Hi Chris, how are you doing today? Thanks so much for chatting to Stage to Page! Would you mind introducing yourself and telling us how you first got into the theatre industry?

It started for me in High School, with Mrs Bal, and Mr Copeman and Mr Best. I was a 15 year old JEAN VALJEAN, singing in the JAMES RUSE SCHOOL choir contemplating the question of why my family was broken. I spent my LIFE arguing with buddies LAKSHMAN and WILLIAM DOVAN and KEONI YANG and DASUN, and we KNEW that drama was time for stupid fun. We competed to be the best at stupid fun.

Things kicked up a notch w/ Sydney AMDRAM. Productions of MISS SAIGON with Rockdale MS, and URINETOWN with Shire, and CHARLIE BROWN with SUMS. I was SHOCKED to learn at 16, that you can study it, that it could be a career. After 3 unsuccessful years applying to WAAPA and VCA, I got into what is known today as the top school in Aus, The Queensland Academy of Excellence under Paul Sabey, who started and ran the MOUNTVIEW program in London. I poked and prodded my teachers there, Megan Shorey, Melissa Agnew, Kate Foy, Penny Farrow, John Clarke, and they looked at me strangely, and they gave me their time, and they taught me to look a little more closely at myself and at the world. It was a precious, fecund, gestational time. 

Today, my mates from that course are amongst the most celebrated performers in Australia. Hello Connor Sweeney. Hello Jack Mac. Hello Georgie Hopson. Hello Maddy Green. Hello Anthony and Lauren and Caitlin and Natasha and DOMINIC WOODHEAD.

I didn’t last long with old mate Paul. Like most MT programs, this was 3 years. At the end of my 2nd, I got a job with Opera Australia in their National Tour of the King and I. I understudied and played the role of the King opposite the luminescent Lisa McCune!

I still wasn’t convinced I could be a performer though, it took my debut in the UK with the Jamie Lloyd’s production of EVITA at the REGENTS PARK to convince me that maybe I could have a career.

EVITA is coming back - and it is going to be SHARP. You should buy tickets to see Jamie Lloyd Company shows.

After a hugely successful run at the Fringe, your debut play, The Society For New Cuisine, is set to open in March at the Omnibus Theatre. Can you tell us about the story?

A man goes through a world-shifting breakup, and is helped through it by a helpful Society, who convince him that the answer to his problems are right in front of him.

I blended a BUNCH of stories and plays into this thing, as well as big chunks from my own life!

Our sexy copy is this:

After a world-shattering break up, a man with many questions finds THE SOCIETY FOR NEW CUISINE, a group who seem to have all the answers. But what must he sacrifice to feel truly whole?

The Substance meets Woman in Black in this debut play from East-Asian writer and performer Chris Fung (Your Lie in April, Frozen, Cyrano de Bergerac: West End,  Evita: Regent’s Park) and directed by Rupert Hands (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Palladium; Sunset Blvd, Savoy/Broadway).

A deliciously twisted Buddhist inspired folk fable about power, masculinity and heartbreak which took Edinburgh Fringe by storm last summer, now making its much anticipated London debut.

What would you give for a taste of new understanding?

As a huge fan of horror, a blend of The Substance and The Woman in Black sounds like an absolute twisted dream come true. What inspired you to write a play around the genre of horror? With horror finally becoming more recognised in mainstream media, it seems like the perfect time for this play's London debut.

Horror only works because we can relate to it. The thing that makes Horror and Thriller beautiful is not the loud noises and big flashes and spurting blood, the thing that makes horror horror is empathy. It’s the bits of yourself that you recognise, both in the victim, and in the monsters.

Hayao Miyazaki talks about MA, the idea that it is the emptiness on either side of a clap that makes the clap an event. 

Susan Hill and Malatratt knew this when they built THE WOMAN IN BLACK - one of the most enduring plays in the world. That piece had it’s start as an EDFRINGE run, and doesn’t rely on OVERLOADING you with noise, instead, it artistically curates this flow of tension and rhythm, of sensitivity and empathy. You are invited to weave your own imagination into the silences and the darknesses, and THAT is what makes theatre powerful, when the AUDIENCE is complicit in their imagining.

Coralie Fargeat of THE SUBSTANCE knows this.

I really like the idea of KAISEKI dining, where Japanese chefs curate a menu of specific bites, taking the diner on a journey through acidity, and fat, and fresh, and grilled, and sweet, and salty, and umami, building waves upon waves of appreciation, each moment cresting to the next.

This is the way musical composers write. This is the way good writers write. 

Horror gives greater possibility for how dark and light something can be.

You've been a part of so many incredible shows already; Your Lie in April, Frozen, Cyrano de Bergerac, to name but a few. How is it to perform something on stage that you've written yourself?

It’s hard to wear many hats at the same time! I am the writer and producer and performer and PR rep.

As a professional performer, you get to be selfish. You are a specialist. You have one job. Your job is to understand precisely what the artistic vision of the creative team is, and to help them deliver it with specificity in YOUR TRACK. You just have to think about you, and you work in a team.

On the Off-West End, you HAVE to wear multiple hats. You have to see widely.

I’ve made up for this by working a LOT on the script ahead of time. For 3 years, Rupert and myself have been shaping and writing this. We’ve had dramaturgy from Jamie Lloyd and Martin Crimp and Titilola Dawudu of the Bush, and Sophie Drake, and Felix Mosse of Criterion New Writing and my friend Alex Sims, resident director of Frozen West End, who initially helped me write it, and gorgeous hearted Megan Brewer who directed the first production of it, and Soho Writers Lab, and New Earth Theatre.

I have brought iterations of this to CAMINO MEETS, my monthly low-stakes professional meet up with directors and writers and actors, where we read bits of script and drink coffee and point things out to each other.

Now, as an actor, my job is to be as available as I possibly can to Rupert. I am no longer in charge. It is his ship. It is the ship of the designers to curate me, and I gotta say, Rupert has realllllly stretched me. I don’t think I’ve ever had a job that is nearly as complex and detailed and difficult as the job Rupert has given me to do. As expected of a man who has had the opportunity to refine his artistic aesthetic alongside globally recognised specialists in theatre. 

Rupert has given notes to folk like Sir Ian Mckellen, and Nicole Scherzinger, and James McAvoy. He has listened and argued with Jamie Lloyd, and his dad CBE Terry Hands, and now he argues with me.

I couldn't chat to you without mentioning your part in the monumental milestone of the West End production of Your Lie in April being the first all-Asian cast in the West End. How was it to be part of such an important moment in theatre history?

Humbling. 

I spent time in Australia looking around at professional stages and screens noticing a distinct lack of people who looked like me. I was the only person of colour in my year at the Queensland Con. The Rob Guest Endowment, the largest MT award in Australia came under fire when people noticed that for 6 years, ALL of their shortlisted performers were white. There are still professional theatres here in the UK. Prominent theatres, who last hired an East Asian actor/director/creative in 2013.

And yet, the tide is changing. There is more ESEA talent celebrated on international stages than ever before. Mia Kobayashi, Zhengxi Yong and the YL cast are astounding. Frances Mayli McCann is leading THE GREAT GATSBY, after a star turn in the West End production of BONNIE AND CLYDE, New Earth Theatre and Kakilang are making waves. MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO opens in a week with my always friends and sometimes clients VIC CHEN and SHAOFAN WILSON. Nicola Chang has an international reputation as one of the best Sound Designers in the WORLD. In the Original West End cast of Disney’s Frozen, I played King Agnarr, the father of two iconically white daughters Anna and Elsa. James Phoon in Much Ado about Nothing and The Tempest, BESEA Rising Waves led by Mei Mac. Natty Ong in Hamilton. Joaquin Pedro Valdes. Anthony Lau. Jamie Lu. Rajiv Pattani. Yimei Zhao. Shanghai Dolls at the Kiln. The world is changing, and I am watching it change. 

It’s lovely to be a small part of that!

My blog is called Stage to Page. But if you could turn any book, from page to stage, what would it be and why?

I grew up with the POWER RANGERS and NAUSICA’A and POKEMON and MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA. I think all creatives dream of sharing the things that helped our childhood eyes light up, the magic of watching JACKIE CHAN for the first time, the side-splitting physical comedy of Stephen Chow’s GOD OF COOKERY. If you’re making me choose one, and just one BOOK - I would pick the stories of the MONKEY KING, the JOURNEY TO THE WEST. I would mix it with the gritty language of THE PUNISHER and WEST WORLD and Mike Bartlett’s BULL, and Dennis Kelly’s RITUAL SLAUGHTER of GORGE MASTROMAS.

I wonder if this would be a stage show, or screen?

And finally, why should people book tickets to The Society For New Cuisine?

This is a bold piece. It is dynamic. It is made by a creative team who have invested TIME into curating something that is terrifying and human. We have researched and argued and considered for more than 3 years.

We are taking risks. We are going to leave you with thoughts.