Leftover Monologues

When journalist Roseann Lake started doing interviews for her upcoming book on love in China, she hadn't anticipated what she found: women with lots to say and nowhere to say it. 'There's this stereotype that Chinese people don't want to say things directly, but I found some brave people with strong voices,' she says. Among the narratives that stuck with Lake were those about so-called 'leftover women' – single ladies who are, the cultural trope goes, 'leftover' because they're too old to get married.

After interviewing scores of women about negotiating the thorny path between their own desires and societal expectations, Lake ended up with narratives that she found so compelling she wanted to take them beyond her book. 'I wanted to give the microphone back, rather than have them filtered through me,' she says. This month, Lake is giving women (and men) a chance to do just that with Leftover Monologues, a play that features a dozen or so monologues about people's experiences with love and relationships in China.

Modelled after The Vagina Monologues, Leftover was originally conceived by local women's group Lean In as a vehicle for addressing the subject of leftover women. The project stalled, but Lake decided to revive it after realising that the script could be written by the performers themselves. The actors will deliver monologues based on their own experiences.

'It won't be exclusively about leftover women – there are so many other issues, so much societal pressure that you get in China,' says Lake. 'So we're trying to keep it open, and make it about anyone who feels they don't fit the mould of what is expected of them.'

Leftover Dialogues is at Meridian Space on Saturday 26 July.