21 February, Belvoir St Theatre
Pearl owns a Chinese restaurant in Nambour on the Gold Coast. She and her two daughters - violinist Zoe, who's floundering in the world of online dating, and teenager Mei, who feels conflicted about her Asian-Australian identity - bicker over generational and cultural differences, while Pearl steels herself to tell them some unwelcome news.
Written by Michelle Law (the sister of comedian Benjamin Law) this is a crowd-pleasing comedy drawn in broad strokes, eliciting frequent laughter. It has the kind of jokes you expect about karaoke and puffy vests, makes the expected points parental expectations and playground racism. I don't say this disparagingly - it's an entertaining ride that had the audience engaged and laughing throughout, and towards the end it does hit a few sincerely tear-jerking places.
As an Asian-Australian - some bits of it hit home hard; others felt like cliche to me and not representative at all. But it shouldn't be the burden of this one play to be 'representative' of the whole experience. What I'd like to see next is more plays from writers of diverse backgrounds. The more voices there are, then the more we can see the full spectrum of experiences reflected on the stage, as sprawling and diverse as that spectrum is.
Even if it doesn't offer anything new narratively, it's still a novelty to see a cast of almost entirely women and of those, three Asian women as the leads (in fact there's only 1 male actor, and he is not white).
My friend commented that the crowd was so white and middle-aged - to be honest, it actually felt more diverse than usual for me! There were at least 10! Maybe 20! Asians! Mostly around our age and younger too.
Emily Burton
Lucy Heffernan
Patrick Jhanur
Alex Lee
Courtney Stewart
Hsiao-Ling Tang
By Michelle Law
Director Claire Christian
Set & Costume Designer Moe Assaad
Composer & Sound Designer Wil Hughes
Lighting Designer Keith Clark
Stage Manager Peter Sutherland
Assistant Stage Managers Katie Hurst & Keiren Smith
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