OzAsia Festival: Stories Then and Now

I love a good documentary. I love good theatre. Put the two together and you have a fantastic afternoon at the Adelaide Festival Centre.

Directors William Yang and Annette Shun Wah have assembled a group of performers with Asian heritage to tell us a story about their parents and grandparents as well as their own story.  Each story is unique and many filled with humour and warmth.  Many stories include tragedy, heartache and moments that are so unjust and incomprehensible that you cannot help but appreciate how fantastic it is to see these performers standing before us.

Each performer was eloquent, the script flowed with ease and the visual backdrop of archive photos and Nicholas Ng’s soundscape brought these stories to life.  The stories were particularly diverse, touching on personal experiences from escapes from their countries of origin, arrivals in Australia, burlesque, gay marriage, many, many children and more.  Each with a quirky spin and delivery that draws you in for more.

The time flew by and it felt like the audience got to know the five performers as you would a friend at a BBQ.  More a spoken word presentation than anything else, this was a great part of the 2013 OzAsia Festival.