Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Anthony Ritchie composed this monodrama in 2025, while on sabbatical leave from Otago University. Renowned New Zealand writer, Fiona Farrell, wrote the poems ‘You! Who?’ especially for this project; Fiona and Anthony have been friends (and fellow croquet players) for a number of years and have frequently discussed possible creative collaborations. The poems trace the evolution of a human relationship, from first meeting through marriage, babies, separation, reconciliation and finally death.
Fiona writes: “I wanted to write about a long marriage and how you can live with someone for many years yet never know them completely. That’s why the title puns on ‘You? Who?’, and the call, ‘Yoo-hoo!’, used in Aotearoa New Zealand when trying to find someone, in the same way that Australians use the aboriginal call, ’Coo-ee!” The poems are not autobiography but a tiny novel compressed into eight chapters, from meeting to final parting. Many years ago I co-directed a production of Gluck’s ‘Orfeo’ at Victoria University. The last verse here echoes that feeling of wanting to follow the beloved into the underworld, and also that beautiful word for ‘lover’ in te reo: ‘whaiaīpo’, meaning ‘the one you follow into the dark.’”
The songs flow from one to another without a break and the work was conceived as a monodrama, with the singer encouraged to act the role as much as they desire. In other words, it can be like a mini-opera for one character. Mezzo soprano, Tessa Romano, was another inspiration for this new work; they performed in the role of
Circus Woman in Anthony’s opera The Trapeze Artists stunningly well, in 2024. This monodrama was written for them to perform, along with pianist, Terence Dennis.
(00:00) 1. MEETING
You.
You.
One among others
in a crowded room.
A crush in the doorway.
Sound of many voices.
But.
You.
A gap in the air
around your head.
Your shoulders.
The tweak of your mouth.
Yes, I thought.
Yes.
You.
Who
are
you?
(02:21) 2. WEDDING
After the father in his suit
and the mother in her hat,
the easy flick of have and hold
till sickness, death, whatever.
After that.
And the trumpet voluntary
and the photos on the step
and the speeches and the
dancing and the laughter
and the din.
After that.
Moonlight on a quiet bed
and hand on hand on skin.
Just two.
And who are you?
(05:07) 3. BIRTH
What is this? This creature
slippery, sleek and slick as
a fish? New landed, smelling
still of salt water and the sea.
This bundle of cells?
This wriggly thing?
But look!
She has your hands!
Each finger unfurling
like fern shoot.
Her eyes stick, then
flicker. Open. Open.
Her small round
human eyes.
Regarding us,
regarding her.
And who, we ask,
are you?
(06:52) 4. MID-WAY
So, did you put the bins out?
And did you feed the cat?
Book the tickets? Find the car keys?
Pick the kids up? Pack a hat?
Shut the window? Check the warrant?
Phone your mother? Cancel? Vote?
Donate? Deliver? Call the plumber?
Choose Option C? Remember Tuesday?
Have that test? Make that appointment?
Pay the licence? Get in early?
Keep Friday evening free?
And then the light in the hallway.
The kids asleep.
And hello, you say. I’m back.
I’m here.
You’re here.
Hello again.
And again.
Hello, you.
(09:36) INTERLUDE
(10:26) 5. SEPARATE
Someone is singing something new.
Someone who is not like you.
And when I hear that song I see
a new and different kind of me.
Not slumped before the old tv,
tired love upon a tiny screen,
but singing skin, new note,
new tone. Someone who I
might have been.
Someone who I yet might be.
Myself. Alone.
(13:55)6. QUARREL
Bastard, bitch and door slam!
Don’t tell me what to do!
Don’t tell me what to say!
I don’t want you!
I don’t need you!
I want my own place.
My own music. My own
silence. Not you.
Never you.
Who are you anyway?
(15:34) 7. RECONCILIATION
Ah…so again it’s you.
Your face, your hands.
The tweak of your mouth.
And in that crowded room
it’s you I see. And once
again, I choose you.
And you choose me.
(18:22) 8. FINALE
There’s a gap now, cut to the
shape of you, though your
voice keeps asking if someone
could leave a message. And
your bones have left their print on
a chair, on a shoe by the door.
You’ve left the room, but I keep
calling. Yoo hoo? I call into the
empty air.
Can I come too?
Can I follow you?
Yoo hoo?
You?
Who?
Words by Fiona Farrell. Performed by Tessa Romano (mezzo-soprano) and Terence Dennis (piano) at Te Korokoro o te Tūī, University of Otago, 17 August 2025. Audio recorded by Emre Ekici. Film funded by NZ On Air.
--
Further information about the composer biographies associated with these films can be discovered at sounz.org.nz
Facebook: @SOUNZnz
Instagram: @sounz_nz
TikTok: @sounz_nz
#nzmusic
Anthony Ritchie composed this monodrama in 2025, while on sabbatical leave from Otago University. Renowned New Zealand writer, Fiona Farrell, wrote the poems ‘You! Who?’ especially for this project; Fiona and Anthony have been friends (and fellow croquet players) for a number of years and have frequently discussed possible creative collaborations. The poems trace the evolution of a human relationship, from first meeting through marriage, babies, separation, reconciliation and finally death.
Fiona writes: “I wanted to write about a long marriage and how you can live with someone for many years yet never know them completely. That’s why the title puns on ‘You? Who?’, and the call, ‘Yoo-hoo!’, used in Aotearoa New Zealand when trying to find someone, in the same way that Australians use the aboriginal call, ’Coo-ee!” The poems are not autobiography but a tiny novel compressed into eight chapters, from meeting to final parting. Many years ago I co-directed a production of Gluck’s ‘Orfeo’ at Victoria University. The last verse here echoes that feeling of wanting to follow the beloved into the underworld, and also that beautiful word for ‘lover’ in te reo: ‘whaiaīpo’, meaning ‘the one you follow into the dark.’”
The songs flow from one to another without a break and the work was conceived as a monodrama, with the singer encouraged to act the role as much as they desire. In other words, it can be like a mini-opera for one character. Mezzo soprano, Tessa Romano, was another inspiration for this new work; they performed in the role of
Circus Woman in Anthony’s opera The Trapeze Artists stunningly well, in 2024. This monodrama was written for them to perform, along with pianist, Terence Dennis.
(00:00) 1. MEETING
You.
You.
One among others
in a crowded room.
A crush in the doorway.
Sound of many voices.
But.
You.
A gap in the air
around your head.
Your shoulders.
The tweak of your mouth.
Yes, I thought.
Yes.
You.
Who
are
you?
(02:21) 2. WEDDING
After the father in his suit
and the mother in her hat,
the easy flick of have and hold
till sickness, death, whatever.
After that.
And the trumpet voluntary
and the photos on the step
and the speeches and the
dancing and the laughter
and the din.
After that.
Moonlight on a quiet bed
and hand on hand on skin.
Just two.
And who are you?
(05:07) 3. BIRTH
What is this? This creature
slippery, sleek and slick as
a fish? New landed, smelling
still of salt water and the sea.
This bundle of cells?
This wriggly thing?
But look!
She has your hands!
Each finger unfurling
like fern shoot.
Her eyes stick, then
flicker. Open. Open.
Her small round
human eyes.
Regarding us,
regarding her.
And who, we ask,
are you?
(06:52) 4. MID-WAY
So, did you put the bins out?
And did you feed the cat?
Book the tickets? Find the car keys?
Pick the kids up? Pack a hat?
Shut the window? Check the warrant?
Phone your mother? Cancel? Vote?
Donate? Deliver? Call the plumber?
Choose Option C? Remember Tuesday?
Have that test? Make that appointment?
Pay the licence? Get in early?
Keep Friday evening free?
And then the light in the hallway.
The kids asleep.
And hello, you say. I’m back.
I’m here.
You’re here.
Hello again.
And again.
Hello, you.
(09:36) INTERLUDE
(10:26) 5. SEPARATE
Someone is singing something new.
Someone who is not like you.
And when I hear that song I see
a new and different kind of me.
Not slumped before the old tv,
tired love upon a tiny screen,
but singing skin, new note,
new tone. Someone who I
might have been.
Someone who I yet might be.
Myself. Alone.
(13:55)6. QUARREL
Bastard, bitch and door slam!
Don’t tell me what to do!
Don’t tell me what to say!
I don’t want you!
I don’t need you!
I want my own place.
My own music. My own
silence. Not you.
Never you.
Who are you anyway?
(15:34) 7. RECONCILIATION
Ah…so again it’s you.
Your face, your hands.
The tweak of your mouth.
And in that crowded room
it’s you I see. And once
again, I choose you.
And you choose me.
(18:22) 8. FINALE
There’s a gap now, cut to the
shape of you, though your
voice keeps asking if someone
could leave a message. And
your bones have left their print on
a chair, on a shoe by the door.
You’ve left the room, but I keep
calling. Yoo hoo? I call into the
empty air.
Can I come too?
Can I follow you?
Yoo hoo?
You?
Who?
Words by Fiona Farrell. Performed by Tessa Romano (mezzo-soprano) and Terence Dennis (piano) at Te Korokoro o te Tūī, University of Otago, 17 August 2025. Audio recorded by Emre Ekici. Film funded by NZ On Air.
--
Further information about the composer biographies associated with these films can be discovered at sounz.org.nz
Facebook: @SOUNZnz
Instagram: @sounz_nz
TikTok: @sounz_nz
#nzmusic
