Five ways to make the most of the 2024 OzAsia Festival
OzAsia Festival will see artists from 12 countries converge on Adelaide, offering audiences a chance to immerse themselves in all kinds of cultural experiences spanning music, theatre, dance, comedy, conversation and more. InReview has picked five highlights to whet your appetite.
Por Por’s Big Fat Surprise Wedding
Koh Chieng Mun as Por Por.
Who doesn’t love dinner and a show? Especially when dinner is a four-course Indian banquet and the show revolves around a wedding. Seventy-year-old Singaporean matriarch Por Por (actor Koh Chieng Mun, from hit film Crazy Rich Asians) is the bride but no one else – not even her family – knows who the groom will be. Is Por Por the victim of a love scam as her kids fear, or will she surprise them all? The show (November 6-10) is presented by Singapore Repertory Theatre, which originally staged it at a pop-up Indian restaurant in a Singaporean hotel. The OzAsia incarnation will be an interactive dining experience at the Adelaide Festival Centre’s Banquet Room in which the audience become wedding guests (check out the menu here) as the chaos unfolds, with the festival’s artistic and executive producer Joon-Yee Kwok saying we can expect music, karaoke and “all the fun things”.
Scored in Silence
The theatre program for the 2024 festival is perhaps a little light-on compared with some years, but this solo performance by deaf Japanese artist Chisato Minamimura looks intriguing both for the story it shares and its innovative use of technology. Scored in Silence (October 24-26) is based on UK-based Minamimura’s research into the experiences of deaf survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, with the artist saying she aims to bring their “untold narratives into stark relief, touching upon the atrocity of the event and its aftermath”. The work – which was previously part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival Showcase, and has toured internationally – incorporates dance-theatre, sign language, animations, filmed interviews, and “vibration technology” (read more in this interview on The Theatre Times). Performances at the Space Theatre will be in Auslan with English surtitles.
The Mixed-Race Tape
Kultar Ahluwalia, a South Australian hip-hop artist with Punjabi and Irish roots, is premiering his multimedia show The Mixed-Race Tape (October 26, November 2) as part of a curated performance series at Nexus Arts. The show is said to blend hip-hop, old recordings, family interviews and spoken word, with a video teaser on Ahluwalia’s Facebook page describing it as “a journey through identity, masculinity, mixed marriage, fatherhood”. Also performing at Nexus will be drummer Chloe Kim (October 30) and Punjabi-Australian singer Parvyn, who is hosting an album launch party on November 8. Elsewhere, there will be a line-up of free shows by Australian musicians and DJs at the Lucky Dumpling Market throughout OzAsia (read more in this CityMag story).
Hip-hop artist Kultar Ahluwalia. Photo: Tim Hills Media House
The Story of Chi
This family-friendly coming-of-age tale uses puppetry (both “body” and shadow) to tell a tale of “love, courage and the complexities of family”. Commissioned by OzAsia, it has been co-produced by Contemporary Asian Australian Performance (CAAP) and Tasmania-based Terrapin. The latter’s website explains that 12-year-old Chi is caught between her Japanese and Vietnamese heritage, and finds herself at a crossroads during a turbulent time for her family. “Torn between cultures and traditions, Chi’s world takes a fantastical turn when she meets Mizu, a risk-taking teenage dragon who has been separated from his family.” The Story of Chi has its world-premiere season at the Space Theatre from October 31 to November 2.
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The Story of Chi takes audiences on a magic adventure.
Weekend of Words
For those wanting to delve deeper into issues ranging from cultural representation on screen to the ethical dilemmas encountered when reporting from a conflict zone, this free writing and ideas “festival within a festival” is the space to be. The program for this year’s Weekend of Words (November 8-19) has been curated by writer and comedian Sami Shah and features participants including Benjamin Law, Jennifer Wong, Lawrence Leung, Sarah Mali, and Jason Chong. Alongside the more serious discussions and masterclasses in things such as screenwriting and zine-making, the weekend also includes the annual stand-up event The Special Comedy Comedy Special and a closing night debate on the topic of Chinese Food vs Indian Food that promises “a battle where chopsticks will be flung and parathas thrown”.
The 2024 OzAsia Festival runs from October 24 until November 10. It includes the Moon Lantern Trail (October 24-27) and the Lucky Dumpling Market (October 24 – November 10).