[Apology: unforeseen circumstances have delayed this review – ed.]

“An Asian performer is tasked with the mission to deliver a presentation on Asian New Zealand theatre history while riding a stationary bicycle.”

Billed as a “Performance essay meets spin class”,it’s a deceptively simple set-up. The spin cycle powers two lights above and below the performer.

Director, creator Nathan Joe narrates as he furiously cycles upon his object of self-torture (as if his very life depends upon it) while two large screens behind him entertain us with A Short History of Asian New Zealand Theatre.

Prompted by a small monitor, Nathan literally sheds sweat and tears (thank God not blood!) as he retrospectively explores and challenges the concept of “Pan-Asian theatre in Aotearoa” in 10 Exercises.

Starting with definitions: ‘Asian’ means creatives from Pan-Asian communities across Aotearoa. ‘Theatre’ is what has been made by us, often about us. As theatre academic Lisa Warrington clarifies: “Prior to 1996, the primary presence of Asian voices on stage or on film was filtered through Pākehā eyes.”

So, here’s the thing. As I sit right in the centre of the front row (best seat in the house) next to my friend and playwright Renee Liang, my review comes with a disclaimer. There’s a glaring conflict of interest in observing this frantic, dizzying 70-minute solo-performance at Te Auaha – part of the fabulous Kia Mau Festival’s, He Ngaru Nui programme.

Uncomfortably for me, my work as the ‘first’ Chinese New Zealand playwright with my 1996 solo show Ka-Shue (Letters Home) [revived in 2020-21]is FIRST UP. What follows is probably the most disconcerting, deliciously ironic and irreverent ‘homage cum critique’ that I may ever experience – challenging our very concepts of theatre, Asian-ness, colonialism, identity and belonging in Aotearoa.

Confronted by our own culturally imbedded assumptions, we ask ourselves why? Why aspire to create ‘theatre’ for Pākehā eyes? Why are we simultaneously grateful and resentful for any opportunity to be seen, to find our voice, to strive for representation in this art form? And, what the hell is ‘theatre’ anyway?

After all, this is not ‘A Short History of Pākehā New Zealand Theatre.’

Nathan doesn’t let himself off the hook either. He admits he’s a complicit character within his own discourse. Born in 1991 in Ōtautahi Christchurch, his parents are both Chinese. He shares personal things: that he can only write and read in English; that he’s a cis-gendered, gay male – and that he’s part of this history, at 33, as old as this history, and that his primary creative practice is playwriting.

Nathan races through three short decades. The 1990s is the decade of revolutionary firsts in the ‘sea of silence.’ First Chinese comedian Raybon Kan (1990), my first Chinese play Ka-Shue, first Indian playwright Jacob Rajan with Krishnan’s Dairy (1997) …

The 2000’s brings a decade of dynamic new Pan-Asian creatives. Sonia Yee (the first Chinese woman to graduate from Toi Whakaari) premieres The Wholly Grain (2003). The Untouchables Collective premiere Yâtra: Journey for Identity at BATS (2004) [revived by Prayas in 2020] and Renee Liang’s full-length play Lantern (2009) premieres in Auckland [revived in 2014]. Importantly the first Asian theatre organisations are formed – also in Auckland; Prayas (2005), Oryza Foundation (2008).

2010 – 2020 brings a different kind of revolutionary voice: “In Pōneke, the work of Māori-led theatre company Tawata Productions was vital in producing the early work of Ahi Karunaharan (The Mourning After, 2012) [full cast version, 2015] and Sarita So (Neang Neak’s Legacy, 2013) — a non-Asian company taking on the need to produce Asian work.”

New organisations are formed; Proudly Asian Theatre (2012) – theatre communities expand in Auckland, home to Aotearoa’s largest Pan-Asian population. Chinese Māori voice in The Mooncake and the Kumara premieres at Auckland Arts Festival (2015) [and tours in 2017].

Alice Canton creates WHITE/OTHER (2016) and OTHER [Chinese] (2017). Nisha Madhan performs Fuck Rant (2018).

Nathan brings us toward the present: Nahyeon Lee’s The First Prime-Time Asian Sitcom premieres with Silo Theatre (2022).

He tells us about his play Scenes from a Yellow Peril (2022), directed by Jane Yonge for the Auckland Theatre Company.“Looking back, it’s easy to see Scenes as an act of reclamation on my part, a disavowal or acknowledgement of a younger playwright’s internalised racism…”

Across the screens it’s as if every Pan-Asian creative and their works are named – culminating in a beautiful, mycelium web of interconnectedness.

We’re nearing the finale and Nathan is sweating profusely. His latest prompt is to call someone who had a profound influence on his work. He calls Director Jane Yonge – who answers. He’s brought to tears. He confesses that his butt’s aching. That bicycle seat is torment. He takes a moment to gulp water and asks how the audience are feeling.

At that moment I’m feeling profoundly sorry for his sore perineum, but I’ve learned so much and I’m reverently grateful for Nathan’s glorious, sweaty homage.

The Premiere Season in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington, A Short History of Asian New Zealand Theatre was presented by Punctum Productions, a vehicle for self-determination for Asian Artists in Aotearoa.

NOTE: the reviewer Lynda Chanwai-Earle would like to acknowledge her shameless quoting from Nathan Joe’s excellent essay Beyond the Monolith published in Satellites, 01/10/2024.

https://www.satellites.co.nz/magazine/issue-4/beyond-the-monolith

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