“Don’t talk to strangers
or you might fall in love.”
Ethel Cain, “Strangers”
(Preacher’s Daughter, 2022)
⼀期⼀会 (Ichi-go Ichi-e)
Japanese idiom, meaning
“one lifetime, one encounter.”
For my girls—
Thank you for reminding me that I shouldn't make anyone else the centre of my universe.
For [Redacted],
I hope you're doing well.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
BY LAURA GOODLET
It is so mystical to me how short-and-intense whirlwind romances often leave a greater impression than longer ones; how emotions can make it hard to see clearly.
And so when Fletcher told me about this script - a whirlwind travel romance filled with high highs and low lows, I jumped on board immediately. Together, we joyfully rehearsed and made a show that I hope will make you laugh and recall memories or moments of your own past flames, wherever they may be.
Goes without saying that watching the happenings in America through my/our phones feels disturbing and terrifying and cooked, and far too great a knot for me to untie - or whatever that line is. If you and your family has been affected, I'm so sorry and I hope they're okay.
It's my feeling that humour truly is our generation's way of countering and coping with the darkness of the situation.
Humour, and of course, pop music. Fletcher and I both share a deep love and appreciation for the pop girls, which made for an ideal shared language to draw on.
It was a wonderful surprise to be awarded the Fringe World Touring Award at Sydney Fringe Awards last September, meaning we could bring this show to Perth (my home fr) and share with audiences and many friends here. Thank you for coming to watch this work, and thank you Fletcher for letting me say “okay, one more time, but this time—” many, many a time.
PLAYWRIGHT’S STATEMENT
BY FLETCHER SCULLY
Two years ago, a psychic told me I would fall in love at the beginning of 2025.
Last year, I went to Japan and fell in love. With a Trump supporter.
I have this terrible habit of searching for love in every room I walk in. To quote my fellow Aussie twink, Troye Sivan, “I see love in every space. I see sex in every city, every town.” I probably scanned the audience before you sat down tonight. Note: I am single, boys <3
Being a hopeful romantic is a burden I take very seriously. When I was sixteen, I wrote a poem about how I wish I could stop wanting love; that I could turn off my heart. It was really long and pretty much stole every beautiful line from Virginia Woolf’s The Waves. I never expected my hopeful romanticism to lead me to a politically charged love affair akin to Romeo + Juliet. I couldn’t stop the heart. When I said goodbye to this man in Japan, I wrote him an abridged version of the poem. The poem that inspired this play.
What you see now is a labour of love. It comes from the beating hearts of some brilliant creatives. A boy playing with his girls (gender neutral) to create something joyous. Because that’s what I realised after it all. That I could sacrifice my morals when it only impacted me—but that’s not the world we live in. We’re in this together. And my girls hold me even when I feel like wet rubbish. I would do anything for them. I can’t love someone who wouldn’t do the same.
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DIRECTOR
LAURA GOODLET
Laura Goodlet is an actor, writer and director. She spent her childhood in Kalgoorlie until she was 15, moving to Perth for high school.
In 2021 she began her studies at WAAPA: completing a Diploma of Acting, and a Bachelor of Performing Arts - her graduate works, Muse and CORE both awarded opportunities for further development.
Her writing has seen her selected for ATYP’s Fresh Ink and National Studio playwriting programs, as well as WAYTCo’s Made In Boorloo. In 2025 her play Orange Slices was published and performed by various Sydney high schools.
Last Fringe season she presented Blue Angel at the Blue Room Theatre, and having directed Stop the Heart in Sydney Fringe Festival, is delighted to be part of bringing it to life again for Perth Fringe.
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PLAYWRIGHT / PERFORMER / PRODUCER
FLETCHER SCULLY
Fletcher Scully is a queer writer, performer and producer of Native American descent from southern Sydney. He holds a Bachelor of Performing Arts from WAAPA and a Certificate of Speech & Performance from AMEB.
In 2025, he was a Best Emerging Artist nominee at Sydney Fringe Festival for Stop the Heart, which won the FRINGE WORLD Tour Ready Award, bringing the show to State Theatre Centre of WA in 2026. His other works include Cowboys & Indians (WAAPA/Blue Room, 2024) and Saturn Fairy in The Monologue Collective (KXT/Shopfront, 2022), which was nominated for Best Production for Young People at the Sydney Theatre Awards and is published with Playlab.
Fletcher is also an alumnus of ATYP’s Fresh Ink + (2026) and National Studio (2025), SCWC x Merrigong Theatre Co Playwright’s Program (2026), STC’s Young Wharfies (2020) and Work Experience (2019), and NIDA’s Young Actors Studio (2020).
As dramaturg, he has worked on Your Blood Isn’t Better Than Mine (Blue Room, 2024) and Generator: Tomorrow (WAAPA, 2023), for which he was also Assistant Stage Manager and more recently was for SNAKEFACE (25A/Fruit Box, 2025).
Fletcher’s art is auto-fictitious and intersectional, unpacking his experiences as a young diasporic queer man.
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DRAMATURG / STAGE MANAGER
SAM RUMPEL
Sam Rumpel is a queer and neurodivergent multidisciplinary artist from Florida, USA. Sam began performing at school in 2016 and trained in Suzuki physical theatre with Mercury's Wings Theatre Co. on the Gold Coast (Yugambeh). Sam graduated WAAPA's Bachelor of Performing Arts course in 2024, performing and collaborating in works such as Big Love (2024); and A Murmuration of Lost Birds (2024).
Sam immediately went on to co-produce, co-direct, and stage-manage Out For the Count for The Blue Room Theatre's Summer Nights program in 2025, with glowing reviews from X-Press Magazine and Magazine 6000.
For the Sydney 2025 Fringe Festival, Sam was the dramaturg and editor for Stop The Heart, which partnered with ATYP’s Peer-2-Pier residency and was the winner of the 2025 FRINGE WORLD Tour Ready Award.
In late 2025, Sam worked with WAYTCO's Queer Stories and Scratch Night programs, in addition to completing a residency as a performer for The Pass at the Blue Room Theatre.
Sam is currently focusing on further amplifying queer theatre at the Perth FRINGE WORLD festival with a tour of Stop The Heart and by performing in the premiere of Anatomy of a Rom-Com.
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LIGHTING DESIGNER
MATTHEW ERREN
Matthew Erren (he/him) is a Lighting Designer working across Theatre, Dance and Exhibitions. A graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Art (WAAPA), he has been nominated for a PAWA for Outstanding Lighting Design for Catch 22 at Blue Room Theatre.
Matthew’s recent work as a Lighting Designer include: Terracotta Warriors: Legacy of the First Emperor (WA Museum), LEGENDS: of The Golden Arches (Melbourne Theatre Company) Blue by Thomas Weatherall (Black Swan State Theatre Company), Hyperfantasia (Enneagon Movement) The Comprehensive A-Z of Missing People Australia (WAYTCo), Made in Boorloo (WAYTCo) and Ignorance was Bliss (Enneagon Movement).As Associate Lighting Designer: Evernow Festival: Song Circle (Mark Howett, Perth Festival), Brothers Wreck (Mark Howett, Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company) and Dirty Birds (Paul Jackson, Black Swan State Theatre Company).
Previous Lighting designs include: How to: Break a Chair (Harrison Lorenz Daniels), I Watched Someone Die on TikTok (Charlotte Otton), Spinifex People (WA Museum), To The Moon (WA Museum), Splice (I2 Installation), Catch 22 (Amelia Sagrabb Projects), James Cameron: Challenging the Deep (WAM Museum/ANMM), Hell is Other People (Monkey Brain Theatre Company), The Effect (Fremantle Theatre Company), Everything Flickers (Stop Drop + Roll Theatre) Pursuit (Enneagon Movement) and China for a June Wedding (ItsaHa Productions).
FRINGE WORLD Perth 📸
By Franklin Photography
Sydney Fringe 📸
By Quinn Lomman
Stop the Heart was drafted, developed, rehearsed and performed across Dharawal, Gadigal and Noongar land. It is set on the land of the Ainu people. It always was and always will be Indigenous land.
This work was supported by the Australian Theatre for Young People’s (ATYP) Peer 2 Pier program with free development space.
Special thanks to…
Finn Hoegh-Guldberg for being the most willing and ready stand-in. Best fake neck kisser.
Abbie Norris for being the most accomodating production assistant. You carried that bag like a pro.
Alex Franklin (Perth) and Quinn Lomman (Sydney) for taking the most wicked production stills and Apurva Gupta (Perth) for the beautiful recording.
The team at ATYP for being such incredible supporters of the work and letting us play and experiment while overlooking the Harbour Bridge (dream come true for the whole team).
And everyone at FRINGE WORLD Perth, State Theatre Centre of WA, Sydney Fringe Festival and Qtopia for making this possible, especially our wonderful technicians.
Thank you for coming to Stop the Heart!
We would love to hear your thoughts <3