winona
theatre performance (55 minutes)You don’t know where you are. You don’t know what to feel. Your thoughts ricochet off every wall and the sterilising lights from the doctors office permeate every thought. Just try this pill, just try to sleep, just exercise, just call this number if it gets bad.
Most times it feels like they’re keeping you alive just to keep you alive.
Winona is a sixty-minute naked shopping trolley ride through an abandoned car park decorated with bandaids on the knees and elbows from previous wounds. Equal parts soul crushing and absurdly ridiculous, swathed in too much sticky tape to disguise shoddy wrapping skills. A love letter to our neurodiverse and disabled bodies, brains and hearts.
🥀 View the digital program for Winona here. 🥀
Praise for Winona:
Nominated for “Best Original Script of an Independent Production” at the Stage Buzz Buzzies Awards 2024
Nominated for “Best International Show”, “Best Two Person Show”, Hollywood Fringe Festival Awards 2023
“A rare gem of a work that sits on the shoulders of giants, and one that I truly believe will become one of those giants for the next generation of theatremakers.” – Nothing Ever Happens in Brisbane
“What impressed me the most was the ambition in Rattle's writing. Winona is more than just a story; it's a statement. The themes are heavy, yet they are handled with a mix of humour and depth that maintains the audience's interest.“ – Stage Buzz Brisbane
“There are great ideas at play in a free-flowing work that offers up heart and soul.” - The Age
“A surreal world of shifting power and mood... Winona confronts insecurities and the inability to bond in a way that is jarring and unsettling, yet ultimately reassuring.” - Larchmont Buzz
“The performance certainly keeps you hanging on to the end as the relationship shows moments of decay and deterioration, to the bliss of reckless risk-taking... If you like Portishead, The Prodigy, and The Matrix, you will appreciate Winona.” - Weekend Notes
“Winona is a different kind of piece that relies on inner thought rather than plot. But despite its experimental quality, the characters are very much human, with human anxieties, absurdities, and joys.” - Gia On The Move
2023/24
Written, directed and performed by: EBONY RATTLE
with: STELLA ROBINSON
Compositions by: ANGELITA BISCOTTI
Dramaturg: KERITH MANDERSON-GALVIN
Lighting Designer/Show Technician: TOBIE MANDERSON-GALVIN / EMMA TOUREAU
2022
Written, directed and performed by EBONY RATTLE
with: STELLA ROBINSON
Compositions by: WILLIBY
Dramaturg: KERITH MANDERSON-GALVIN
Costume Construction: CHANTELLE LUCYL
Hero Image and Melbourne Photography: EFF PAN PHOTOGRAPHY
Sydney Photogaphy: PRUDENCE UPTON
Hollywood Fringe Festival Photography: BROADWAY PHOTO/VIDEO
Melt Festival Photography: ATOMICX
The development and presentation of Winona has been supported through the Regional Arts Victoria: Quick Response Grants, Melbourne Fringe Access Fund, Ralph McClean Microgrants and the Creative Victoria and Regional Arts Victoria: Sustaining Creative Workers Initiative.
PERFORMANCES:
2024
NOVEMBER 3 – 5 PIP Theatre, Meanjin/Brisbane, Melt Festival 2024
2023
JUNE 19, 22, 24 Asylum @ Stephanie Feury Studios - Hollywood Fringe Festival
MAY 24 - 27 The Butterfly Club - Naarm/Melbourne
2022
OCTOBER 26 LIVE DREAMS - Liveworks Festival - Performance Space/Carriageworks, Gadigal/Sydney
OCTOBER 6 - 14 Melbourne Fringe Festival - Trades Hall, The Studio