One of our new members actor Arisa Yura will play two separate roles in Sydney Theatre Company’s Top Coat – a first generation, as well as a second generation Japanese Australian. The protagonist is a Chinese Australian woman played by Kimie Tsukakoshi who is mixed race Japanese. And the lighting designer, Kate Baldwin also has Japanese heritage. Arisa says, ‘lots of Nikkei power!’ in this play. Hope you have the chance to see Top Coat.
Photo: STC Website
TOP COAT
by Michelle Law
Directed by Courtney Stewart
Walk a mile in her pedicure
What happens when a Chinese-Australian manicurist switches bodies with a white, latte sipping, TV executive? A chaotic and outrageous comedy awaits!
From the hilarious and politically-charged wit of Michelle Law – one of our most exciting playwrights and the creator of Belvoir’s Single Asian Female and SBS’s Homecoming Queens – comes this irreverently funny new comedy that pulls no punches in exploring race, representation, privilege, and taking woke culture to task.
Dreaming of one day owning her own salon, the headstrong and determined Winnie (played by Kimie Tsukakoshi) spends her days buffing the manicures of her demanding, oblivious and mostly-white clientele. One such client is Kate (Amber McMahon), a glamorous high-flyer who is very assured of her progressive credentials.
When a mysterious electrical event at the nail salon means Kate and Winnie wake up in each other’s bodies, all hell breaks loose and both women are forced to see the world, and their places in it, from entirely new angles.
Directed by STC’s Directing Associate Courtney Stewart, Top Coat gives the issues of our time a much-needed makeover and mounts a hilarious satire of Australia’s media landscape.
BOOKINGS: https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/productions/2022/top-coat
Approx. duration 80 mins (no interval). Subject to change. More info.
Content Themes of racial prejudice, strong language. Subject to change. More info.
Top Coat was commissioned with the assistance of the Malcolm Robertson Foundation.
DATES
Previews 25 – 29 Jun 2022
Season 1 Jul – 6 Aug 2022
Performance start times
Preview performances 7.30pm
In-season evening performances Mon & Tue 6.30pm; Wed – Sat 7.30pm
Matinee performances Wed 1pm; Sat 1.30pm
Approx. duration 80 mins (no interval). Subject to change. More info.
Director Courtney Stewart
Designer James Lew
Lighting Designer Kate Baldwin
Composer & Sound Designer Michael Toisuta
Assistant Director Tiffany Wong
Fight & Intimacy Director Nigel Poulton
Voice Coach Jennifer White
With
John Batchelor
Amber McMahon
Matty Mills
Kimie Tsukakoshi
Arisa Yura
Marketing image Rene Vaile
