18 – 19 October 2025: MONUMENT

Crimson Rosella and The Twyford present
A Red Stitch production developed through the INK Program 
MONUMENT 
Written by Emily Sheehan 
Directed by Ella Caldwell 
The Twyford – Theatre Venue 
7.30pm Saturday 18 October 2025 &
2.00pm Sunday 19 October 2025

The fuchsia is bright.

• Genre: Comedy/drama
• Length: 100 minutes (no interval)
• Suitable for: Ages 14+
• Content warnings: Coarse language, references to sex
• Tickets: Adults $44 | Concessions $39 | Group 4 $156 ($39 each)
• Subscriber discount $5 off adult and concession tickets – check your e-news for the promo code
• Twyford Gift Certificates valid for this performance
• For accessible Row J bookings for wheelchairs and patrons with mobility issues, please email us or phone our box office on 0421 19910

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ABOUT THE PLAY

Edith Aldridge is the youngest woman to be elected leader of her country. In a lush presidential suite in a heritage listed hotel, she has just ninety minutes to get ready for the biggest day of her life. Enter Rosie, a twenty-two year old makeup artist from the David Jones counter, sent to help Edith get camera ready. In Rosie’s capable hands, this morning will be a breeze. So long as they both stick to the brief.

Sheehan’s astute and entertaining script challenges the trivialisation of beauty therapy, exploring the role that makeup and fashion play in how we perceive and receive women in power.

“A clever and highly entertaining comedy about class. 4 Stars.” – ArtsHub

“Contemporary politics is expertly skewered in this ambitious, flawlessly performed two-hander. 4 Stars.” – Limelight magazine

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CAST

Sarah Sutherland has been a Red Stitch ensemble member for over fifteen years and has worked extensively across theatre, film, and television during that time. Shows with Red Stitch include A Simple Act of Kindness, Ulster American, Day One, A Hotel, Evening, The Realistic Jones, Faces In the Crowd, The Pain and the Itch, After Miss Julie, That Face, Motortown and Fewer Emergencies. Sarah has performed leading roles for MTC in Dead Man’s Cell Phone and The Water Carriers, and with the Flinders Quartet in Behind Closed Doors.  Sarah has also toured nationally and internationally with Red Stitch’s award-winning plays Red Sky Morning and Desert, 6.29 pm. On television, Sarah is best known for her role as Kareena in Angry Boys for ABC/BBC/HBO and for roles in Miss Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries, Neighbours, Stingers, and Blue Heelers. Her numerous short film credits include; Tropfest award-winner In Your Dreams as well as The Postman, The Director, When I Go, Carcass, The Cuckoo, and The True History of Billy the Kid. Sarah is the Artistic Director of Rollercoaster Theatre Company, a not-for-profit ensemble of neurodivergent and mixed-ability actors. Over the 16 years she has been working with Rollercoaster she has produced, directed, and devised a great many productions including the multi-award-winning short film Comican’t. (Sarah is delighted to be returning to the Red Stitch stage, this time as Prime Minister 😉

Julia Hana completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) in 2022. Julia began her training at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) in New York where she performed in productions including Five Women (dir. Pamela Scott), Dear Friends (dir. Jim DeMonic) and The Dancers (Dir. Susan Pilar). Since returning to Melbourne Julia has performed in Mocha Is Not Coffee (dir. Verity Norbury) at Gasworks Theatre and The Global Citizen at La Mama Theatre. Julia has also performed in Beers and Trees (dir. Lisa Inman) at La Mama Theatre and Loose Teeth at La Mama Courthouse (dir. Cassandra Yiannacou). Last year Julia performed in her final productions at VCA including Tales From The Vienna Woods (dir. Mark Wilson) and Slaughterhouse (dir. Georgina Naidu) and the The Wolves (dir. Yoni Prior). Julia is very excited to perform in Monument (dir. Ella Caldwell) at Red Stitch this year.

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CREATIVE TEAM

Playwright Emily Sheehan

Emily Sheehan is a playwright and dramaturg. She completed her master’s in playwriting at the Victoria College of Arts. Her plays include Monument (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre), Hell’s Canyon (Old 505 Theatre / La Mama Theatre / Regional Arts Victoria / Vimeo on Demand film of stage play), Daisy Moon Was Born This Way (Q Theatre) and Versions of Us (Canberra Youth Theatre). Her plays have been developed through Melbourne Theatre Company Cybec, Red Stitch INK, Playwriting Australia National Script Workshops, Playwriting Australia National Play Festival and New Ghosts Theatre Company. Playwriting awards include the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights’ Award (Winner), The Patrick White Playwrights’ Award (Shortlist), Max Afford Playwrights’ Award (Shortlist), UK’s Theatre503 Playwriting Award (Longlist) and Melbourne Fringe Festival Award (Winner).

Emily has completed dramaturgy attachments with The Bush Theatre (London), Traverse Theatre (Edinburgh) and Playwrights’ Studio Scotland and worked as a dramaturg for Theatre503 (London), Arts Centre Melbourne and the Victorian College of the Arts. She has also undertaken dramaturgy observations with the National Theatre of Scotland and Melbourne Theatre Company, and worked as a script reader for Playwriting Australia and Currency Press. Emily teaches playwriting at the Victorian College of the Arts and hosts the Playwright’s Process Podcast, a monthly podcast about writing, craft and the creative process.

Director Ella Caldwell

Ella is a theatre director and actor. She grew up on the far south coast of N.S.W before moving to Melbourne on a drama scholarship, later studying Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne. A founding member of Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, Ella has been Artistic Director of the company since July 2013. During this time, Ella has steered the company’s new writing program, INK. The program has produced numerous acclaimed productions, touring nationally and internationally. In her role as Artistic Director, Ella also established PLAYlist, a biennial site-specific festival of music and new writing.

Most recently, Ella directed the critically acclaimed Australian premiere season of Ella Hickson’s epic work, Oil. In 2018 Ella directed The Antipodes by Annie Baker, which was included in Time Out’s top ten shows of the year. Previous directorial work includes the sold-out Victorian premiere season of Joanna Murray-Smith’s Fury and the Australian premiere production of Incognito by Nick Payne, both directed in collaboration with ensemble member Brett Cousins, and the world premiere of Caleb Lewis’ The Honeybees. Ella also directed Watching, an audio play by Vidya Rajan and Morgan Rose, which was commissioned in 2020 and featured 18 actors.

As an actor, Ella stepped in to perform the role of Rosemary in the 2022 world premiere season of Morgan Rose’s Fast Food, directed by Bridget Balodis. Previously, Ella featured in Rose’s desert, 6:29pm, also directed by Balodis. desert, 629pm went on to a sold out season at Wuzhen Theatre Festival in China on the company’s first international tour. Previous acting credits include The Realistic Joneses by Will Eno, The Village Bike by Penelope Skinner, Love, Love, Love by Mike Bartlett, Midsummer – A Play with Songs by David Greig and Gordon McIntyre, Oh Well Never Mind Bye by Stephen Lally, The Laramie Project – 10 Years Later by Moises Kaufman, Stop.Rewind by Melissa Bubnic, The Winterling by Jez Butterworth, Crestfall by Mark O’Rowe, Outlying Islands by David Greig, The Night Season by Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Bug by Tracy Letts, among others.

Lighting Designer Amelia Lever-Davidson

Amelia Lever-Davidson is an award-winning lighting designer for theatre, dance, live art, installation and events. Amelia is a graduate of The Victorian College of the Arts, The Western Australian Academy of the Performing Arts and RMIT. Amelia has designed lighting for Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Belvoir St Theatre, Malthouse Theatre, RISING Festival, DARK MOFO, Chunky Move, Red Stitch, Chamber Made, Circa, Elbow Room, Belarus Free Theatre, Deep Soulful Sweats, The Hayloft Project, MKA, and many others. She has collaborated with a diverse range of directors and choreographers, and her work has been presented both nationally and internationally. Amelia has also worked as a lighting director for Melbourne International Comedy Festival (Special Events), Channel Ten, Channel Nine, and the ABC. Amelia’s work has been recognised with Green Room Awards for multiple works. Amelia is an Australia Council ArtStart and JUMP Mentorship recipient, Ian Potter Cultural Trust recipient, a past participant in the Malthouse Besen Family Artist Program and the Melbourne Theatre Company’s inaugural Women in Theatre Program.

Set and Costume Designer Sophie Woodward

Sophie is a Melbourne-based set and costume designer. Sophie graduated with a Bachelor of Production (Design) from VCA in 2010 winning the Beleura John Tallis Design Award in her final year. Sophie recently designed costumes for Melbourne Theatre Company’s Come Rain or Come Shine. Recent set and costume designs include A Simple Act of Kindness (Red Stitch Actors Theatre) and All the Shining Lights (HotHouse Theatre).
Earlier design work from Sophie includes Hungry Ghosts (Melbourne Theatre Company); Burn This, The One and Mr Burns, A Post Electric Play (fortyfivedownstairs); Those Who Fall in Love like Anchors Dropped Upon the Ocean Floor, Between the Clouds, Pyjama Girl and Letters from the Border (HotHouse Theatre); Fast Food, Iphigenia in Splott, Grace Extinction, Rules for Living, You got Older, The Honey Bees, The Village Bike, Wet House, Love Love Love, 4,000 Miles and Day One. A Hotel, Evening (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre); No Exemptions, Thigh Gap and A Long Day’s Dying (LaMama Theatre). Sophie was Costume Design Associate on Girls & Boys, Bernhardt/Hamlet, An Ideal Husband and Twelfth Night (Melbourne Theatre Company).

Sound and Composition Beau Esposito

Beau is a trans non-binary composer and sound designer from Naarm, working across theatre and film. They are a recent graduate of Victorian College of the Arts and hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Production. Beau’s credits include: as composer and sound designer: for Bighouse Arts: Tram Lights Up; for The Burrow: for Griffin Theatre Company: Sex Magick; Slut; for Darebin Arts: Hydra; for Darlinghurst Theatre Company: Overflow; for Essential Theatre: The Dream Laboratory; for Fever103 Theatre: Treats and Brittany and The Mannequins; for La Mama: Cactus; for Malthouse Theatre/Darlinghurst Theatre Company: Stay Woke; for Midsumma Festival: Adam, Guerilla Sabbath, Slutnik; for Melbourne Writers Festival: Never Said Motel; for New Theatricals: Darkness; for Patalog Theatre: Punk Rock; for Red Stitch: Fast Food; for Three Fates Theatre Company: Land. Their credits as sound designer include: for Melbourne Theatre Company: The Sound Inside; and as assistant sound designer: for Melbourne Theatre Company: Sunday. Beau was a panel member for the 2022 Green Room Awards. Beau received a Green Room Award nomination for their work on Hydra. They were nominated for a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Composer for their work on Overflow.

Makeup Consultant Harriet O’Donnell

Harriet O’Donnell is an award-winning hair and makeup artist based in Melbourne, with a background in performing arts. For 20 years, she’s worked her magic in television, film, fashion and photo shoots, working on a wide variety of faces from pop stars to Prime Ministers. She’s currently a senior in-house makeup artist at the ABC, an industry consultant, and also moonlights as a painter, musician and performer.

PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTE

Monument is a play about a world leader and her makeup artist and that uniquely intimate relationship. Before I’d written a word of dialogue, I had a very clear stage image in mind of an extraordinary woman having her makeup done. And I knew I wanted audiences to watch this in real time over ninety minutes.

We so often correlate beauty with competence. So to participate in beauty culture is non- negotiable if you’;re in the public eye. Conversely, hyper-feminine spaces are often seen as unserious, and so with this play I wanted to use the intimacy of the makeup chair as a space capable of anchoring a global, political narrative.

I’m excited to bring Red Stitch audiences this Trojan horse of a play. A play that’s easy on the eyes, at first, because the packaging matters. A play that is on the surface is about makeup, image and persona. But as the plays go along, we explore the blurring line between the role of a politician and the influence of a celebrity. What are the ethical dilemmas present in this fusion?

As I began writing and researching, inspiration revealed itself as I leaned into this phenomenon.
While listening to Hillary Clinton’s autobiography I hear her say that during the 2016 presidential campaign she spent 600 hours getting hair and makeup done. The equivalent of 25 days. And that’s just during the campaign.

A statue of Princess Diana is unveiled to mark what would have been her 60th birthday. Twitter is ablaze with critics slamming the statue’s outfit as ugly and outdated. This is a statue they’re talking about.

At a Christmas party, a woman tells me she trains hairdressers to respond to disclosures of family violence. In fact, a large number of programs have emerged in Australia like this one, as research has consistently found that hair salons are unique spaces of what they call ‘touch and talk’.

As New Zealand prepares for lockdown, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern goes live on Facebook from her bedroom, wearing a well-worn sweatshirt and no-makeup makeup. A defining moment, to be sure. But why?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez makes history as the youngest woman elected to US Congress. A fan on Twitter asks what lipstick she was wearing during the debate. She tweets back. It’s Stila Stay All Day Liquid in Beso. It sells out at Sephora the same week.

This play is curious about why people say, ‘I don’t really follow the news’, or ‘I don’t think that much about what I wear, or ‘I don’t find politics very interesting’. If you’ve ever divulged a dark secret or the latest family drama to your hairdresser, then you will understand what this play is getting at.

Thank you to the artistic team Ella Caldwell, Sarah Sutherland, Julia Hanna, Sophie Woodward, Amelia Lever-Davidson, Beau Esposito, Ibrahim Halacoglu and Harriet O’Donnell. Your vision for this play has broadened the horizons of what was possible. Thank you also to Joanna Murray Smith, Laura Tingle, Bridgit Balodis, Tahlee Fereday, Tom Healey and the Red Stitch ensemble for their advice and input in the dramaturgical wrangling of this play.

I hope audiences feel empowered to take the play as seriously as they might take selecting the perfect shade of lipstick. That it is frivolous, of course, and hopefully fun, but at the same time worthy of serious discussion and capable of withstanding meaningful critique. Whether you prefer to express yourself through words, or aesthetics, or art and metaphor, it’s between these two poles (frivolity and seriousness) that many meaningful insights in life and in art might be uncovered.

Emily Sheehan
Playwright

ABOUT RED STITCH

Established in 2001, Red Stitch is Australia’s leading actors ensemble. A theatre company created by and for an ensemble of actors, Red Stitch has always offered a rigorous creative algebra: brilliant writing brought to life largely by ensemble members who, despite tiny budgets and even tinier recompense, live and breathe the exhilaration of ‘the show’.

Our home space of 80 seats in St Kilda has produced critically lauded theatre for 23 years, with over 170 productions to our name, contributing to our reputation as a leading commissioner and producer of exceptional Australian theatre. Our INK program sustains the increased representation of Australian drama in the national repertoire, supporting an illustrious coalition of playwrights and artists. Eighteen Australian plays have been produced, one third of which have toured nationally or internationally. Our biennial site-specific festival of music and new writing, Playlist, has attracted a large and loyal audience and a vibrant reputation in the community.

Our determination to create a pathway for emerging artists to traverse the challenging transition from tertiary institutions to the professional sector led the company to establish the Red Stitch Graduate program in 2008. Today the Hansen Graduate Program supports five early career practitioners annually, offering young artists the opportunity to work with the company throughout the year across a range of disciplines gaining vital hands-on experience. This has in turn furnished the company with fresh perspectives and ideas.

Current Artistic Director, Ella Caldwell, oversees a company in which over 60 artists have occupied ensemble positions, with 12-15 advisors active at any time and membership refreshed annually. Several original ensemble members hold advisory positions and regularly return to work with the company along with guest artists who bring their vision, talent and energy to the company.

Red Stitch is a triumph of passion over resources. Our tiny budgets have created a resilient. constantly evolving and uniquely creative company, earning recognition and awards alongside much better funded high profile counterparts. As a crucial bridge between independent practice and larger institutions, our artists evolve and hone their craft while simultaneously generating exceptional work for audiences.

Red Stitch has earned a treasured place in the theatre-going community of Melbourne and contributed significantly to the national culture.

THANK YOU

Malcolm Robertson Foundation, Red Stitch Kindred donors

CREATIVE AUSTRALIA: Our 2025 tour of Monument by Emily Sheehan has received funding from Playing Australia.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.