The comic creation of Renee Lyons, Soo-Young first appeared in her brilliant show Nick: An Accidental Hero, a hospital orderly who narrated the show. It was an oddball choice about for a solo show about a man with locked-in syndrome, but she was an irrepressible and upbeat antidote in a story of adversity. Following up Nick, which toured to the Edinburgh Fringe, is not an enviable task. Inspired by Soo-Young’s wish expressed in that play to tell the story of her life as a musical, we now have this spin off to enjoy (and whether you have seen Nick or not, it stands on its own). 

Soo-Young is an affectionate character created from her Lyon’s experiences as an English teacher in South Korea. There are some laughs at Soo-Young’s unique pronunciation of words (and even better – when Soo Young attempts the kiwi accent of an immigration official!), but Lyons, who writes of her “secret desire that everyone in the world would have a little bit more Soo-Young in them”, successfully resists the caricature. [More]

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It’s been over a year and a half since Renee Lyons first introduced audiences to the character of Soo-Young Kim, the Korean narrator of her fully devised, deeply moving play Nick: An Accidental Hero.

I was lucky enough to witness the very first work-in-progress performance of that work and noted, as others louder than myself did, that this specific character was begging to step beyond the confines of that particular, personal world and tell her own story, interact with a new set of characters and shine to her fullest extent. 

Lyons obliges the calls of an encore with this silly, bold, effervescent hour of theatre that, while not without something to say, is certainly going to leave audiences rolling out into the evening with huge smiles on their faces. 

Again, this is a work in progress, but you’d never be able to tell that this was workshopped together in a scant four weeks. The set is a wonder of sequined curtaining, a well-timed jazzy pianist (Alex Taylor) sustains appropriate pace and the technicals are all perfectly on cue.  Sound might be a wee bit unbalanced at times, but still manages to convey plenty of meaning. 

When we arrive, Soo-Young is already quietly, cheerily and fussily setting herself up and once we’re all in she launches into her story: a world of hardship told from the point-of-view of someone with an inimitable sense of joy for the world, who will not be kept in line by borders, laws and arbitrary rules or mis-understandings across language barriers. 

In her programme notes, Lyons thanks her strong, supportive creative team and states that this isn’t really a solo show, which I guess isn’t lying as it’s capably held together by director Ben Crowder to include on-stage hilarious support dancers, the aforementioned musician and a surprise or two, but as with Nick this is 100% her show and she truly deserves every inch of that spotlight.

Playing across cultural barriers is never easy for an actor, especially when the performer is an outsider to that particular culture  The character of Soo-Young was originally developed from a composite of women she met while teaching English in Korea and it is clear that Lyons has great affection for them and their backgrounds.  So what initially feels like a somewhat ‘Benny Hill’ racial stereotyping of silly accent, overdone ‘K-Pop’ stylings and thrown-away glib tropes are actually played genuinely and evoke some very real empathy for the audience by the end of the (all too brief) hour in her presence. 

She takes this all to the fullest extreme though and genuinely examines questions of New Zealand’s own multi-culturalism, racial inequality and exploitation through the glossy upbeat veneer of the musical; each of the original songs fashioned so we can view through this window into this unique soul, creating some touching moments of drama on the way. 

Renee Lyons is one of the most sublimely talented professional theatrical devisers we have and her approach to performance is extremely rigorous, often nearly teetering on the edge of absurdism and self-deprecation, while still managing to sustain integrity and inject her work with an ingenious, yet playful, profundity.

Certainly, if you want to view this piece at face value and simply don’t want to have to engage your critical faculties, there is definitely a super-fun energetic good time to be had. 

As Soo-Young says, “Everything has to sparkle!” and this show certainly does.  A brilliantly glittering wee crown to be worn proudly by such an energetic, giving actress.

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