Asylum play

By Kath Gannaway
ASYLUM, winner of the 2005 Wal Cherry Play of the Year will go on stage at Warburton on Saturday 21 June.
The play by Kit Lazaroo is on the 2008 VCE drama play list selection.
Described as both disturbing and timely, Asylum explores the ambivalence and confusion in the hearts of Australians when called upon to respond to a case which is complex, shifting and with many shades of grey.
Set in 1993, the four year protection visas bestowed upon Chinese students by the Australian Government are soon to expire. Yu Siying is a Chinese student who has contracted HIV in Australia.
Afraid of China’s judgement, her last chance to claim asylum lies in psychiatrist, Lally Black. Finding herself enticed into an imagined China, Lally is forced to acknowledge the threads that run between complacency and brutality as the gulf between her and Siying widens.
Regional Arts Victoria is touring Asylum to regional Victoria following a sell-out season at La Mama.
Lazaroo wickedly satirises the tangle of red tape when bureaucracy cannot process political and cultural difference.
The production took shape twelve years ago when an asylum seeker told Kit her story.
Compelled to write about her experience, Lazaroo decided to walk the path less travelled with an exploration into complacency and cruelty.
Lazaroo said she was interested in the difficulties Australians appeared to have when a case had too many shades of grey.
Asylum Director, Jane Woollard and Kit Lazaroo collaborated to make the critically acclaimed productions; True Adventures of a Soul Lost at Sea, The Vanishing Box at La Mama, and most recently, Letters from Animals, at The Storeroom.
The tour, supported by Arts Victoria through the Community Support Fund, offers Victorian audiences a chance to experience the thought provoking work of one of Australia’s most prolific young writers.
To book phone Upper Yarra Arts Centre on 5962 5040.