Award-winning author and playwright Michelle Law’s sassy, fierce and and very funny incisive new comedy, Single Asian Female, will have its Melbourne premiere at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Fairfax Studio from 3 April 2019.
Audiences are invited to step inside the Golden Phoenix, a suburban Sunshine Coast Chinese restaurant, where a family of whip-smart women are definitely talking about you in their native tongue. Single Asian Female tells the story of the Wong family and dynamics that pit sister against sister, spill family secrets and put the spotlight on a mother trying to overcome generational and cultural gaps to connect with her two daughters.
They are all dealing with some of life’s big questions and what it means to be Asian women in Australia. Pearl (Hsiao-Ling Tang) is the quintessential matriarch balancing family, business and her love of karaoke. Daughter Zoe (Jing Xuan Chan) is in the throes of online dating and big decision making while Mei (Courtney Stewart) is a teenager grappling with her identity in modern Australia. They of course see the world differently to their mother whose onslaught of embarrassing observations questions her Westernised children.
“I’m beyond thrilled that Single Asian Female will have its Melbourne debut at Arts Centre Melbourne,” says Law. “Many friends and audience members in Victoria have been asking when it will be their turn to see Single Asian Female and I’ve had to keep this secret for so long! Bring along all of your family and friends, some tissues and your singing voices. We’re coming for you, Melbourne!’’
Skewering race and gender in contemporary Australia, Michelle Law’s (Homecoming Queens, Bloomers) debut play is presented as part of Melbourne International Comedy Festival, following a sold out season at Sydney’s Belvoir Theatre and Brisbane’s La Boite theatre company.
Law is the co-author of Sh*t Asian Mothers Say and has had her work anthologised in books including Women of Letters, Best Australian Comedy Writing and Destroying the Joint. As a screenwriter, she has received an Australian Writer’s Guild AWGIE award and had her films screened on the ABC and at film festivals locally and abroad.
She co-created, co-wrote and starred in Homecoming Queens which premiered in 2018 – the first online series commissioned by SBS, that was recently nominated for an AACTA award.. She is currently working on the feature film adaptation of Alice Pung’s young adult novel Laurinda.
“Michelle Law’s incisive debut play will have you in stitches then tears.” – Limelight Magazine
Single Asian Female
Fairfax Studio – Arts Centre Melbourne, 100 St. Kilda Road, Melbourne
Season: 5 – 21 April 2019 (previews: 3 – 4 April)
Information and Bookings: www.artscentremelbourne.com.au
Image: photo by Dylan Evans