Scenes from a Yellow Peril is a new play from Auckland Theatre Company and is an uncomfortable, playful, and enlightening provocation on racism and privilege in Aotearoa.
This is a doom scroll disguised as a play: a world premiere from an arresting new voice. A meta-analysis of Asian identity, carved into razor-sharp scenes that cut to the cultural quick. Scenes from a Yellow Peril is less a play, more a series of insights that, when taken together, expose the pain of the way in which some people are othered but whose experience will not be denied.
From award-winning Chinese-New Zealand writer, actor, poet and general polymath Nathan Joe, the work dissolves the traditional play format into a rapid-fire collection of snapshots and observations, flickering past in a rush of live music and hard-to-hear truths.
A dizzying mix of humour and rage, commentary and confessional, this is a theatre experience that packs a punch.
“Heartbreakingly personal, gloriously queer, furiously political, and unexpectedly funny, Nathan Joe’s writing is devastatingly acute in its observation of the Asian New Zealand experience. I invite you to listen to Nathan; his is a vital voice we need to hear.” – Jonathan Bielski
Copy for this article provided by Auckland Theatre Company.
SCENES FROM A YELLOW PERIL
21 June – 3 July 2022 Tickets and information