Comments

Dennis Lim March 9th, 2023

Kia ora Conan, thank you for sharing your thoughts on my show. I believe that all feedback, both positive and negative can help an artist grow. I wanted to address the blackface joke, which as you may have seen was my awkward attempt at connecting the still-occuring precedent of asian actors being cast interchangeably in productions. (Ie Chinese as Japanese, Korean as Filipino, etc) and how someone who could be "close enough" to that depiction may feel being cast in that role that they don't necessarily connect with. The theatre and film world is a community that primarily casts POC for roles that require it, and usually the default is white in the western world. Obviously this section didn't hit the mark and caused offence which I apologise for but I do want to say the intentions were good, and I'll work on this to improve it for my future shows this week. This production was a deeply personal one for myself, I was coming off of severe artistic burnout and wanted a way to reclaim the space and power of my identity which has truthfully held me back in various ways, without necessarily burdening others with this project which was frankly a very egotistical one. A big part of my artistic practice is making others feel like they could easily do what I can do or better on the stage - because that is what I would have wanted for myself in a world with middling representation in entertainment. I am of Chinese Cambodian heritage, born in Australia and now call New Zealand, I am gay and Teochew Chinese was my first language, followed by English and Khmer (which I can only understand), my home is now Wellington and these ideas of identity and changing the world for underrepresented and poorly treated peoples swirl inside of me eternally. I was glad to be able to share some of it on the stage. I wish you all the best and thank your review for your comment. Nga mihi, Dennis

Conan McKegg March 8th, 2023

I feel that this review is doing the artist a disservice by glossing over what was for most of the audience a bit of an awkward performance. It may have been first night jitters, but this was not a well crafted production. There were large periods of time where the audience uncomfortably sat while Dennis tried to get his loop pedal to loop the sounds he wanted; multiple times Dennis struggled to get audience participation; and the songs were mostly sung off key and lacked structure. By the end it felt as though Dennis had lost the story thread and it petered out. He sounded exhausted by the end and I, for one, felt it too. The show felt more like an endurance test than a calm and pleasant show. There were moments of levity and true raw self reflection that got me connecting with the character. But it felt as though the panda character was trying to be a metaphor without being able to land on any concrete idea of what that metaphor was. It came across as poorly conceived. Add to this an inappropriate blackface joke near the end that I suspect arose from nerves - it made for a show that was often a case of the audience being at turns awkward, bemused, and occasionally laughing at Dennis' struggles at keeping the pace going. I think the overall show has potential if Dennis can gain confidence in the technology, has some prewritten songs, a clearer idea of how he wants to finish, and focuses on keeping the jokes and story tighter. There was just too much time where the audience sat in awkward silence waiting while he struggled with his technology for me to believe it was deliberate. The entire play felt aimless and meandering, and not in an intentional way.