PLAY-READING REVIEW: Losing Face
23.02.2023 at Ellen Melville Centre
This review is part of the Auckland Pride Review Project - a collaborative project between four local publications (Pantograph Punch, Theatrescenes, Bad Apple Gay and Rat World) to provide more discourse around queer theatre and performance work, while also uplifting new and emerging writers. We will be reviewing a range of shows throughout the month of Pride - so keep a look out and go support our local queer performers!
Every now and then you come across art that just lingers in the back of your mind. It’s like the aftertaste of something you love to eat, but there’s that one element that brings the flavours together and you can never quite pinpoint what it is. It sits with you and it’ll randomly come to mind when you’re doing mundane tasks. Sometimes the desire to know more about it itches like a mosquito bite on your back that you can never reach.
That’s how it feels after watching a show by Nathan Joe. I always go in curious and leave with my mind still whirring. And it doesn’t stop whirring.
Losing Face is a play currently in development about a series of failed reconciliations that occur on Christmas Eve as an older white man, Mark, (Andrew Ford) and his younger Chinese male partner, Shawn, ( Danny Lam) wait for Mark’s half-Chinese daughter, Jennifer (Shervonne Grierson) to arrive. But the play itself was so much more than that synopsis. Presented by Samesame But Different and directed by Samuel Philips, the play reading was exceptional, to say the least. You’re taken on a seemingly never-ending Groundhog Day catastrophe. It’s cutting; it’s witty; it has you laughing until your belly aches and then it has you fighting the burning sensation of tears building up in the back of your eyes in the very next beat. The writing is so sharp and the energy almost never drops—even in the quiet moments.
“You’re taken on a seemingly never-ending Groundhog Day catastrophe. It’s cutting; it’s witty; it has you laughing until your belly aches and then it has you fighting the burning sensation of tears building up in the back of your eyes in the very next beat”
What I love so much about Joe’s stories is that they’re so personal and yet somehow so relatable to a general audience. The exploration of the gaping age difference between Mark and Shawn is so tangible and familiar, particularly when Mark makes Shawn call him “daddy” despite Shawn’s protests. On top of that, the commentary on interracial relationships and family dynamics hits a little different when you’re sitting in the audience next to your white partner. The discomfort is tangible when Mark calls Jennifer his “little China doll”. I was vigorously tapping my partner’s leg when Mark mentioned he couldn’t stand the taste of mooncakes that have egg yolks in them (even though those are the best kind of mooncakes). There’s something so exquisite about how Joe explores nuance and tension in these topics.
However, the most haunting scene for me was the confrontation Jennifer has with Mark entirely in Mandarin. Mark asks Shawn to translate her speech to English, and I loved that despite the translation being totally different to what Jennifer said, it captured the essence of her words so well. Part of me wishes that Shawn had translated word-for-word what Jennifer said because it was so beautifully hateful.
The myriad of alternative endings left me wondering: Were these all figments of the characters’ imaginations or are they different realities? How much time has passed? Does Mark really love Shawn or is he just a boytoy? But I think the most difficult thing to come to terms with at the end of the play is how you are able to sympathise with every character—even if you don’t want to. I desperately wanted to villainize Mark the whole way through for all the bad things he’s done, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. And as much as that is on Joe’s writing, it’s also on the beautiful performances the actors put on.
“I think the most difficult thing to come to terms with at the end of the play is how you are able to sympathise with every character—even if you don’t want to”
Despite the fact that the play reading was only an hour long, I felt like I had just spent a hundred different Christmas Eves with these characters—but in a way that left me breathless and craving more. I can’t wait for this play to hit the stage. As effective as Nahyeon Lee’s reading of the stage directions is in transporting us to a different world, I just know that the technical elements of the play will elevate it to a whole other level.
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Check out more about Losing Face here!