Family means everything. So, what better way for a 14-year-old to show her 21-year-old brother how much he means to her than by decorating his prized heirloom parang – a large knife – with gold, jewels and lucky red knots? Surely, its beauty, luck and love can only help him earn more respect from his Singaporean-Chinese gang?
Even if family are everything, the trauma of family is why we need the support of family.
Golden Blood by Merlyn Tong was first seen at the Melbourne Theatre Company Cybec Electric play reading new writing program in 2020. Since then, it was commissioned by the MTC through a NEXT STAGE residency; shortlisted for the Victorian Premier Literary Award, NSW Premier’s Literary Award and Sydney Theatre Award (Best New Australian Work); performed in Sydney at Griffin Theatre Company in 2022, and by the Sydney Theatre Company in 2024. The MTC have now brought the Sydney production back to Melbourne.
Girl (also performed by Tong) lives in Singapore and is 14 when her mother dies. She hasn’t seen her brother, Boy (Charles Wu), since she was 7 and he was 14, but he returns to look after her.
He promises to burn money and gold for their mother, like they did for their father when he died, and to help her live her dream of going to Australia to become a vet, be free and look after marsupials – like her treasured toy koala that looks like it wasn’t made in Australia or by anyone who has seen a koala.
Tong’s work is partly based on her own life but is more fiction than memoir as it explores far bigger truths and stories about familial relationships, tradition and survival.
Girl and Boy live in a Singapore that is far from the perfect Merlion tourism and hawker food stalls. It’s white and clean with red plastic chairs, a fold up mattress, a family shrine, and dodgy neon-lit clubs – designed by Michael Hankin (set and costume), Fausto Brusamolino (lighting) and Rainbow Chan (composer and sound).
Over 7 years, Girl moves from child to adult as Boy remains stuck in a past he had no control over. They stay together as his gang life and ponzi schemes bring in money, for a time. And the ghosts of their parents fill the spaces in between their dreams with as much hope as guilt and terror.
While the story is full of trauma and fear for the siblings, the script is full of laughter and glimpses of joy; that gloriously bedazzled knife is made with love but it can only lead to, at best, disappointment. When life is dangerous, laughter can be the only way to cope.
Tightly directed by Tessa Leong, Tong and Wu create a dysfunctional relationship that leaves us wanting them to find the safety of family as much as wanting them to escape each other. The truth of the script sits in the subtext and even as their secrets take time to be revealed, the audience know more about the characters than they know about themselves.
Giving new writing the opportunity to develop and change through readings, commission and multiple productions is how we create great new Australian writing. I’d love to see Golden Blood performed in Singapore and continue to develop and change as it tells an Australian story that reaches beyond the dreams of ocean waves, cute fluffy animals and Chiko Rolls.
Golden Blood
Fairfax Studio – Arts Centre Melbourne, 100 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
Performance: Wednesday 30 October 2024
Season continues to 30 November 2024
Information and Bookings: www.mtc.com.au
Images: Merlynn Tong and Charles Wu in Golden Blood – photos by Prudence Upton
Review: Anne-Marie Peard