From drag queens to a wedding banquet: OzAsia unveils a diverse line-up for 2024
A Taylor Swift drag queen impersonator, a moving portrayal of survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, a live Bollywood blockbuster and a Singaporean ‘wedding’ will be among highlights of the 2024 OzAsia Festival program.
The packed program for the October 24 to November 10 OzAsia Festival includes seven world premieres, four Australian premieres, nine Adelaide premieres and more than 300 artists from 12 countries.
OzAsia artistic and executive producer Joon-Yee Kwok says her vision for this year’s event was based around “bringing people together”.
“When I was programming, I was thinking about how people like to gather; whether it’s around common interests, celebrating their own culture and identities, or discovering something or someone new,” says Kwok, who is at the helm of the festival for the first time after taking over the reins from former AD Annette Shun Wah.
OzAsia Festival 2024 artistic director Joon-Yee Kwok. Photo: Simon Rogers
Headlining the theatre offerings is Por Por’s Big Fat Surprise Wedding from the Singapore Repertory Theatre. The comedy stars Koh Chieng Mun, from the film Crazy Rich Asians, and its format will see audience members playing the wedding guests.
“The thing about Por Por, which means grandmother in Chinese, is that she wanted a traditional Chinese wedding but she’s hosting it at her friend’s Indian restaurant,” Kwok explains. “So, the audience is invited to enjoy a four-course Indian meal, and the ticket also comes with a glass of sparkling wine.
“What Por Por hasn’t told her family, though, is who her groom is, so there’s a bit of mystery there and as you can imagine there’s a lot of family drama and hi jinx … about who is she getting married to. So it should be a fun night out with karaoke and dancing; all the fun things. Some local actors will also join the international cast on stage.”
TikTok sensation Taylor Sheesh will bring something for the Swifties with her show The Errors Tour.
Sheesh, a Filipino drag queen, gained a global following via social media with her Taylor Swift impersonation show, which she created after the Philippines, like Adelaide, was left off Swift’s Eras tour schedule in 2023. Sheesh began performing to huge crowds in shopping malls in the Philippines and was then invited to perform a concert in Melbourne’s Federation Square for the thousands of Swift fans who missed out on tickets.
TikTok sensation Taylor Sheesh.
“I like to describe Taylor Sheesh as Asia’s most famous Taylor Swift impersonator who rose to international prominence during Taylor Swift’s international tour,” Kwok says.
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“I’m really excited that we’re going to be bringing her to Adelaide, because I love these performers who may be really famous locally but because of social media they have been able to reach the rest of the world.”
In another expression of diversity, Permaisuri is a live music and performance-art project by electronic musician Dyan Tai which explores queer identity through music-based performance.
“Dyan describes himself as the ‘Gaysian Empress of Sydney’,” Kwok says. “It’s club-beats-meets-cyber-punk Chinese opera drag so it’s quite fabulous and really powerful and sensational.”
Kwok, who was OzAsia’s outdoor program producer in 2017, says growing up Asian in Australia “influences the way I see the world and the change I’d like to see” – changes she can now enact through her OzAsia program.
“When I was younger, there was a distinct lack of Asian representation on Australian screens and stages,” she says. “The effect for me was two-fold: I couldn’t see myself reflected, which only amplified my feelings that I did not belong, and as a young aspiring actor, I couldn’t see a career path for me.
“We’re seeing change happen now, and I’m so excited about how many Asian Australians now grace our television screens and play on our stages. Now in my role as OzAsia Festival artistic and executive producer, I am able to effect that change, too. I am able to make space in the festival program for Asian Australian artists and stories, and to create a festival where everyone feels like they belong.”
Other music offerings include rabab player, instrumentalist, composer and producer Qais Essar in a show blending the traditional music of India and Afghanistan with the sounds of today; an album launch party for Punjabi/Australian vocalist and Adelaide resident Parvyn with her latest album Maujuda, and a solo drum performance by drummer Chloe Kim.
At Nexus Arts, South Australian hip-hop artist Kultar Ahluwalia – a past recipient of the Hilltops Hoods Initiative supporting emerging musicians – will tell his personal story in his show The Mixed-Race Tape. Kwok discovered Ahluwalia through the Nexus Arts Interplay program, which is run to support and develop independent South Australian musicians.
Hip-hop artist Kultar Ahluwalia. Photo: Paul Charles Bartlett
In an Australian exclusive that Kwok describes as “incredible and powerful work”, deaf Japanese artist Chisato Minamimura will perform her multimedia show Scored in Silence. The poignant portrayal depicts the hidden stories of deaf Japanese survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of World War II.
“It is really beautiful storytelling,” Kwok says. “The show itself incorporates video, where Chisato has interviewed some of the survivors from the time and they describe their experiences. But there’s also these holographic visuals that are projected onto the screen that she interacts with.”
Scored in Silence incorporates innovative technology, known as haptic technology, which is used by deaf audience members to experience music through wearing a belt or a vest.
“The other incredible thing about Chisato is that she performs the show in sign language,” Kwok explains. “When she tours around the world she learns her show in each place’s language, so she will be doing this show in Auslan. So it’s accessible for deaf audiences and the hearing community, who will have subtitles.”
Chisato Minamimura in Scored in Silence. Photo: Mark Pickthall
Returning for the fourth year is The Special Comedy Comedy Special, featuring a host of big-name Asian Australian comedy stars including Lizzy Hoo, Dilruk Jayasinha, Jennifer Wong and Lawrence Leung. The one-night-only showcase will be hosted by ABC Radio Adelaide’s Jason Chong and will take place on November 9 at the Dunstan Playhouse.
Another comedy success story, Anh Do, will bring his best-selling book to the stage in The Happiest Refugee Live! featuring stand-up comedy woven with real-life storytelling.
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“Anh is quite special to me,” Kwok says. “I’ve been following him for a good number of years now, so I’m really excited that he’s telling his story as part of the festival. I went to primary school with kids who were Vietnamese refugees, and my brother-in-law is a Vietnamese refugee, so it’s quite personal for me.”
A spectacular production from Mumbai-based Navdhara India Dance Theatre is A Passage to Bollywood, which tells the story of a young village boy who dreams of travelling to Mumbai. The show features choreography by Ashley Lobo, an Indian Australian choreographer now based in India who works on Bollywood films and was a judge on Indian reality-TV show India’s Dancing Superstars.
There’s plenty of colour and action in A Passage to Bollywood. Photo: supplied
Celebrating its 17th year, OzAsia Festival will also feature more pop culture, including festival favourite AnimeGO!, a celebration of Japanese pop culture taking over the Festival Theatre foyer on Sunday, October 27. For the K-pop fans, Aussie K-Poppers United Concert and Seoul Vibe will be presented with the Korean Cultural Society.
Visual art offerings include Hello, how am I?, by creator of the 2024 OzAsia cover artwork Jessie Hui, who will draw on inspiration from anime, video games and cat memes for her exhibition in the Festival Theatre Foyer.
Presented by the Elder Conservatorium of Music are two world premieres, Mountains, Clouds, Streams, featuring renowned sheng player Loo Sze-wang, and The New World of Chinese Music, both at Elder Hall.
Australian Dance Theatre will open the doors of its home at the Odeon in Norwood on November 6 for a masterclass that will offer an insight into the development process for its latest work, Two Blood.
There’s also a contemporary Asian cinema program created in collaboration with the Adelaide Film Festival. This includes another local offering with the screening of Restless Dance Theatre’s short films Counterpoise and Dancing Against the Odds. The full cinema program will be announced on September 17.
Returning this year are the mainstay community events of OzAsia: the Moon Lantern Trail, from October 24-27 at Tarntanya Wama/Pinky Flat, and the Lucky Dumpling Market at Elder Park from October 24 to November 10.
The OzAsia Festival stage will be set up within the Lucky Dumpling Market and will feature a showcase of free concerts by local artists including Brian Ruiz and Elizabeth Ruyi, as well as the Chinese Electric Music Project, Filipino singer-songwriter Jennifer Trijo, and hip-hop powerhouse and ARIA nominee L-FRESH The LION who will close the festival with a free concert on November 10.
The Lucky Dumpling Market will be back for this year’s OzAsia Festival. Photo: Xplorer Studio
The families program includes Tanabata: Star Village, an interactive art installation in the Dunston Playhouse foyer for the three weeks of the festival. Members of the public will be invited to write a wish on a card and tie it to the installation, and there will also be origami workstations.
“So, the idea is that over the three weeks we are creating this amazing galaxy of stars, that the installation itself evolves,” Kwok says. “Hopefully people will come by before seeing a show or come in especially. I’d love it if they came in especially because there’s a lot to see and interact with in this work.”
Other family programming includes The Story of Chi, a world-premiere performance by Terrapin Puppet Theatre and Contemporary Asian Australian Performance (CAAP) that was commissioned for OzAsia.
“It tells the story of Chi, who’s a 12-year-old girl, and her dragon friend Mezu and it features the most gorgeous puppet,” Kwok says.
The family program includes the world premiere of The Story of Chi.
OzAsia’s literary program, the Weekend of Words, will include panels and conversations with Asian and Asian Australian writers and thinkers and has been curated by award-winning writer and comedian Sami Shah.
Flinders University’s Discipline of Archaeology will present the visual art work Reuniting Cargoes, which explores underwater cultural heritage from the Maritime Silk and Spice Route, in the Festival Theatre’s Galleries, while South-Asian Australian slow-fashion house Saree Selections will showcase its collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists through a collection of sarees on display in the Festival Theatre Foyer.
The OzAsia Festival 2024 will take place from October 24 to November 10.