REVIEW: The Challenge Of Living Across Cultures as Australians with Chinese Heritage Is Contemplated In the Heartwarming and Humorous MISS PEONY.

Saturday 15th July 2023, 7:30pm, Belvoir St Theatre

Michelle Law (playwright) draws on childhood memories of when she finally saw people like herself on screen to create MISS PEONY, a work that celebrates retaining a connection to her heritage while challenging what it means to identify as Chinese in 21st century Australia.  In the hands of Director Courtney Stewart, also an Australian with Chinese heritage, this work is presented with the necessary balance of satire and respect to deliver a work that is both entertaining and enlightening and capable of engaging a broad audience from those that can personally relate to the characters on stage to those that may be more used to seeing those characters as bit parts around other stories.

Drawing its name from the flower that the Chinese viewed as the “king of flowers” the fictional MISS PEONY contest being held at a Sydney casino is modeled on the many pageants held around the world for young women who have some Chinese heritage.  As with competitions like Miss Hong Kong Pageant and Miss Chinese International Pageant, MISS PEONY is seeking to find the one who embodies the best representation of being Chinese.  Lily (Stephanie Jack) sees herself as anything but Chinese, much to her grandmother Adeline’s (Gabrielle Chan) disappointment but she’s made a deathbed promise to her grandmother and now Adeline cannot move on from an afterlife in limbo haunting Lily until the promise is honored.  Lily now has to figure out how to win the coveted Miss Peony crown but she’s up against women that have grown up much more connected to their Chinese heritage and the associated expectations on behavior, appearance and ability to speak Cantonese or Mandarin. 

With the majority of the work taking place around the competition, Set and Costume designer Jonathan Hindmarsh has modelled the stage on the podium stages synonymous with hotel event halls, finished in geometric gold on beige walls and mock marble floor.  Simple changes of the curtain to the stage and elements like Adeline’s hospice bed and a restaurant table help shift the work between the other spaces in the story.  Hindmarsh’s costume design helps to quickly anchor the characters, from Marcy’s (Deborah Faye Lee) old before her time conservative corporate look as the daughter involved in her family business, to the young Sabrina’s (Mabel Li) body-con and active wear aesthetic as the youngest contestant who has gained more of her style inspiration from the insta-famous celebrities, and Taiwanese international student Joy’s (Shirong Wu) schoolgirl anime look echoing her somewhat unusual behaviors.  Hindmarsh’s expression that Adeline sits in limbo is artfully expressed through modifications to the traditional cheongsam that the ghost adopts as she haunts Lily and oversees the pageant. 

With a director that identifies as being personally connected to the community on stage in that Courtney Stewart has Chinese heritage, this work is refreshing in its portrayal of Chinese Australian stereotypes as she ensures the performers hold the caricatures back from insensitivity as other works not directed by someone as aware can do. Law has incorporated moments of truth in amongst the humor, enabling people to consider both how those outside of the community treat those of Chinese heritage in the form of overt and casual racism as well as intercultural racism where people within the wider group find ways to segregate and categorize people within the group.  While MISS PEONY expresses why such pageants are beneficial in celebrating culture and allowing communities to see themselves in the spotlight, it also challenges the broader notions that pageants are often built on outdated and often misogynistic ideals, Lily challenges why Zhen Hua(Charles Wu) is the pageant director with a male voting panel, and for them to remain relevant in the 21st century, they need to reinvent and reconsider what we should be promoting as the beneficial traits for the next generation. 

Presented in English, Cantonese and Mandarin with surtitles provided in three languages above the stage, MISS PEONY is a refreshing new type of accessible theatre that ensures that the characters on stage can be enjoyed by people who really relate to them while remaining accessible to those that don’t speak all the languages.  While much of the audience on the night reviewed appeared to come from the regular Belvoir demographic it was refreshing to see that there were more people of Asian origins in the audience and hopefully works presented like this will encourage more diverse audiences through theatre doors. 

MISS PEONY is a great theatrical experience for those that know what its like to never quite fit in because you don’t look like the rest of the community or you’ve got inherited cultural traditions that the general population don’t understand.  It allows those that relate to finally see themselves on stage in roles that are presented with loving respect rather than the cringeworthy stereotypes that have previously graced stage and screen.  For others it gives an insight into a community that makes up a large portion of our population but is often misunderstood and dismissed as ‘other’ without properly taking the time to understand.  Well worth seeing for a fun night of theatre with some important underlying messages. 

https://belvoir.com.au/productions/miss-peony-2023/ 

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