Ken’s Quest

Ken (James Lau) is in Melbourne from Shanghai.  He’s an engineer, a widower with a disabled children back in China, and he’s possibly his own worst enemy.  His quest is to get a residence visa – and that means, of course, getting his qualifications recognised and bringing his family to Australia.  It’s that or go back to Shanghai.  And now time is running out: his deadline is 190 days, and the clock is ticking… 

Ken’s Quest is about Ken’s adventures and experiences across those one hundred and ninety days – as he runs smack into a whole lot of incomprehensible experiences and obstacles, personal, cultural, or just by luck.  There’s an apprenticeship with a racist tradie (Tobias Miller), drinking, lots of drinking, a romance with his TAFE teacher (Natasha Broadstock).  It’s a culture and personality clash that is both very funny – in a fearlessly politically incorrect way – and very sad. 

I haven’t read the source material, Chez Chidzey’s novel – but now I intend to because of this wonderful, clever adaptation.  She was there on opening night, clearly thrilled with what Adam Cass has done with her work.  At the end of the show, she thanked us for coming  - as if surprised we had – and loved it – and told us that what she always wanted to show was the clash of cultures, racial and otherwise.  Well, she has.

Keep in mind that this show is on stage at the restored La Mama HQ, where even the folks in the back row are only three or four metres from the performers.  So, Adam Cass’s delightful, strikingly inventive, minimalist production fits perfectly.  Whether by necessity or just for the sheer fun of it, Cass tells Ken’s story via dramatic scenes, direct address to the audience, childlike drawings, and maybe best of all, two narrators (Sasha Leong and Antonia Yip Siew Pin). 

As well as narration, they function as a Chorus and as Ken’s conscience; they provide sound effects (e.g., ‘Ring, ring!’ Or an ambulance siren.  Or a speeding car engine.  Etc.).  When a dog gets hit by a car, Sasha does the whines and whimpers, and Antonia wiggles and turns upside down a crayon drawing of a dog – a drawing as if done by a six- or seven-year-old.  Believe it or not, this works and it’s funny, perhaps because this – and everything else – is done with such commitment. 

There are also occasional short eruptions in Mandarin from the Narrator.  You don’t need to understand the Chinese language to pick up the tone: sharp, incredulous, exasperated, or impatient.  Marvellous as the rest of the cast is, this Sasha and Antonia duo work together, off each other and off the rest of the cast so well that they almost steal the show.  Almost.  (And Sasha operates the lights as well.)

James Lau plays Ken as an increasingly desperate man who can never relax.  He’s not at home in Melbourne, or in his own skin; he’s irritable, bewildered, rigid, closed, breathtakingly tactless, and self-righteous.  His fallback is frequently, ‘It is not like this in China!’  You can see why the Chorus get annoyed with him. 

Tobias Miller as Ken’s Aussie mate really gets on Ken’s wick with his ‘jokey’ racism and sexist talk – but when he changes – radically – into an altruistic good guy, Ken doesn’t get that either.  Natasha Broadstock as Julie, the TAFE teacher, is so relaxed, and natural that at first, she seems to be scarcely ‘acting’, but in her scenes with Ken – and with a previous lover (Dax Carnay) – she is so calm, so imperturbable, that we see a woman of a certain age who’s had her heart broken, maybe more than once, and now, really, she can take it or leave it.  And Dax Carnay provides another unexpected twist – one which, of course, Ken can’t accept either.

There are plenty of laughs, insight, that rare thing, wit, and plot in this show and it moves fast and exuberant across its ninety minutes, never losing its grip on the audience.  Ken’s Quest is a highly original work, in presentation and production – and in what it has to say.  Therefore, don’t miss it.

Michael Brindley

Photographer: Darren Gill