OzAsia Festival. State Theatre Company South Australia. Dunstan Playhouse. 8 Nov 2022
Playwright Michelle Law says she is surprised this Chinese-restaurant, kitchen-sink comedy is showing such longevity. Now it has opened in Adelaide, one does not share the surprise. This is a cross-cultural, racial-identity, intergenerational romp. It works very nicely in a festival celebrating Asia and cultural understanding.
It’s all about the Wong family in their Chinese restaurant, depicted onstage with a broad set of classic Chinese iconography, with metal stairway leading to upstairs rooms where the family lives.
The family is Pearl, a recently divorced tiger mum, and daughters Zoe, a talented violinist, and Mei in the throes of the last year of school. Law develops the sense of cloying Chinese domestica and racial stereotypes before expanding the plot to deal with more complex issues of the Australian male, sex and law. More stereotypes - but that is the whole point and it is thrown to the audience in a strident emotional roller coaster. Not all of the humour hits home, but the sense of intimacy and understanding of the single-mum battler family warms the old heart cockles. And there’s a bit of karaoke, therein, as well. They’re good singers and clearly relish the fun of it all. Oddly, when the actresses demonstrate that they can reach an Australia’s-Got-Talent-style high note, the theatre audience goes nuts and one ponders the nature of modern appreciation.
Indeed, there are some eloquent dramatic moments in this play far more deserving of acclaim. For instance, there’s the scene with Pete or is it Paul, when discussing who has rights to decisions over a woman’s body. Allan Lyra Chang is the only male in the cast and he has a really notable stage presence; an actor worth looking out for. The other males are played by Kristen O’Dwyer and Kathryn Adams who are doubling and tripling up from their roles as the white friends of Zoe and Mae. They are the high comic relief in the play in each context with some nice satirical characterisations. Juanita Navas-Nguyen delivers very capably the older daughter, Zoe, the girl who has had to carry family responsibility and fulfil family expectations, ever in search of where she may fit in to Australian society. Elvy-Lee Quici depicts the long-suffering young sister, Mae. It is a role which explains a lot about how it feels to be the only Asian girl in a big Aussie school.
Indeed, the play itself very explicitly exposes the underbelly of the Asian immigrant experience with Fiona Choi making a very rich and satisfying (Chinese) meal of the lead role, the brave matriarch forging the family path through the rocky road of finance, identity, and cultural tradition. One cheers for her, weeps for her, and believes in her.
The action ticks along efficiently under Nescha Jelk’s direction, with an interesting set and fun costumes from Ailsa Paterson plus nifty lighting from Chris Petridis. There is only Andrew Howard’s quirky soundscape left to ponder.
For, indeed, if there is one thing in which this play succeeds with only the odd burst of didacticism, it is in the truthful telling of the Asian cultural experience in Australia today.
Samela Harris
When: 4 to 19 Nov
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: premier.ticketek.com.au
