Aside from the odd dedicated festival like AsiaTOPA (Melbourne) and OzAsia (Adelaide), we don’t often get to see theatre works from Asia. However, this Melbourne Fringe, Mo Lai Yan Chi (Hong Kong), in collaboration with Curatorial Ensemble, has brought her solo show Women in Red. It makes a good effort at being accessible for a general audience.
Mo Lai is a theatre maker of international experience. This widely toured show debuted in 2012, and retains its focus on telling tales of female characters, based on real stories. This “English-Language iteration” has a limited amount of Cantonese, but explanations are lightly worked into scenes.
Entering the venue, we saw that many seats were adorned with bras. Once seated, Mo Lai told us to touch one near us, or even smell it if we wanted. Whilst this initially might seem a bit kooky to some (especially the smelling), it seems that these garments – from monochrome sports mesh to colourful lacy versions – stand for the diversity of women’s shapes, interests, and preferences.
Importantly, in Hong Kong there’s the expectation that these everyday items, which can contribute to how women conceive of, or present themselves, must be kept hidden, even the straps. From this intimate viewing, we would proceed to explore the lives of three characters.
A selection of garments and props, all featuring bright red, decorate the stage. Over the course of the hour, these would have their turn featuring in the tales. Some pleasant live keyboard music filled the time required for costume changes.
Mo Lai showed a range of characterisations across the hour. In the opening vignette she is suitably bouncy as a ten-year-old girl of big facial expressions. A discovery prompts her to some innovation, and the audience gets a (low-pressure) chance to replicate this under her coaching. There’s progression from initial concern to empowerment. However, the character would tell us not to watch them at various times, making us unsure of when we could resume.
Next up is the tale of a seventeen-year old, considered “the best age” by some because one is given a term that translates as “crispy”. This young woman is a keen volleyball player in her high-school team. Her vigorous interest in improving, and maybe something else, has caught the coach’s eye. Mo Lai does some good work here to indicate the student’s alienation from her teammates, the presence of the coach, and how the power imbalance plays out between the two women.
The most surprising offering, which also has the most depth, lies in the story of an 80-year-old woman. Remarkably, Mo Lai gained many decades of age very quickly, addressing us as a sassy senior with sharp opinions on her neighbours. Comedic moments are found in what this wife, married for 60 years, thinks about her husband’s gift-giving and fidelity.
In an epilogue we learned that colloquially “The Woman in Red” is a bottle of rice wine, buried at the birth of a daughter, consumed on her wedding day. This is useful background, and it could benefit us to have more of that. Some may come to the show with a vague recollection of red being an “auspicious” colour for some cultures, but the show doesn’t give us a specific insight into its central purpose here.
Mo Lai advised that some elements of the story overlapped with aspects of her life before she travelled abroad to continue her artistic practice. This surely contributed to the believability of the characters presented. We could also feel that we’ve experienced a slice of Hong Kong life, and learned a little more about our region.
Women in Red
Trades Hall – Common Rooms, Corner Lygon and Victoria Streets, Carlton
Performance: Wednesday 15 October 2025 – 6.00pm
Season continues to 19 October 2025
Information and Bookings: www.melbournefringe.com.au
Image: Mo Lai Yan Chi – photo by Steve Ho
Review: Jason Whyte