Gender, identity, conflict, oppression, expression, the workplace, the queer niteclub, K-Pop, Asian drama, life drama, domesticity, marriage, ambition, cooking, love, lust, political correctness, happiness, angst, binary, non-binary, fear and nonchalance.
These ingredients of our modern or post-modern, apparently comfortable global lives are skilfully exploded tf bro by Jo Tan.
Assisted by the totes lovable drag king with gorgeous heart and mixed race name of Stirling Da Silva, Tan uses characterisation and a capable, energetic flowering of the dramatic craft to comment and challenge our newest queer or non-queer confidences.
With knife-edge shifts and fabulous use of New Theatre’s Sydney Fringe Touring Hub stage plus projection screen, this Fringe-worthy, inspired social comment relevant to Singapore and beyond will blow your bro or femme mind and make you think, laugh, cry and love it.
Tan plays a plethora of characters, mastering with ease the monologue , group chat, party scene, work smoking area and drag dressing room alike.
The identity of the drag king in traditional male-dominated drag dominions is an interesting concept discussed here.
So is female subservience to the traditional (Singaporean) male, the sexuality-ambiguous bonding of Grindr using army conscripts, the fragility and conventiality of ambition in the workplace, and the translucence of our modern hearts and heads during relationships needing help, happiness and a home-whatever that may be.
Catch this meaningful romp troped by drag king spot shows and with a dig at Asia, Pop-Asia and our sometimes pop-tart exploding lives plus newest, fluid views of gender, diverse interaction and identity.
Jo Tan’s masterful, lengthy, exhausting/rewarding-to-view drama series has intelligent comment and penetrating turns of phrase. And is so worth it. And resonates so well in the cultural kaleidoscope and sexuality-sensitive hun that is our glorious Sydney at Fringe time.
‘King’ plays at New Theatre until September 27.
