S A I N T S' Sound Designer Chris Wenn talks us through his approach to art and the play.
1. How do you approach your art?
Sound design is this funny thing where you have to go through the words and into a space of resonance and depth and feeling. That's 'feeling' as emotion, as sensory perception, and as something a bit beyond both and maybe prophetic: how do you convey this time, place, and space on stage to an audience. So I'm considering through the whole process what is being said between text, actors, set, costume, lighting, all the elements, and the audience who are there with us. I'm interested too, in how audiences actually join us in the theatre through sound, what an ethical sound design might be - that's a thread I'm researching more generally, so SAINTS is a chance to dig into that a bit.
2. What is your objective in your work for SAINTS?
There's very strong parallels for me in the historical setting of the play and the feeling of upheaval and uncertainty in our world now - it's been written that way, but even thinking about the Early Modern period and the Wars of Religion in Europe, I feel like folk belief, seeking community, and this urgent sense of finding your own position in and understanding of the world are kind of recurring in this weird 21st Century we're experiencing. I want to find moments of sonic groundedness and loss, stability and instability, and give us space to consider the connective tissue between past and present that SAINTS is showing us.
3. What are you experimenting with in SAINTS?
This is really fertile territory for playing with sound - you have the really rich traditions of folk song and folk belief beginning to emerge historically, and the period where what we call 'Early Music' is moving into the Classical tradition. There's also the recent history of this kind of material being explored by outsider and avant-garde artists in the 'post-industrial' scene, often in quite politically dubious ways - so for me there's a real chance to reclaim some of that and look at it in a really communitarian and just way.
Chris Wenn is an award-winning sound designer for theatre, based in Melbourne, Australia. His creative practice has largely been in the independent and small-company sector, and he has developed and performed work extensively across Australia, in Indonesia, Singapore, the UK, and Europe. This has included extensive experience in text-based performance and devised work, including work for young people and people with disabilities.
His sound design and compositions have featured in productions by Malthouse, Liminal Theatre, St Martins Youth Theatre, Red Stitch Actors Theatre, Sarah Austin & Collaborators, accessibility theatre company rollercoaster, and internationally at Esplanade – Theatres by the Bay, Singapore. Interdisciplinary and experimental collaborations include performances, animations, and recorded works with noted spoken word/visual artists Kylie Supski and ReVerse Butcher. He was co-chair of the Green Room Awards Association’s Independent Theatre Panel in 2018 and 2019.
Chris has received Green Room Award nominations for Sound for his work on The Trouble With Harry (MKA/Darebin Arts Speakeasy/Melbourne Festival 2014) and Rust and Bone (La Mama, 2016), and was the recipient of the Straits Times ‘Life!’ Theatre Award for the Sound Design of In The Silence of Your Heart (2018) at Esplanade – Theatres by the Bay, Singapore.
Ensemble and Production awards for works on which Chris was a collaborating artist include: Green Room Awards for Production (Independent Theatre) for The Trouble With Harry, and for Liminal Theatre’s Oedipus - A Poetic Requiem (2008); the Melbourne Fringe Award for Best Kids Event for Sarah Austin & Collaborators’s Only A Year (2017); and a Drama Victoria Award for Best Innovative Curriculum/Education Program or Project, for Malthouse’s Suitcase Series: Atomic (2018).
Chris was also one half of the Punch Drunk DJs, and can occasionally be seen spinning an eclectic blend of post-punk and weird electronics as The Upstart. Chris performs with foundational post-punk noise band Primitive Calculators as well as his own project S.C. 1978 COOLO, and collaborates extensively with other experimental artists.
Image: ReVerse Butcher
LA MAMA PRESENTS S A I N T S created by Elbow Room
6-27 February 2026
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S A I N T S is supported by City of Melbourne Arts Grants and was previously developed as part of La Mama Residencies 2025