“I knew I had to do it.”
Amalia returns home to Wellington to surprise her family. She’s got a secret to confess. One that could make them all very wealthy and get freedoms and access which immigrants work lifetimes to achieve. But prosperity comes at a price. Once revealed, it instead begets deep shame. Can it all be repaired or will this Filipino family drown in the muck just to be able to preserve themselves?
Link in Bio is Matthew Loveranes’ provocative new play about family, ambition, diaspora and the messy cost of getting ahead. It marks the second reading in our Pōneke 2026 season of Fresh Off The Page (FOTP); Proudly Asian Theatre’s new-play development programme. FOTP supports Asian playwrights in Aotearoa to develop new work through public readings, workshops, dramaturgy and collaboration, giving writers a chance to hear their scripts with actors and audiences while the work is still in development.
Matt Loveranes
Matthew Loveranes (he/him) is an award-winning playwright from Te Whanganui-a-Tara. He holds an MA in Scriptwriting from the International Institute of Modern Letters. His work spans both playful genre fiction (The Showgirl, the first play staged in Aotearoa by a Filipino–New Zealander playwright) and emotionally rich dramas that mine universal truths (MoodPorn, winner of Playmarket’s Asian Ink in 2018, shortlisted for Playwrights’ b4 25 competition).
Ahead of its Fresh Off The Page reading in Pōneke, Matt talks about writing Filipino stories, three-sibling family dynamics, and finding an ending brave enough to surprise him.
Where do you draw inspiration for your project?
I honestly just write when I get the urge, when an idea grabs me. And I couldn’t shake the hold of doing a three siblings play. It’s a dynamic that’s fraught with such drama - Three Sisters, Crimes of the Heart, Hannah and Her Sisters, His Three Daughters, Succession, Saan Ka Man Naroroon, etc.. And even when I started writing that, it became so much more. My plays also use elements of pop culture to help deepen the stakes, so I was excited to see what I could do to mix it up and make it my own.
Image: National Theatre’s Three Sisters, where Inua Ellams adapted the play for the setting of Nigeria in the late 1960s.
Were there particular experiences, ideas, or tensions that inspired this piece?
I think the other driving force of this play is the big secret that destabilises this family. It’s a phenomenon that’s only really being explored in media and literature now. It touches on topics of modern life malaise such as navigating a second life and suffering the cost of living crisis. But mostly I like that it’s provocative. Especially when mapped on to the Filipino family, where even the most progressive people are beholden to some kind of tradition, cultural duty or responsibility. And then the challenge of writing becomes really hard, and you have to go to some vulnerable places. I’m a little scared it might be dismissed by people in the community.
What are you hoping to get out of your development reading?
I want the characters to feel real and make decisions that make sense to them. Right now I have an idea of where I want the play to go, as reflected in the current ending. But I want to make sure the choices they make are organic to them, and they don’t just feel like pawns moving towards a predetermined destination. So I hope the workshop clarifies the path to get there or illuminates a new path moving forward
What made this a story you wanted to tell, and what keeps you coming back to this story, on a personal level?
I think I haven’t REALLY done my version of the Filipino diaspora story. I wasn’t really seeking out to do it, even if elements of it creep up here and there in my writing. But when I had the breakthrough that this would be a more complex play with Pinoy characters at the fore, and my mind started racing at all the thematic and relational possibilities I could put on the page, and on stage, I knew I had to do it. With my family now having lived in Australia for a few years, and me being the only one left in Aotearoa, my desire to tell Filipino stories only grows stronger. It’s a way of keeping them close when they’re not around.
PINAY by Marianne Infante, a sell-out Filipino diaspora play developed under Fresh off the Page
MoodPorn by Matt Loveranes, produced by Red Scare
What’s one thing you’d like to share about your writing process?
I wrote the first draft in a day. And while that might seem impressive, it’s the drafting process that can be gruelling but also it’s where the real treasure can be found. I think even with this workshop, the play still has a long way to go. And I’m excited to mine what I can to make the story truly sparkle. This is my first reading that will be open to the public, so I am nervous to be showing a work in progress. So I just have to own that and be open to what people respond to and allow the play to be what it needs to be.
What’s one question you have about your own script or story at this point? Or a problem you’re trying to solve?
How it all ends! I love getting to know more of these characters, all their intricacies and contradictions and richness, and so I hope with this workshop that they surprise me! Because it is a little taboo, it’s gonna take a bit of bravery to get to the right ending. So I’m grateful to have all these people, especially my Filipino collaborators, help get me there! Or at least a little bit closer.
Matt is supported in this reading by dramaturg Mīria George and director Maya Handa Naff. Link in Bio features performers Mikee Sto Domingo, Merrill Abapo, Gayle Hammersley, Adrianne Roberts and Ruby Carter.
Sun, 20 Sep, 7pm - 8:30pm NZST
Hannah Playhouse, Wellington/Põneke
Brought to you by Proudly Asian Theatre with support from Copyright Licensing New Zealand and Wellington City Council. Produced by Jess Karamjeet and Cassandra Tse, with assistance from Ayush Aditya.