The play follows Chi (Juanita Navas-Nguyen), a 12-year-old girl who has recently lost her father and is torn between tradition and modern life. She lives in an intergenerational household with her mum, who is Japanese, and Bà, her Vietnamese grandmother. We see these three generations of women making their way through grief in different ways and through different cultural traditions.
As Chi grapples with the complexity of loss and cultural conflict, she is visited by and befriends a dragon who she names Mizu, performed spectacularly by Samuel Lau.
Lau appears in a colourful, cleverly designed dragon costume, and his subtleties in movement and sound bring the character to life. Despite the fact Mizu doesn’t say a single word throughout the hour-long production, the audience is enchanted by this character from its first moment on stage.
Under the direction of Kenneth Moraleda, the performances from Navas-Nguyen, Eliane Morel as Bà and Mayu Iwasaki as Chi’s mother engage their young target audience by beautifully balancing humour and animation with emotional depth and sensitivity. All three performers also show their talents with puppets, as they manoeuvre smaller versions of Mizu and the dragon family.
The set is homely and warm. The floor has a yellow circle, where a table and chairs sit – the centre of the family home. There are lamps scattered around the stage that make the space even more welcoming. Draping behind the set, from ceiling to floor, are long white tassels through which the actors enter and exist the stage. This is a delicate and beautiful choice, and serves as a backdrop for silhouettes and creative lighting throughout the piece.
Up the front, facing away from the audience, is a shrine that holds candles, photographs and incense. The set, designed by Benjamin Brockman, appears to be constructed with great thought and care that ripples through to the performances.
The Story of Chi is a celebration of life, through food, culture, music, memory, friendship, family, love, heartbreak and grief. Writers Hiroki Kobayashi, Hoa Pham, and Jeremy Nguyen have created a refined, humorous and tender exploration of everything that makes up a life’s story, and all this is uncovered throughout this performance.
The Story of Chi is at the Space Theatre until November 2 as part of the OzAsia Festival.