Cultural Storytellers: Lynda Chanwai-Earle
Renee Liang interviews playwright Lynda Chanwai-Earle about her new play Heat, the importance of taking creative risks and being a reluctant 'pioneer' in Kiwi-Asian theatre.
Heat is at the Herald Theatre in Auckland from July 12-17.
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This week, I was excited to be part of the Writers on Mondays series at the Auckland Art Gallery, organised by the NZ Society of Authors. I was billed as one half of the (comedy) duo “Bananas: Sister Act”, with academic and writer Hilary Chung as ringmaster. It marks the first time my younger sister Roseanne (a filmmaker) and I have been on stage together, with the possible exception of (um, best forgotten) childhood ballet recitals.
Being quizzed in public about my motives for being a writer started me thinking about a few things. They’re not new, of course. Among them: the advantages and potential pitfalls of being identified as an ‘ethnic’ writer; how much I ‘harvest’ my memories and emotions for use in my fictions; and the reaction of my family and community to these somewhat personal confessions.
But if they’re not new topics, I’m also not the first writer to be negotiating these mine(my)-laden pathways. Lynda Chanwai-Earle is a friend and mentor whom I regularly look to for inspiration and advice. I managed to catch her in the midst of very busy preparations touring her groundbreaking new show, Heat.
Renee: So are you excited about HEAT coming to Auckland?
Lynda: Hell yes! A good chance to catch up with a community of old friends and loved ones. Last time I premiered a play at the Herald was Foh-Sarn (Fire Mountain) in 2000 - so great to be back at The Edge! Also a chance to get some crackin' Wellington theatre on the mainstage in Auckland.
Renee: It's hugely risky, touring a play which is so technologically complex. What are some of your crazy production stories?
Lynda: Crew were feeling desperate coming up towards production week when we were still waiting to find a sponsor for the bloody wind turbine! Alternative energy is not cheap to set up but it's bloody fantastic to run and it's been running like a dream, off-grid, totally eco-friendly and sustainable!
Renee: How does the HEAT team work together?
Lynda: Like a big family. We are all professional creatives and often have to juggle other pressing theatre commitments (Composer Gareth Farr, Director David O'Donnell etc), but the touring cast and crew is a beautiful tight and well oiled team and I am so proud of them.
Renee: Must be weird coming back to your old stomping ground as an "established artist". What were some of the crazy things you did here as an artist in the 1980s?
Lynda: Hanging half naked donned in codpiece and horns from a trapeze spouting jazz poetry - would be among my craziest theatrical expressions. Too old to hang half naked from trapeze these days, prefer to make Byron Coll (BOB the penguin in HEAT) endure my dark sense of humour as a playwright instead. Yes, HEAT is my old sense of humour and risk taking returned ...!
Renee: So the last play you showed in Auckland was Fire Mountain (Foh Sarn) in 2000, in which my little sister (Roseanne Liang) inadvertently scored the lead role, opposite my brother-in-law as her love interest! How did you conceive of the plot for that play?
Lynda: Saw a documentary on TVNZ about Asian crime in NZ at the time. Got spurred on and wanted to redress many of the issues facing a largely voiceless (at the time) ethnic minority community. "China" bashing and racism within NZ media was also an incentive to write Foh Sarn. Wanted to expose unsettling issues facing young Asian students, women in particular, my main character gets herself into desperate trouble - these are universal themes that strike at the heart of any community or ethnic group, just a matter of how say it without patronising the audience or sensationalizing the subject matter.
Renee: You said that you developed your first theatre work, Ka-Shue (1995), as an extension of your narrative work in performance poetry...
Lynda: Actually it was earlier stuff - the SPAWN production (B-Side theatre, Maidment, 1992) was a direct result of the marriage of performance poetry and theatre.
Ka-Shue (Letters Home) came about after I did 1993 Diploma in Drama at Auckland University with Murray Edmond (worked extensively with Indian Ink) who taught me the difference between spectacle (circus like theatre) and narrative theatre and the value of great story-telling. Also came about after original direction from James Littlewood, and then dramaturgy with John Vakidas and Miranda Harcourt and redirection for touring with Jim Moriarty - all hugely experienced in solo theatre. End result: Ka Shue in its 3rd print, both Foh Sarn and Ka Shue published with the Women's Play Press and a prescribed text with NCEA.
Renee .. you also said that you did Ka-Shue as a solo piece simply because there were very few other Asian actors around at the time.
Lynda: Very true and so bloody frustrating! Would much rather have had a full cast - but that's what the Court's Man in a Suitcase will have instead.
Renee: Do you like the label of "pioneer"?
Lynda: Yes, albeit reluctantly. I believe there are always others who have come before whose trumpets haven't been blown, but jolly deserve to be. Real pioneers quietly get on with it.
Renee: Tell me about the kaumatua you accessed.
Lynda: My parents, especially my mother Mayme Chanwai, my family on the Chinese side, respected community elders Esther Fung, James and Eva Ng and wonderful researchers Dr Manying Ip, Kirsten Wong, Nigel Murphy, Dr Duncan Campbell ...
Renee: What was it about the community at the time that enabled you to start telling your stories?
Lynda: In 1995-1996 the Poll Tax was still a buried history in New Zealand, it was specifically this and also finding out about being a poll tax descendant (my great granfather in 1907, my paw-paw, gung-gung and my mother all paying the poll tax) that spurred me on to write Ka Shue.
Renee: Did you encounter any opposition?
Lynda: There was concern over the swearing and sometimes painful subject matter exposed within my plays (skeletons in the closet). Being seen as 'half-caste' Chinese and half Pakeha - and sometimes been questioned about my validity to tell stories because I am Eurasian, I counter this by saying my stories are close to the bone, universal and from my own history, why could I not speak them? Meaningful theatre must have something meaningful to say, otherwise it's just pretty wallpaper.
Renee: Tell me about the moment you changed your name.
Lynda: The moment I owned Ka Shue and premiered it. Proud to take on my mother's maiden name.
Renee: How do you feel the arts environment has changed since then?
Lynda: I think attitudes have changed, largely. New Zealanders mostly accept that this is a multi-ethnic country. Racism still exists but it’s a far cry from the rampant parochial and misogynistic country that we used to be back in the early 80's (think of the protests during the Springbok Tour of 1981).
Shame we've lost the former PM who was also Minister of Culture ... Arts funding could always be better and we can always do with sponsors & philanthropists who love the arts but that's the challenge we all face in the creative industries. Gotta have ingenuity, thick skin and stubborn determination to survive in the arts world.
Renee: Would you agree with the statement that the arts has succeeded in becoming more diverse?
Lynda: Yes, for sure. I reckon it’s changed positively on the whole, there's a much bigger pool of talent out there now; more Pan-Asian and multi-ethnic actors to work with which makes our job as playwrights and screenwriters easier. Gone are the days where Jacob Rajan and I had to perform solo because of the lack of trained acting talent. Having said this, it can still be challenging auditioning for a large cast of Asian actors as I found out with Foh-Sarn and very recently with my new Court Theatre commission Man in a Suitcase for our first draft workshop.
Renee: Do you feel the audiences have changed also?
Lynda: Yes, these days most audiences are more educated in the arts, more discerning and critical, a good thing. We have to lift our game to stay ahead with audience expectations. This doesn't mean they're not up for a bloody good yarn.
Renee: How has your work changed, as a playwright?
Lynda: Hopefully matured and maturing without losing that critical artistic risk taking element. Every project and every script is a brand new journey for me, with a brand new set of challenges, I always feel like I'm starting again, fresh, but I've hopefully picked up a few tricks along the way to write with more expediency and efficiency. Less is more.
Renee: How do the realities of everyday life as a solo mum impact on your writing career?
Lynda: Huge! Nothing like being a single working mum with a 2 and 4 yr old! Juggling timetables and work, trying to make meetings or deadlines with a 2 yr old stubbornly attempting to potty train herself ...! My little girls Tia and Sophia are the biggest treasures of my life, I'm blessed to have them and grateful to be a mum - albeit living on the smell of an oily rag. I just hope the day they become teenagers, they'll forgive my lack of money for fancy clothes and trust me enough to be their best friend.
Renee: I remember a conversation we had about three years ago, in which you said that the best reaction to a work was a big reaction - hate or love. How actively do you take risks in your work?
Lynda: Artistic Risk is EVERYTHING. Without it, any art would stagnate, get lazy and ultimately atrophy. Gotta keep the muscle between the ears out of its comfort zone, and keep challenging your audiences - positively.
Renee:So your new play, Man in a Suitcase, is due to be performed at the Court Theatre next year.....
Lynda: Fingers crossed, that's what we are hoping for. It's up to the powers that be ... But VERY cool to be working with Director Joseph Graves from The World Institute of Theatre and Film at Peking University, Beijing. The Court bought Joe and his assistant Hu Xaioqing (a respected Playwright and Director herself) to workshop my first draft. Qing was enormously helpful with feedback and translations for my characters from China. We had huge fun, it's a dark and funny piece with Mandarin, Cantonese and English in the mix and Joe and Qing GOT my sense of humour.
Renee: What else is next for you?
Lynda: When I get a chance I will write the next piece in my Antarctic Trilogy: HOLE will be about the time the ozone hole was discovered down in the Antarctic which has had a huge impact on our environmental consciousness. The early 80's seems like the wild west of Antarctica times - pre-Greenpeace days when they were still using nuclear power and chucking their garbage into the sea, when there was still heavy American military presence at McMurdo Base and whispers of the drug trade making its route through there too…! Then I'll have another crack at that ol' Antarctic Fellowship and see if I can finally get down there. Failing that, I'll offer myself as a domestic and clean the loos at Scott Base for a year!
More information:
HEAT plays
12-17 July 2010.
Monday – Wednesday at 7pm. Thursday – Saturday at 8pm.
Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, THE EDGE
Tickets: Adults $25, Concessions/Students $20 (service fees apply). Group bookings available by phone 09 357 3354
Bookings: 0800 BUY TICKETS or www.buytickets.co.nz
