Written by Michelle Law and first produced by La Boite Theatre Company in Brisbane (2017), Single Asian Female has been adapted and transposed to Aotearoa for its Auckland premiere. Directed by Cassandra Tse, the play is a funny and heart-warming domestic drama that centres on the lives of three single Asian women: mother Pearl (Kat Tsz Hung) and her two daughters, Zoe (Xana Tang) and teenager Mei (Bridget Wong). This powerhouse cast of Asian women is supported by an equally strong supporting cast consisting of Zoe’s love interest Paul (Zak Enayat), Mei’s best friend Katie (Olivia Parker), and Mei’s frenemy Lana (Holly Stokes).

Walking into a set (designer Rachael Walker) consisting of floating red lanterns, neon signs with Chinese characters, and a large television screen ideal for karaoke, we are introduced to the world of Pearl – family matriarch, single mother and owner of Golden Phoenix restaurant. The opening song ‘I Will Survive’ embodies Pearl’s strong and tenacious character, as she has done all she can to keep the family together when her husband deserts the family home. [More] 

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As the saying goes, it’s better late than never and Auckland Theatre Company has finally jumped on the wave of Asian creative talent sweeping our stages and screens. Single Asian Female is, as the marketing suggests, a sparkling, laugh-out-loud comedy. It features some of the brightest female Asian talent we have in Aotearoa, both on stage and off. It is a damn sight more colourful (I use that word in all its connotations) than most of the ‘mainstage’ productions I have seen. And yes, it’s a good start. But it’s only a start.

This 2017 play by Australian playwright, filmmaker and actor Michelle Law is rightly lauded in its home country. Law’s first play, it was commissioned by La Boite Theatre Company in Queensland, Australia’s oldest theatre company. The buzz it created – sweeping awards, creating vital conversation and being mounted twice more to sold out seasons – even reached the Asian creative community in Aotearoa and we dreamed of a day when we could do the same.

It’s a canny move by ATC to programme Single Asian Female for its 2021 season. This is a play with proven appeal to white, middle class audiences; crucially, it’s also adored by non-white audiences. For the NZ premiere season, Law has collaborated with director Cassandra Tse to localise the set-up: Hong Kong migrant Pearl Wong is marooned running a Chinese restaurant in Mt Manganui, while her daughters Zoe and Mei dream of a future in the big smoke of Auckland. The jokes are bang-on for NZ audiences and brittle, bitter but charming Pearl has the audience LOLing from her first monologue.

A lot of the charm of the work comes from its three leads: Kat Tsz Hung as Pearl, and Xana Tang and Bridget Wong as her daughters. The chemistry is such that we believe they are a real family. Hung –a daughter of Hong Kong migrants – nails the awkwardness of Cantonese mama hens in her angular movements and blunt pronouncements. Tang is luminous as Zoe, navigating her life choices and torn between her need to be recognised as an individual and her loyalty to her family. Wong, new to the stage, plays younger sister Mei with fetching naiveté, beautifully capturing the confusion and heartbreak when she is betrayed, first by her friends and then by her family.

By casting actors from Chinese migrant families to play Chinese migrant characters, ATC has started making amends for its past actions of portraying Asian characters with non-Asian actors. It’s hardly ground-breaking and it might be belated, but it’s a gesture that is appreciated.

Zak Enayat, Olivia Parker and Holly Stokes do a stellar job of portraying the side characters. Stokes in particular is chillingly convincing as the racist, trendy school bully.

Director Cassandra Tse, herself an award-winning playwright and actor, shows a steady hand in navigating the material of the play. Although billed as a comedy, Single Asian Female landsmore than a few hard home truths. Law’s writing verges on surgical precision (with an A+) at times, exposing stereotypes and ‘everyday racisms’ that many in the audience identify with. The stereotypes are not confined to the Chinese characters: Enayat’s protestations, as his character Paul, that he didn’t just date Asians draws a big laugh of recognition. Sexism is also satisfyingly exposed, with an absent father being a particularly powerful off-stage character.

Tse’s directorial eye is evident in the cohesive design of the play, which is a delight from start to finish. An 80s neon aesthetic pulses through the clever modular set design by Rachael Walker, complemented by Rachel Marlow’s lighting and slick digital elements by Harley Campbell. This is carried through in the retro-styled costuming curated by Alison Reid which arouses some personal nostalgia. (Confession: I still have a few baggy sweatshirts with random logos, and high-waisted pants from my awkward teenage years stashed away.)

The response to the play from local audiences, especially those of Asian descent, has been one of relief and celebration. As one friend posted, “I have never felt so seen by a piece of theatre in my life.” Some of the credit for this resonance with the Asian community must go to Proudly Asian Theatre (PAT), which has earnt mana within the local Asian theatre scene for its work enabling and developing writers and actors. Chye-Ling Huang, Marianne Infante and Alyssa Medel advised ATC on everything from creative leads to casting to the savvy marketing; marketing intern Teresa Lee provided an inside eye to guide the publicity. 

Still, there are the odd translational difficulties. The 2.5-hour running time (with interval) is long by Kiwi standards and there are definitely parts where the show lags. There’s also the question of why, with so much proven local writing talent, ATC chose a foreign play to be ‘ground-breaking’ with. Single Asian Female exposes ground that many NZ playwrights have already covered and then gone beyond, as Law has with her subsequent work.  

Single Asian Female does not ‘make theatre history’, as Sam Brooks claims in his otherwise excellent and revealing commentary. The only way this makes history is that it’s the first time the well-heeled ATC has done it – many other companies and venues were putting on majority Asian led, homegrown stories decades ago. By my reckoning ATC is some 25 years late to the party – Lynda Chanwai-Earle’s solo play Ka Shue debuted on the ‘mainstage’ of Circa (but was not produced by Circa) with a 100% Chinese-descended cast in 1996, going on to tour internationally and becoming a mainstay for study in schools. Luckily for ATC, the party is still going hard. 

Here I’d like to pass comment on the term ‘mainstage’. This is a somewhat murky term, traditionally claimed by the most well-resourced theatre companies, who task themselves with putting on work for ‘mainstream’ audiences, and in larger venues. In todays’ performing arts scene where innovation and collaboration has seen the mushrooming of new companies and new venues, how relevant is the use of the term ‘mainstage’? Should these companies still continue to claim the lion’s share of public funding? In today’s Aotearoa, with an increasingly diverse audience, savvy at selecting which companies and venues to follow for their specific interests, is there really a ‘mainstream audience’ anymore?

For those at the start of the conversation on representation and racism, Single Asian Female is a witty and at times deliberately uncomfortable introduction, and I highly recommend it. I also fervently hope that seeing this play will encourage people to explore further. As Law writes in her program introduction, scripts of this standard are only developed with strong partnerships between writing communities and programmers, and I believe the local Asian theatre-making community is long overdue this kind of support. May this be only the beginning.

Maybe one day we’ll even be able to stop billing ourselves as Asian creatives, and just be creatives. 

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