10 new Monologues and 1 new Play, presented by the company who doesn’t care who you are – just that you have written a cracking script.
Each of the scripts selected for performance in Melbourne Writers’ Theatre’s 2026 double-bill Season of New Writing was selected using a blind read process: names off scripts. Apart from ensuring that selection is 100% merit-based, this is a process that ensures 100% equity. ‘At MWT we care deeply about our playwrights,’ remarks Clare Mendes, producer of Metropolis Monologues (image at left) and Who I’m Doing This For (right). ‘That’s why we support them in the development of their skills, their confidence and their careers. We don’t care how experienced they are, how young or old they are, how ‘hot’ or ‘now’ they are. To have written a cracking script is always enough for us.’
In a theatrical season that will see the surprising 60-minute showcase Metropolis Monologues followed each night by the 60-minute new play Who I’m Doing This For audiences will be treated to 11 cracking new scripts. This year’s Metropolis Monologues, some of them written by first-time playwrights, offers a wild mix of random stories exploring humanity, history and female heroism. Who I’m Doing This For, the first full-length play Peter Farrar has ever written, also came out of nowhere to win The 2026 Amethyst Award, the prize for which is the fully-produced play that audiences will be glad they bought a ticket for. When asked about his overnight success, Farrar simply remarked: ‘I’m very impressed with the director’s innovation. His ideas for strengthening the script have enhanced my story, lifting it off paper and placing it on the stage.’ Nor a word about himself, or his own off-the-chart talent. It’s modest playwrights like Farrar MWT is Doing This For. Finding artists like Steven T. Boltz to direct his play, and Karyn Lee Greig to direct the Metropolis Monologues – along with 13 cracking Actors and a cracking Crew – ensures we can do it well. Tickets for Season 2025 sold very quickly, so if you are after a rewarding evening of theatre in an intimate 50-seat venue – this being the history-filled, story-filled Meat Market Stables – please buy your ticket soon.
March 26 – April 1
TICKETS: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/metropolis-monologues-who-im-doing-this-for-tickets-1981059439111
