Hungry Ghosts

Three strands combine and interweave here, never sacrificing clarity and demonstrating powerfully that the personal is political – and vice versa.  This is highly articulate, intelligent, driven writing – and the whole, just under an hour, takes on the quality of a prose poem or music with theme and variations.

Three talented young performers – Emina Ashman, Jing-Xuan Chan and Bernard Sam – and the fluid direction of Petra Kalive - bring these strands to imaginative life.  The performers become both naturalistic ‘characters’ and the hungry ghosts of the title – restlessly questioning, speculating and pursuing answers…  What is a ‘hungry ghost’?  Ms Kalive tells us in her program note: ‘beings driven by intense emotional needs and only manifest from tragedy or “evil deeds”

There is the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines MH370.  A mystery still unsolved.  What happened?  What really happened?  Conspiracy theories arise to explain this thing for which there is (as yet) no explanation.  But what was it like to be on that plane?  Were passengers and crew unconscious when three hundred tonnes of metal smacked into the ocean?  This production gives us the passengers and the crash with visceral power.  Movement Director Lyndall Grant goes beyond naturalism to suggest, like dance, another level of terror, pain and complete powerlessness. 

Or did that plane really crash it all?  

The production is blessed by top-notch collaborators.  Darius Kedros’ sound design is evocative and yet adds a level of eerie reality.  Set designer Eugyeene Teh puts that plane on stage with his characteristic, suggestive economy, aided by Emma Valente’s lighting: glass and metal curves that can become a tube or cocoons or an observation platform or the arrival lounge at Kuala Lumpur. 

Threaded through is the often comic, sometimes sad story of the highly ambivalent gay expat (Jing-Xuan Chan) from Malaysia.  Her heart will always be tied there, but when she does go ‘home’, she runs smack into put-downs and cultural bullying …  And what is contemporary Malaysia, anyway?  That is the third strand: the on-going financial scandal of the 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) that appears to involve – although strenuously denied of course – the highest levels of government, their families and cronies.  Here the tone changes to one of coruscating cynicism and finely honed rage – almost a polemic - at the blatant corruption and ‘disappearance’ of billions.  And did someone on Flight MH370 know too much?  Or is that what playwright Jean Tong calls in her program note, ‘clutching at straws’?

All three strands are driven by the human need to understand and therefore by the speculative and even absurd lengths people will go to find answers - because there must be a reason for everything.  Mustn’t there?

Hungry Ghostsis a challenging, powerful piece– as much a ‘play of ideas’ as a drama, but not at all dry as that term might suggest.  The actors, the direction, design, lighting and sound all give life and energy to some very fine writing.

By the way, don’t be misled by the poster or the program cover.  The picture is lovely, but has little to do with what you will see.

Michael Brindley

Photographer: Jeff Busby.