'The Trouble with Asian Men'is a popular British play premiering in Sydney this week, bringing real-life stories to the stage from interviews with people from Birmingham to Sydney.
“It touches a lot on identity, immigrant communities, how they feel, what is their daily negotiation with the community they've come into.” says the play's director, Kristine Landon Smith.
The play acts out not just the words of South Asian men, but also South Asian women.
One female character says: “So your whole life is about producing a son… I could be a Professor at Yale, at Oxford – whatever. What's the question they'll ask me? And how many sons do I have?”
The actors, like Amit Sharma, say they enjoy the challenge.
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“To shift from playing a male to a female almost instantaneously is a huge pleasure, I really enjoy it,” he said.
And the lines from other Asian male character, acted by Niall Ray, seem to touch on a consistent stereotype.
“It's representative of quite a lot of different kinds of people and the similar stories keep coming up wherever they are around the world, and the same little funny insights and funny stories keep coming out,” Niall Ray said.
“I guess there is something inherent within the Asian Man.”
One of his lines in the play is: “I love my Mum. Who's the most important person in the world we've been told? Your Mum. Who's the second? Your Mum. The third? Your Mum. The fourth? Your Mum. The fifth? Your Dad.”
This show is just one part of a larger celebration of South Asian Art taking place this week at the Parramasala Festival in Parramatta in Western Sydney, showcasing local and international film, music, comedy and theatre.
There's also a one-woman show about an Australian-Indian woman and the effect Elvis' death had on her life when she migrated to Australia, Long Live the King.
Also in the festival is a popular New Zealand production called Khrishnan's Dairy, another solo show about a migrant couple setting up a corner store in a Western country.
The Parramasala Australian Festival of South Asian Arts continues until Sunday.
