Presented by: PYT Fairfield
Reviewed: 27 October, 2022
From a career which began by making and starring in small-scale action movies in Australia (largely broadcast by public media) through to Vietnamese and Hong Kong films, coordinating screen fights for a mixed-martial arts champion, and working with Jackie Chan, Trần Vũ Hồng Phương (the artist known as Maria Trần) has forged a pathway for herself in the world of martial artists and action films in Australia. Her show has the makings of a thoughtful and highly entertaining insight into the action film world that so many people love.
On a simple stage of two white rectangles – one, the stage itself, and the other, an equally large white screen behind her – Maria Trần, brilliantly assisted by performers Takashi Hara and Therese Chen, tells her story. Trần’s parents came to Australia from Vietnam in 1981. She was born here and spent her school days in Ipswich, Queensland. (Her mum had a fish-and-chip shop not far from Pauline Hanson’s.) Stories of school bullying and of a child who felt excluded from a predominantly blonde-and-blue-eyed populace formed the foundation of Trần’s early dreams of becoming a martial-arts star “just like Jackie Chan”.
There are sharp satires of Asian cliché roles (sweet Japanese girl, tiger-mama and loudmouth Asian harridan) in audition sequences. There are rapid film takes. Some of the narrative deals with sexism within the film industry, a topic that has been forensically examined for some years now, from 2017 and Alyssa Milano onwards. No news here. Trần found that those who cast films in Hong Kong and thereabouts are sexist. Ask Australian actors (of any gender) about our country’s film industry: they’ll tell you we have the odd bad apple in our barrel too.
Trần’s martial arts training encompasses Taekwondo, Aikido and Shaolin Kung Fu. Her superb body-based skills are evident in this performance. Less fulfilled, however, were the frequently interspersed choreographic sequences, where an attempt was made to blend martial arts moves, kicks and forms with a sort of dance. When all three performers are on the stage in a dance sequence, it’s hard not to look at her fellow performer Hara.
Director Kaz Therese employs many different theatrical techniques in creating this patchwork of insights into the crafts which build action films. Sometimes Trần’s voice is used in voiceover while she executes a movement sequence alone in a strong downlight. Rapid action scenes, using Hara and Chen, a camera, weapons and sometimes a green screen, gave a behind-the-scenes glimpse into elemental film-making. The sequences are short, explicit and entertaining. Both Chen and Hara are fine performers, more than proficient in their areas of expertise. Hara is especially notable for his dazzlingly fluent sequences with the staff. Therese’s disparity of techniques and approaches tends to fragment the narrative.
James Brown and Jack Prest designed the sound for this show. Their sureness of touch ensures that the loud is never oppressively loud and the quietly subtle is always exquisitely effective. Lighting plays a major role in shaping this piece; Karen Norris’ excellent lighting design was especially sharp and constantly appropriate, setting moods, directing our attention and energising scenes.
This clever piece of multimedia theatre is well on its way to becoming the socio-political hard-hitter it so clearly wants to be. Although fans of Cynthia Rothrock, Michelle Yeo and Cheng Pei Pei will love this show in its current iteration, a stronger directorial hand on its narrative flow, choreography that serves the dramatic structure, and a little more dramaturgical examination will help this piece stand strong, instead of feeling a bit like a me-too whinge. In its present form it is in danger of looking like an extended self-test for the very talented Maria Trần.
Reviewed by: Pat H. Wilson
Photo credit: Anna Kucera
Venue: Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre
Season: 27 – 29 October, 2022
Duration: 70 minutes (no interval)
Tickets: $49:00 (conc. $45:00)
Bookings: https://ozasia.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/whats-on/action-star
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