Format

Full-length play

About

This work is about failing and accepting being good (enough) at dying and death. In 2023, I learnt my Dad had cancer. In this same period, I was premiering a show, How do I let you die?, about my parents dying one day. An actor played me. When I wrote this show, my parents were healthy, and I pondered their death speculatively, focussing on my fear of death for myself, my child and my parents. But in rehearsing and presenting How do I let you die?, I was watching my Dad die – the show became a confronting echo of my life, while ironically not preparing me for death the way I’d imagined.

These Other Things explores death and grief in reflecting on deaths I experienced leading up to Dad’s death, and examining what lessons and tools I took from each one. I then step through the seven weeks of Dad’s prognosis and death, expecting myself to be ‘better’ at dying and death while ending the work with an acceptance of how under-prepared we all can be with each death and loss we experience.

Creative team

Writer, performer and co-director, Michele Lee

Dramaturg and co-Director, Claire Granata

Video Artist, Vanghoua Anthony Vue

Sound Designer and Composer, Rafe Yang

Lighting Designer, Ceiling Lighting, Rob Curulli

Outside eye, Darren Thao

Visual assets student intern Yiming Wei

Communications student intern Shilo Saker

Creative Producer, Helen Withycombe, RMIT Culture

Technical Production Coordinator, Simon Maisch

Lighting consultant and operator, Cole McKenna

Venue manager, Darren Brown

Special guests Harry Tseng, Letty Tseng, Katerina Kotsonis and Mark Tregonning

Production and development

2025: One-night season May 2025, RMIT Capitol Theatre

2025: Development, New Work Program, Canberra Theatre Centre

2024: Development. Butterfly House Residency, RMIT

2024: Commissioned by RMIT Culture