Ra Chapman’s new play K-BOX at Malthouse Theatre lifts the lid on parent-adoptee relationships

 Ra Chapman, Malthouse Theatre’s 2018/2019 Writer in Residence and current Artist in Residence makes her mainstage theatre debut with K-BOX, a comical new play about a 30-something year old Korean adoptee who brings guts and hard truths to the suburban family dinner table. 

Lucy hasn’t been home in a while. But she’s quit her job, dumped her boyfriend, and turned up on her adoptive parents’ loving doorstep needing somewhere to crash. But nothing seems quite as she left it. 

George and Shirley don’t know what to do with their daughter. She’s depressed, she’s a mess, and she’s stumbled across an old cardboard box that was once full of childhood memories but is now completely empty. 

Lucy and her parents haven’t always seen eye to eye on everything, but when a K-Pop star mysteriously wanders into their lives and starts asking destabilising questions about her Korean roots, new fault lines are exposed in the family unit that become impossible to hide. 

Under the direction of Director in Residence Bridget Balodis (Stay Woke, Because The Night and The Lockdown Monologues), K-BOX will star acclaimed actor and burlesque favourite Maude Davey (Melancholia, The Lockdown Monologues), along with Syd Brisbane (Because The Night) and newcomers Susanna Qian and Jeffrey Liu. K-BOX opens in the Beckett Theatre from September. 

Writer and Malthouse Artist in Residence, Ra Chapman (Because The Night) said, ‘As a transracial adoptee my relationship with my identity can be best described as a tumultuous rollercoaster ride, which is still ongoing. K-BOX was inspired by the collective and palpable grief, desire for connection, and deep love that exists within the Australian adoptee community and extended community overseas. 

‘I want to share with audiences the joy and devastation and the impossible choices you are faced with, when you attempt to find something you’ve lost, while still wanting to hold onto what you have.’