• theatre
  • features
  • faqs
  • contact
  • theatre
  • features
  • faqs
  • contact
  Art Murmurs - Wellington Reviews

Reviews

WATCH OUT GAY PANDA

8/3/2023

Comments

 

Sean Burnett Dugdale-Martin

Picture
WATCH OUT GAY PANDA is a solo show devised and produced by Dennis Eir Lim which blends his skills as a songwriter and theatre performer. Eir Lim takes the perspective of a panda in Wellington, New Zealand, using a panda-translating-device (a loop machine on top of a keyboard) in order to communicate with humans.  ​

EDIT: All instances where I referred to the language as "Mandarin" has been corrected to "Teochew". Thank you to Eir Lim for correcting us!​

The cultural displacement narrative is an important one to a lot of people in this country as we live in a multicultural nation with a bicultural focus on English and Te Ao Māori. Eir Lim does well to frame his experience of displacement as a panda in human spaces. “Having to walk on two legs” is a good summary of how immigrants, children of immigrants and other displaced peoples feel pressure to behave a certain way and to adhere to a dominant culture that isn’t their own. Eir Lim’s panda eventually goes back to China and discovers that they have forgotten how to behave like a panda or speak like a panda, which is an effect that I’ve seen referred to as “
Third Culture Kids” which don’t completely belong to the culture of their parents or heritage, yet aren’t made to feel totally embraced in the culture that they exist in day-to-day. 


You can imagine that there are many people in this country that could use this messaging, and I implore Eir Lim to use this Fringe season as proof that the concept is there and also as an excuse to roll sleeves up and really put in the hours to make the show worthwhile. The show felt unrehearsed. There were times where Eir Lim wrestled with his equipment until he finally settled on a loop that could work as well as long, silent pauses between stories, jokes or songs.

I can’t help but feel as though Eir Lim really needed someone to crack the whip at him. There was only one person working on this show and it felt like it. More hands on deck could mean that every element of the show could have some real thought and effort put into them, because it seems like some areas were sacrificed to prioritise others. The set was the Panda-Translation-Device on top of some large cuts of astroturf and nothing else. I would love to see a version of this show with a larger crew to hold each other up and hold each other accountable. 

I encourage Eir Lim to think aggressively about the show and its themes. Consider a reality where sections of the show are all in Teochew, emulating our displacement by making the theatre completely theirs. Eir Lim touches on this, adding Teochew to one of the songs, but only for a handful of lines total. 

This can become an impactful, slick show that people would really appreciate seeing because in its current state it is an important idea running on the fumes of good intentions. 

WATCH OUT GAY PANDA is on in BATS Dome Stage until the 11th March, more info here.
Comments

    Local Honest Reviews

    At Art Murmurs, our aim is to provide honest and constructive art reviews to the Wellington community.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    September 2021
    July 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015

    Categories

    All
    All Age Appropriate
    Art
    BATS
    Beauty Standards
    Black Comedy
    Body Positive
    Circa
    Circus
    Comedy
    Comedy Festival 2018
    Comedy Festival 2019
    Comedy Gala 2022
    Community Theatre
    Dance
    Devised
    Documentary
    Drag
    Drama
    Emerging Artist
    Exhibition
    Experimental
    Female Artists
    Feminism
    Feminist
    Festival
    For Kids
    Fringe
    Fun
    Gallery
    Gryphon Theatre
    Hannah Playhouse
    Heart + Music
    History
    Improv
    Interactive
    International
    Interview
    Ivy
    Lighting
    Local
    Mental Health
    Monologue
    Music
    Musical
    New Writing
    New Zealand
    NZ Comedy
    NZ Fringe
    NZIF
    On Tour
    Performance Poetry
    Photography
    Photospace Gallery
    Physical Theatre
    Political
    Politics
    Premiere
    Pyramid Club
    Queer
    Race
    Roxy LIVE
    Science
    Scruffy Bunny Improv Theatre
    Sexual Violence
    Shakespeare
    Site Specific
    Site-specific
    Sketch
    Solo Show
    Song
    Spoken Word
    Stagecraft
    Storytelling
    Tahi Festival
    Te Auaha
    Theatre
    Thought Provoking
    Thought-provoking
    Thriller
    Toi Poneke Gallery
    Verbatim
    Victoria University
    Violence
    Virtual Theatre
    Weekly
    Wellington
    Wellington Footlights
    Wellington Repertory