Review: ACTION STAR – OZASIA FESTIVAL 2022 at Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Thursday 27th October 2022.

Directed by co-writer, Kaz Therese, with dramaturgy by Kate Armstrong-Smith, Action Star is Maria Trần's story of her career in martial arts, but it goes much further than that. The press release puts it well, saying that it is "a compelling exposé of the powerful gender stereotypes, identity politics, and racism that simmer under the surface of Western society, and one woman's battle to be recognised in a world of opposition."

There are three martial artists on stage, each from a different Asian heritage: Japanese, Vietnamese, and Chinese. While the martial arts of Japan and China are well-known, Karate and Kung Fu would immediately spring to mind for most people, Vietnam also has its own forms, the biggest being Võ Việt Nam, or Vovinam, created in 1938 by Nguyễn Lộc who wanted to use it to overthrow the French colonials. There are, in fact, many styles across the whole of Asia and Maria Trần has studied three, different, but complementary, martial arts.

This is not, though, merely a demonstration of her martial arts skills. No bricks or wooden boards are broken, nothing is sliced with a katana, and nobody gets hurt. Choreographers, Larissa McGowan and Lisa Griffiths, have stylised many of the moves, sometimes performed only by Maria Trần, and sometimes with Takashi Hara and Therese Chen, her co-performers, turning them into something more resembling dance. Hara and Chen also handle the sound and video operation. The sound design is by James Brown and Jack Prest, and the video and stage design is by Zanny Begg. The lighting design, by Karen Norris, is also an extremely important part of the production.

Born in Queensland to Vietnamese 'boat people', refugees from the war between north and south Vietnam, we hear a little of her early childhood, and her parents' ambition to make the best fish and chips in their shop in Queensland, not far from that of Pauline Hanson, whom we all wish had stayed in her shop. She tells of starting school and the girl who patted her on the head and called her "Chink", which she and her family naively thought was intended as an endearing term and that Maria was liked and accepted. They learned later that it was an insult. She was bullied at school, and beaten up. These parts of her story were moving.

Watching 1980s martial arts films set her on the path to where she is now, not only a martial arts expert, appearing in numerous films, but also an actress and director, and much more. To learn more about her, and her outlook on life, watch her TEDx talk here. She is in the process of completing her documentary, Quest for Jackie Chan!, which she explains in another fascinating section of her performance.

There were many difficulties that she faced along the way, being treated as a stereotype, growing up 'different', being a woman in a man's world, and gaining less recognition in her own country than overseas, she is living and working now in America, and breaking free of it all to create her own work, her own path, and her own career.

There are lighter moments, too, particularly when the three work with a green screen, camera, and light, Trần directing the others and playing the heroine, rehearsing, shooting, and with the completed scene, background added, projected onto the huge screen at the rear.

The hour or so flew past and seemed all too short for everything that this remarkable person had to say and to tell. There was certainly so much more to her story that it could have doubled or tripled the length of the production, and I am sure that most of the audience would have happily stayed on.

There are performances this evening at 7:30 and at 3pm on Saturday afternoon. Treat yourself to a ticket.

Photography, Anna Kucera.