Joe Paradise Lui and Merlynn Tong Talk Legends (Of The Golden Arches)

by | Jan 24, 2025

Written, directed and starring Joe Paradise Lui and Merlynn Tong, Legends (Of The Golden Arches) is a rip-roaring ride plunging two best friends into the depths of the Chinese afterlife.  A piece many years in the making, the show premieres its 2025 season shortly, featuring at both the Perth Festival and, later in the year, at Melbourne Theatre Company.

Says Tong, explaining its genesis, “Right before the pandemic, I got a call from Joe asking if I would like to do a project together: a commissioned piece by Black Swan State Theatre Company. I love Joe and our friendship and immediately jumped on the idea. Opportunities for us to work together were rare at the time too as we lived across the country from each other. It is wonderful that through the evolution of the project, we ended up making a work about the very thing that was the impetus for the project—our friendship.

Once Performing Lines WA, our producer, came on board, our ideas and dreams found an avenue to metamorphosise into reality.

Joe and I have always had uncanny similarities and in the making of this work, we found that similarities extended generationally too—our grandfathers had similar stories. But within the similarities we also found many wonderful disparities between our histories, beliefs and thoughts around culture, traditions and what it means to be Chinese. These collision of likeness and differences were wonderful fodder and were the foundation for the making of Legends.

I don’t think it ever occurred to us to name the characters anyone else (characters in the play are best friends,  Joe and Merlynn). The play explores a version of us and our friendship. It felt interesting to bring all that existing history and realities of all the other works we have made into Legends: the characters immediately start in a potent place, giving us many avenues for conflict, wonder and play.”

Lui agrees saying that the pair have a history of writing either autobiographical or autobiographical-adjacent (where the characters are thinly veiled versions of them) throughout much of their careers. “This work echoes many real-life conversations we’ve had around our personal relationships with our families and traditions,” he says. “As migrants, we both have complicated relationships with our home cultures and have wrestled with the tension between celebrating cultural traditions and breaking cultural taboos in our careers and lives. The stories that sparked this specific work involve both our actual grandfathers. It would have made less sense to name them something else and invent entire fictional back stories for them when, clearly, it’s just us.”

The hilarious journey unravels the bonds of friendship, culture and redemption. The creative duo question what is given to us and ask about our collective responsibilities that lie ahead. “I think I am probably endlessly fascinated with legacy, hope, culture, connecting with other humans and truth finding,” says Tong. “I find myself making works around similar themes again and again.”

Lui’s great hope is that the specificity in their cultural experience resonates with other people’s experiences with culture. “We are all ancestors and heirs to cultural traditions – but we are all also descendants and creators of these traditions,” he says. “I hope that weaving those roles together in ways that move the conversation forward will be an experience that the audience can share and reflect on their own role in it – especially in the context of how the cruel and perverse mythmaking colonial Australian/Western culture is currently positioning itself as heroes and upholders of morality, while behaving as anything but.”

Tong hopes that audiences will reflect on their own relationship to the stories they are told, the power that these stories hold, and whether they can tell their own stories. “I hope they wonder about the power of truth telling. I hope they want to call their best friend after the show and go for a delicious meal together.”

Fascinated by plays of emotional dualities, Lui says that for many years, including with this work, he has been focused on finding hope and reasons to move forward in what seems like an increasingly bleak and cruel world.

“But given that we are apparently all happy to live with and support genocide, I wonder if that view is too naïve,” he says. “Hope has always been a distant glow on the horizon, something we reach for with art. But what if that glow is the unending explosions of bombs, which we’re willing to keep sending as long as we can maintain comfort and ignorance? What if that glow is the flames we eagerly fan as we race past every single warning scientists have given us about the fragility of our position on this planet?

I don’t know. But I cannot live with simply “being hopeful” anymore.”

The pair met about 7 years ago when Marcel Dorney (described by Tong as the Outside Eye and Rehearsal Director) brought them together for a separate project. “We lived together in an Airbnb above a hair salon that had a feather chandelier, Tong recalls. “Each day, we took a half-hour walk to work together, and I enjoyed Joe’s company so much. It was rare to meet another Singaporean artist at that time and we also discovered we had so much more in common—we even both completed the same bachelor’s degree at Murdoch University. It was a wonder we had never met prior.

I do all the work (haha).

The work delegation flows quite seamlessly between us. Our skill sets seem to be quite complimentary. Sometimes we each write a scene, or we’ll both write the same scene and combine them. The process is pretty organic. We also find that our skillsets are quite complimentary so task division is usually rather obvious. However, we also know we have a pretty unusual role as co-directors/actors/writers—so we place emphasis and make time for open communication and dialogue about how each of us is travelling.”

In response to Tong, Lui quips,” Actually, I do basically all the work.”

As to the possible challenges in performing something that you have written, Tong says she quite often performs her owned penned works, and there’s a strange thing that happens for her when she ‘switches’ into an actor – she often has to ask the director what a line means and rediscover the text as if she’s never seen it before. “Think the challenge is one of capacity. Often, an actor rehearses all day, and the playwright stays after rehearsals to make edits. That can be quite exhausting. In certain processes, I’ve also found that making clear distinctions between when I am the actor or playwright has been really useful, as each role requires a very different way of thinking.”

Lui explains that while they haven’t really gotten into rehearsals yet, he is very used to directing his own work – he does acknowledge, though, that a challenge will be getting into his body and out of his head when he’s on the floor.

LEGENDS is a powerful and deeply personal examination of an Asian cultural experience, and the enduring power of friendship backed with a strong team of creatives representing the Asian Diaspora.

When asked if the creative partners believe more Asian performers, creatives and shows should be featured on our stages and what could be done to facilitate this, Tong responds, ” Absolutely. I feel such joy when young Asian people come up to me and share how powerful it feels for them to see themselves represented on stage. Joe and I also write in a vernacular that is both accessible to a wider public and deeply specific to a Singaporean/Malaysian audience. Representation is vital in our industry. It validates us, our experiences, and our very sense of self and belonging. More funding, more opportunities, inviting POC leadership, and investing in our artists is crucial.”

A very tongue-in-cheek Lui says,” No, there are too many of us stealing all your jobs. What you should do is specifically commission and hire me to represent and speak for the entire Asian Diaspora. Then, you should elevate me to multiple positions of decision-making power across the industry. You should NOT attempt to put more people of colour into decision-making positions just to rest on the laurels of “representation.” You should NOT assume that PoC are only capable of telling stories of migration and Diaspora. You should NOT give PoC the same freedom to explore form and fail as you give to white folks. Once, I asked why my work wasn’t being programmed or considered, and the response I got was, “Well, your work is quite sexual, wouldn’t you say?” You should keep asking these questions of other PoC and open the gates to me personally. I promise I’ll pull up the ladder afterward, my sweet overlords.”

Best friends, Joe and Merlynn up all night holding vigil for their dead grandfathers. Merlynn is trying to remember the rituals and wants Joe to join her in performing the rites. Joe, frustrated with tradition, thinks it’s just a load of superstition. The lords of the Underworld have their own thoughts on all of this, and they’re going to drag our heroes into the depths of the Chinese afterlife to resolve their differences.

Says Tong about the show and why you should see it, ” Legends (Of the Golden Arches) is a wild, fun, hilarious, and poignant adventure that I would love to invite everyone to join us on. You’ll see incredible animations by Wendy Yu, stunning set and costume design by Cherish and Nicole Marrington, and beautiful lighting by Kate Baldwin. You’ll journey with us through Chinese Hell (it’s actually a fun place, I promise!). You’ll meet Chinese Gods (definitely not what you imagined!). And you’ll rediscover the resounding power of friendship.

Joe and I are great friends in real life, and this show is a celebration and exploration of our shared Singaporean-Chinese history, a fever dream of our combined artistry, and ultimately, a love letter to our enduring friendship. Come join us!”

And Lui concurs saying, “I think this is a fun, light-hearted romp through the Chinese underworld – one where friendship, kindness, and community ultimately triumph over expectation and taboo. There’s also a lovely element of learning stories and myths from another culture, while reflecting on the messages and lessons of your own.”

21 – 24 February 2025 | Perth Festival

https://www.perthfestival.com.au/…/legends-of-the…

5-28 June 2025 | Melbourne Theatre Company

https://www.mtc.com.au/…/legends-of-the-golden-arches/

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