over a dozen plays for the company between 2002-2010 including Creditors, The Little Dog Laughed, The Shape of Things, Rabbit Hole, Bug and Loyal Women. At Melbourne Theatre Company, her credits include Admissions, Heisenberg, Disgraced, The Speechmaker, Frost Nixon and Festen. Kat’s television credits include Five Bedrooms (Series 1–4), One Night, Offspring (Series 1-7), Mr and Mrs Murder, Tangle (Series 1-3), Newstopia (Series 1-3) Supernova (series 1-2) and the original Underbelly. Film credits include Little Monsters, West of Sunshine and Sucker. Kat received an AACTA Award for her work in Offspring, and both an AFI and Logie for Most Outstanding Actress for her work in Underbelly. Kat is thrilled to back on the Red Stitch stage.
David Whiteley has been a part of the Red Stitch acting ensemble for over 20 years and has appeared in several of their productions including Caught, Ulster American, Uncle Vanya, Wet House, Ruben Guthrie, Farragut North, Harvest, and Howie the Rookie. He also appeared on stage in The Other Place (MTC) and Closer (Pilot Theatre). He is a founding ensemble member and former Artistic Director of Red Stitch (2005-2013).
David’s film and television credits include The Menkoff Method (White Hot Productions), Killer Elite (Omnilab Media), Jack Irish (ABC), The Newsreader (Werner Film Productions), Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries (Every Cloud Productions), Superwog (Princess Pictures), Doctor Blake Mysteries (December Media), The Wrong Girl (Playmaker Media), Gallipoli (Nine Network Australia), Conspiracy 365 (Circa Entertainment/Circa Media), Mr & Mrs Murder (FremantleMedia/Bravado Productions), and City Homicide (Southern Star Entertainment) to name a few.
Trans-masculine actor, writer, director and producer Harvey Zielinski is one of Australia’s brightest emerging talents. The two-time Heath Ledger Scholarship finalist (2018, 2021), and Casting Guild of Australia Rising Star Award recipient (2018), joined Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre as a graduate ensemble member in 2018. He has since performed with Red Stitch in Hir, The Antipodes and Suddenly Last Summer, with other stage credits including cavemxn (Anthropocene Theatre Company), Because the Night (Malthouse), and Gender Euphoria (Arts Centre/Seymour Centre/Darlinghurst Theatre). He is also a Malthouse Theatre commissioned playwright. Harvey can be seen on Amazon Prime’s Deadloch (2023), Love Me (Warner Bros), Spreadsheet (Paramount+), My First Summer (STAN) and on shows Why Are You Like This (ABC/Netflix) and Get Krack!n,(ABC) to name a few. Harvey’s debut comedy feature Sweet Milk Lake, where he is the writer, co-director, lead actor and co-producer, was recently fully financed and greenlit by the VicScreen/Arenamedia/SBS/ScrAus ‘Originate’ initiative. Throughout development, Sweet Milk Lake has been supported by Screen Australia, Imagine Impact, ABC Fresh Start Fund, WeirAnderson Films and Feracious Entertainment. Harvey has also written for the upcoming ABC comedy series White Fever, created by Ra Chapman, as well as being part of the core cast.
Stepping in as understudy, Damon Baudin is a Naarm/Melbourne based actor and current ensemble member as part of the Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre graduate program for 2023. He has worked on independent and professional theatre projects with a range of companies across Australia’s east coast, including The Street Theatre, The Q, Shakespeare by the Lakes, HotHouse Theatre and Playwriting Australia.
Damon’s VCA credits include Joe in 37 (dir. Isaac Drandic), Liam in An Unseasonable Fall of Snow (dir. Keegan Bragg), Mr. Magic in Tales from the Vienna Woods (dir. Mark Wilson), DJ in Slaughterhouse (dir. Georgina Naidu), and Karna/others in The Palace of Illusions (dir. Sonya Suares).
For tickets and more information visit www.redstitch.net/
