Performance reviews: Samsara: A Cine-Concert, Ultimate Safari, LEGENDS (of the Golden Arches) Perth Festival

Samsara: A Cine-Concert
*****

Samsara was a one-night performance consisting of a screening of a black-and-white silent film accompanied by a live Balinese gamelan orchestra and an Indonesian electronic dance music (EDM) duo.

The film was set in 1930s Bali and the central characters were a ruling-class mixed-race European-Balinese woman (played by Indonesian-Australian actor/dancer Juliet Burnett) and a Balinese villager (played by Indonesian film star Ario Bayu) who made a bargain with the Monkey King to enrich him so that he could impress her wealthy parents and marry her. The bargain led to the loss of his sanity and ultimately to the mass suicide of the villagers, but also to a new bargain between the Monkey King and the woman (who gave her child to the King to be raised as a monkey by his minions).

The film’s Balinese volcanic landscape settings, costumes and masks, performances and cinematography were incredible – especially the child actor playing the Monkey Child. The live accompaniment was also amazing: the playing and sheer visual spectacle of the gamelan orchestra, the beautiful and at times tormented voices of the three singers and the increasingly terrifying sounds emanating from the EDM duo who were seated behind the orchestra.

At first it felt as if all these elements were in conflict and that the story and the show itself were incoherent. However, around the time that the child was handed over to the Monkey King and began to emerge as the film’s central character, everything came together – director Garin Nugroho has created a total work of art. 

This impression was enhanced by the lighting, which began to illuminate the black onstage tabs framing the projection screen, as if light was spilling from the screen onto the stage, and the story was overflowing the edges of the frame. The framing of the entire performance by the Edwardian grandeur of His Majesty’s Theatre only added to the post-colonial fever-dream effect and, when the houselights came up, I felt like I was still in a trance state and had been possessed by the Monkey King.

Samsara: A Cine Concert
Director: Garin Nugroho
His Majesty’s Theatre
Samsara was performed for one night only on 21 February 2025.

Ultimate Safari
****

Ultimate Safari is a virtual reality headset-enhanced tour to Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area in northern Tanzania. 

The Perth Festival season in the State Theatre Centre was a boutique safari for a small audience of about 30. When we arrived, our three tour guides – a Tanzanian woman and man, and a Caucasian German man – greeted us in the foyer, led us downstairs to the Rehearsal Room while singing a song in Swahili, and then handed us VR headsets and comfortable zebra-print-covered swivel stools, which we placed on equidistant red ‘X’s marked in tape on the floor.

There were eight VR segments. We saw wildlife, fellow tourists, a ‘colonial’-style picnic, a game reserve for licensed hunters, a Masai village and a outdoor meeting on the Serengeti plains where activists spoke to a small crowd of Masai about their rights.

These VR segments were interspersed with various live activities performed by our three guides who variously stalked around us like animals, tried to sell us blankets and trinkets, trained us to be park rangers, and explained the history and politics of wildlife conservation, and its impact on the local Masai, who are continually being punished for killing wild animals or displaced from their homelands. At one point a Masai guest speaker gave us a short talk, at the end of which he implored us to help by speaking out on behalf of his people. 

Ultimate Safari is a fantastic example of how digital technology can be used not only experientially, but also for social and political critique. It’s also a great example of how the tables can be turned so that we become foreigners. 

Ultimate Safari
Concept: Flinn Works and Asedeva
Rehearsal Room, State Theatre Centre of WA
Ultimate Safari took place 19-23 February 2025

LEGENDS (of the Golden Arches)
***

LEGENDS (of the Golden Arches) is about ‘the migrant experience’ – which ultimately everyone can relate to, because nearly everyone comes from somewhere else. 

It’s also about a beautiful friendship between the two lead artists, who both happen to be Chinese and who both happen to have migrated to Australia (separately) from Singapore. 

And third, it’s about something both call ‘street spirituality’ in an interview in the online program.

Co-creators/writers/directors/performers Merlynn Tong and Joe Paradise Lui played versions of themselves at a traditional Chinese funeral for both their grandparents. They disagreed about their heritage, had a fight, made peace, screwed it up and went to hell. Literally. 

There’s a lot to love about this show: it’s warm, funny, sharp and sexy. Merlynn is a powerhouse, and Joe has a cute ‘I’m not really a performer’ shtick that isn’t entirely convincing, because … you get the idea. 

LEGENDS is significantly less well-resourced, ‘run-in’ or even fully developed than the international shows in the Festival, but it still punches above its weight, and will only get better with time.

The first Act (before they go to hell) went on too long and confusing. Where were they exactly? In one grandparent’s funeral or two? In Singapore or Australia? Why were they (mostly) speaking English in what sounded like exaggerated Chinese accents (maybe it’s a thing they do together?). Why did they keep talking about each other’s plays (playwrights, I guess?) 

Read: Exhibition review: Inspired by Women, The Johnston Collection

Once they went to hell, all these questions went out the window, and the show got into gear (again, literally). They also seemed liberated as writers and performers. In the first Act, it felt as if they were holding themselves back. 

And the last Act? Too much information, and too much resolution. Enough with the trauma/healing narratives. Give us more street spirituality. 

Leave us in hell. 

LEGENDS (of the Golden Arches)
Cast: Joe Paradise Lui and Merlynn Tong
Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of WA

LEGENDS (of the Golden Arches) was performed 21-24 February 2025.