Goodwood Theatres. 23 Aug 2024
Danielle Lim is Malaysian Australian and/or Australian Malaysian. This is the dilemma the young theatre maker asks in her solo show which, after a successful season on the Fringe, was revived for one night only at the Goodwood Theatre.
Needless to say, it drew a full house.
Lim performed in front of a backdrop of two white sheets stretched to make a double projection screen. Thereupon were video projections of her two worlds, Malaysia and Australia - or, to be precise, Ipoh and Adelaide.
Lim’s family brought her here as a child. From speaking several Asian languages, she soon discovered that English was the way to get on at school. School unlocked her new world, and she represented it with a padlock, one of a series of items she had placed in the auditorium to be discovered by audience members. Each one she reclaimed, expounding upon their significance as landmark symbols in her life. Her old Sim card was another. It depicted old friends and the much-needed discarding of a boyfriend.
She took the audience from Chinese family domestica in Ipoh through cultural journeys in Australia, ever with the question of the identity of our cross cultural Asian young. She demonstrated how, gradually and often sadly, the years loosen the ties and Australian self-perception moves in.
Lim has carved a successful career in the arts, one which enables exactly this nature of valuable cultural sharing. Many young Asian Aussies do not have such an outlet but their stories doubtless are in many ways aligned and it is valuable that their Australian contemporaries can take this understanding onboard. To that end, this Flinders Drama Centre graduate and OzAsia participant has been supported by Helpmann Academy, Carclew, the City of Adelaide and the Fringe. She’s also involved with ActNow Theatre.
Here, she showed her cred and, interacting with a recorded inner-voice, gave deeper dimensions to her entertainment, alleviating it from the fate of being yet another monologue.
It was a lovely clear-headed, generous-spirited presentation from a very promising young multi-disciplinary theatre maker. Her tomorrows will be bright.
Samela Harris
When: 23 Aug
Where: Goodwood Theatres
Bookings: Closed
