Where Hollywood productions like Crazy Rich Asians leant into the glitz and glamour of the Garden City, Merlynn Tong’s play Golden Blood unveils Singapore’s gritty underworld.
Tong – who grew up in Singapore – is better known for her acting roles. You’ve likely seen her in theatre shows White Pearl and The Shot, or on TV in ABC’s In Our Blood or Jane Campion’s drama series Top of the Lake.
Her acting career blossomed after she gave herself 14 roles in Ma Ma Ma Mad, an original one-woman show about her mother’s suicide. And her playwriting is just as impressive as her acting chops. Blue Bones, which was partly autobiographical, received six Matilda Awards – including the Lord Mayor Award for Best New Australian Work and Best Female Actor in a Leading Role.
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SIGN UPHer 90-minute show Golden Blood, set in the underbelly of Singapore, was first staged in 2022 at Griffin Theatre Company. Now the play – directed by Tessa Leong once more – is coming to Sydney Theatre Company and later to Arts Centre Melbourne.
The story follows two orphaned siblings in Singapore. It’s inspired by true events; Tong drew a major plot point from a story involving her childhood babysitter.
“I had a lot of gangsters in my life for a long time,” Tong tells Broadsheet. “My parents owned nightclubs when I was young and, you know, those worlds are adjacent. I feel like this is such a segment of Singapore that people don’t know about. It was always around.”
Tong acts in the play too. She performs the role of Girl, who is obsessed with marsupials and longs to move to Australia. “I really want Australians to experience that, to watch these characters long so deeply for the very land that they are sitting on.” Charles Wu (The Importance of Being Earnest) plays her brother, Boy.
The script incorporates Singlish (Singaporean English), including rude phrases that garner laughs from those in the know, and gang chants that are illegal in Singapore. Singlish is a mix of English with all the different languages spoken in Singapore, including Malay, Tamil, Hindi, and Chinese dialects like Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese and Teochew.
“It’s so potent as a language,” says Tong. “There’s so much potential, we don’t hear a lot of it. Even when you watch shows in Singapore, you rarely hear Singlish.”
In Tong’s second play, Good Grief, she used surtitles to translate the Singlish, Mandarin or Malay dialogue. She chose not to use them in Golden Blood.
“I’m very invested in introducing this sound to the Australian audience. For Singaporeans like ourselves, it’s exciting representation. Imagine going to a theatre show and you hear your accent, like we are valid.
“With this accent, with this sound, it actually really brings the audience to Singapore. You can feel the humidity in the air, you can smell the chilli crab. I thought it was fantastic that the audience came along for the ride.”
Golden Blood plays at Wharf 1 Theatre, Sydney, from September 13 to October 13. It then runs at Melbourne Theatre Company from October 25 to November 30.