Love and loss is a theme that's familiar to the cast of Lantern, writes Dionne Christian
Dr Renee Liang stood in the emergency department of an Australian hospital studying the X-rays of a young man who had suffered a brain aneurism. She knew the conversation to follow: he was brain dead, there was no hope and had the family considered organ donation?
But this time, the case was different. The young man was Casey, her partner of eight years. After his death, during the following months, Liang found writing an outlet for her anger and grief. She composed poems and started performing with a group of pub poets.
"I had always been known as the writer in my family," says the St Cuthbert's College old girl. "My aunt had suggested I might want to be a script-writer but I remember feeling totally insulted by the idea because I wanted to be a doctor. That was my dream so I followed it and hadn't written for years when Casey died. In fact, I doubted I still could."
Then living in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Liang toured outback pubs where, she says, the audiences defied stereotypes of laconic Aussie blokes wanting only to drink beer and talk sport and farming. "The environment was ripe for creative expression. We would perform in some of the roughest pubs in town and the pub-goers always seemed to really appreciate it."
Six years on and back home in Auckland, the 36-year-old is firmly entrenched in the city's poetry and performing arts scene. Armed with a masters degree in creative writing from Auckland University, Liang organises and regularly MCs at Poetry Live, a weekly gathering of performance poets. She is a founding member of the group Guerrilla Poets, has released three small books of poetry, writes short stories and now she is moving into playwriting.
Her first full-length play opens at The Basement on Monday after a successful season at Wellington's Bats Theatre. Called Lantern, it is about a family preparing for Chinese New Year and encompasses many of the themes which distinguish Liang's work: cross-cultural identity, love and loss, and living in New Zealand.
When Lantern ends its Auckland season, Liang will return to writing her next play, The Bone Feeder, and her part-time job as a locum paediatrician. The latter involves working as a research consultant on Growing Up in New Zealand, a study of 7800 youngsters which follows them from birth to the age of 20.
Liang sees clear parallels between writing and medicine, saying both are about tracing stories and working out the subtext underlying the surface.
"As a doctor, I am always considering and looking for 'the stuff' underneath ... writing and doctoring rely on observing, being compassionate and having the ability to listen and make a connection with someone on an emotional level."
While migrant stories often focus on exclusion and marginalisation, there is an equally important counterpoint in looking at the ways in which new New Zealanders create space for themselves and are, in fact, included.
Liang is an example of the ways a new and enriched cultural landscape is being forged around us. She is not alone. Andy Wong and Li-Ming Hu, the two actors who portray the 10 different characters in Lantern, prove that.
Wong, 26, is also a doctor. He works full-time. He shares Liang's view that both disciplines are about story-telling and making connections. Born in Hong Kong, he arrived in New Zealand aged 9, unable to speak a word of English. The family moved to Auckland's eastern suburbs - not Howick, he is keen to point out, but Bucklands Beach.
Teachers and friends at primary school were more than helpful, he recalls, but racism kicked in at intermediate school where he was teased about his accent. He would go home, sit in front of the TV and watch as many local shows as possible so he could mimic the accent.
He also ate. By the time Wong left McLeans College, he weighed 120kg. "I was very much an extrovert who liked being centre-stage," he admits. "I was in all the school productions but never in major roles because, I think, I was Asian and chubby. I wanted to study performing arts but my parents said no way. The expectations for Asian kids to have professional careers are very, very high."
So Wong took up medicine, went on a strict diet and exercise programme and, four years ago, decided to pursue his acting dream by signing up with an agent. He has since appeared in plays including the Auckland Theatre Company's The Wife Who Spoke Japanese in Her Sleep and the Silo's 2006 hit Take Me Out.
Li-Ming Hu is best known for her three-year stint on Shortland Street playing Dr Li Mei Chen. Had she wanted a performing arts career straight from school, Hu says her parents would have been far from happy.
Born in Palmerston North to parents who emigrated from Singapore, she moved with her family to the North Shore when she was 3. Always interested in the performing arts, Hu describes herself as shy and thought her personality was incompatible with the extrovert nature of arts and entertainment. With no Asian faces on television or stage, she figured pursuing a performing arts career was pointless.
"Being an actor is difficult at the best of times, but there are even fewer roles for Asian ones. I wasn't aware of being any different to the other kids when I was at kindergarten but as soon as I went to primary school, I was hassled about my looks and my name. There was one other Chinese girl there and everyone assumed we were related."
Hu went to Auckland University and graduated with a Masters degree in History and a thesis centred on gender history. Eventually she began taking acting courses, got an agent and the role on Shortland Street.
Lantern has been part of the trio's lives for 18 months. Liang started writing it at the beginning of last year, prompted by an invitation from the Auckland Playwrights' Collective. She had been dabbling with playwriting for a couple of years and attending the Collective's Read Raw evenings where emerging playwrights share their work.
Now in its fourth incarnation, Lantern was written as a two-hander partly because Liang enjoyed the ones she had seen, like Niu Sila and Bare. She is quick to point out that the comedy-drama isn't specifically about being Asian or even Kiwi Asian. Rather it is about family: "The whole Asian thing is a hook into a story which is more universal."
LOWDOWN
What: Lantern
Where and when: The Basement, June 8-13
