untitled f**k m*ss s**gon play
Kim is having one of those days.
A terrible, very bad, no-good kind of day, and the worst part is... it all feels so familiar. Caught up in a never-ending cycle of events, she looks for the exit but the harder she tries, the worse it gets and she begins to wonder: who's writing this story? She makes a break for it, smashing through a hundred years of bloody narratives that all end the same way. Can she find a way out before it's too late?
With breathless hilarity, Kimber Lee’s untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play jumps through time – wriggling inside of and then exploding lifetimes of repeating Asian stereotypes, wrestling history for the right to control your own narrative in a world that thinks it can tell you who you are. Winner of the inaugural Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2019, International Award, this powerful new satire is directed by Roy Alexander Weise (The Mountaintop) for the Royal Exchange Theatre as part of Manchester International Festival.
Photography by The Other Richard (@_otherrichard) and Joshua Pharo (@joshuapharo).
Writer Kimber Lee
Director Roy Alexander Weise
Set Designer Khadija Raza
Costume Designer Loren Elstein
Lighting Designer Joshua Pharo
Composer Ruth Chan
Sound Designer Giles Thomas
Movement Director Shelley Maxwell
Intimacy and Fight Co-ordinator Haruka Kuroda
Jerwood Assistant Director Caroline Yu
Jerwood Trainee Assistant Director Yanni Ng
Casting Director Helena Palmer CDG
Cast Jeff D’Sangalang, Lourdes Faberes, Jennifer Kirby, Mei Mac, Rochelle Rose, Tom Weston-Jones
Reviews for untitled f**k m*ss s**gon play
“Kimber Lee’s punky polemic circles through pastiches of Madama Butterfly, South Pacific and M*A*S*H, dissecting years of racist, imperialist and misogynistic tropes.”
— Mark Fisher for The Guardian (4-stars)
“It’s as if ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ were a play, the way it becomes self-aware, kaleidoscopic, genre-hopping while searching for an Asian-American existence that’s authentic, rather than shaped by centuries of colonial writing.”
— Tim Bano for Time Out (4-stars)
“untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play [is] a terrifically spiky send-up of Asian stereotypes. Premiering at the Manchester International Festival, this bracing debut is provocative and very funny.”
— Claire Allfree for The Telegraph (4-stars)
“A winner on paper, [the play] does not disappoint on stage. This punchy, acerbic and acutely observed piece of theatre kicks ass as it highlights the dangers of cultural appropriation and takes an unflinching look at intergenerational trauma. “
— WhatsOnStage (5-stars)
“One of the best things about theatre is its ability to tackle societal issues. untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play goes an introspective step further and challenges the world of Asian stereotypes within theatre.”
— Sophie Luck for West End Best Friend (4-stars)