From time to time we plan to bring some news on awesome theatre shows that feature Asian/Asian Australians. We know that there may be more out there, so if you know of one which should be highlighted, please ping us with the details. In any case, here are some theatre productions you should be checking out, if you are in or planning to make a trip to the cities they are being performed in.
TOP COAT (SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY)
Previews 25th – 29th June 2022, Full Season 1st July – 6th August 2022.
Sydney
What happens when a Chinese-Australian manicurist switches bodies with a white, latte sipping, TV executive? A chaotic and outrageous comedy awaits!
From the hilarious and politically-charged wit of Michelle Law – one of our most exciting playwrights and the creator of Belvoir’s Single Asian Female and SBS’s Homecoming Queens – comes this irreverently funny new comedy that pulls no punches in exploring race, representation, privilege, and taking woke culture to task.
Dreaming of one day owning her own salon, the headstrong and determined Winnie (played by Kimie Tsukakoshi) spends her days buffing the manicures of her demanding, oblivious and mostly-white clientele. One such client is Kate (Amber McMahon), a glamorous high-flyer who is very assured of her progressive credentials.
When a mysterious electrical event at the nail salon means Kate and Winnie wake up in each other’s bodies, all hell breaks loose and both women are forced to see the world, and their places in it, from entirely new angles.
Directed by STC’s Directing Associate Courtney Stewart, Top Coat gives the issues of our time a much-needed makeover and mounts a hilarious satire of Australia’s media landscape.
GOLDEN BLOOD (GRIFFITH THEATRE)
24th June – 30th July 2022.
Sydney
Golden Blood feels like a big-screen thriller, even though it’s got a cast of two. Playing out on the neon streets of Singapore, it desperately claws back the extreme wealth it once knew, holding a rusty machete between its teeth.
Originally slated for our 2021 Season, Merlynn Tong’s Golden Blood is back and hungrier than ever in 2022.
When her mother dies, a teenage girl is left alone within the four walls of the only thing she’s inherited—a decaying penthouse in the heart of Singapore. To make matters worse, she’s now in the care of her estranged brother, and he’s not exactly up to the gig. For one, he’s only a few years older than her. And two, he’s a gangster.
Like, an actual one.
Left with next to nothing, the orphaned siblings become a formidable, atypical corporation of two. But it’s not long before cracks begin to show. What is the trade-off for desiring excessive levels of luxury? What should be kept in this world, and what should be offered to the next?
Merlynn Tong is an unstoppable acting-writing polymath—directed at the centre of her own play by Griffin’s Associate Artistic Director Tessa Leong. Golden Blood will make its long-awaited premiere in 2022, presented in a unique partnership with our friends at Melbourne Theatre Company.
Previews 2nd September – 6th September 2022, Full Season 7th September – 18th September.
Melbourne
Lucy hasn’t been home in a while. But she’s quit her job, dumped her boyfriend, and turned up on her adoptive parents’ doorstep needing somewhere to crash. George and Shirley don’t know what to do with their daughter. She’s depressed, she’s a mess, and she’s stumbled across an old cardboard box that was once full of childhood memories but is now completely empty.
Lucy and her parents haven’t always seen eye to eye on everything, but when a K-Pop star mysteriously wanders into their lives and starts asking destabilising questions about her Korean roots, new fault lines are exposed in the family unit that become impossible to hide.
This offbeat comedy from Ra Chapman (Malthouse Artist in Residence) and starring Maude Davey (Melancholia, The Lockdown Monologues), Syd Brisbane (Because The Night), and newcomers Susanna Qian and Jeffrey Liu (JËVA), K-BOX brings humour, guts and hard truths to the suburban family dinner table.
If there are others we are missing and should feature, please let us know! Links in each section above if you want to purchase tickets!
Images via the respective theatre websites