The second is Michelle Law's Top Coat, directed by Courtney Stewart (who is incoming artistic director of Brisbane's La Boite).
“ doesn't have a deep explanation as to why we're travelling or why that Australian story is taking place on Griffin's stage, but it transports us,” says Leong. Golden Blood is directed by Griffin associate artistic director Tessa Leong (Wherever She Wanders) - and is one of two plays written and directed by Chinese Australian women to premiere in Sydney this month. I don't think I knew the term 'a fair go'. Tong laughs: 'I think Girl maybe has done a little bit more research than the real Merlynn has. 'It feels free there you know / Like everyone respects each other / No lies / No dark history / No oppression / Everyone gets a fair go,' Girl tells her brother, known only as Boy (played by Charles Wu). Girl gives up her dream of moving to Australia to stay in Singapore with her gangster brother – who moves in with her after their mother dies by suicide when she is 14 and he is 21.īut Girl remains attached to a romantic ideal of Australia.
Tong was partly inspired to write Golden Blood by one of her childhood babysitters, who was involved in a gold bar Ponzi scheme in Singapore.
