Golden Blood 黄金血液

25 Oct — 30 Nov 2024

Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio

Left to fend for themselves, a teenage girl is taken under the wing of her older brother. Trouble is, his gangster swagger is the real deal, and thug life doesn’t come with a parenting manual.

Approx. 1 hour and 30 minutes with no interval

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This is rated 5 out of 5 stars

‘Bringing with it a strong sense of self, place, and culture... it’s a remarkable work.’

Time Out
This is rated 4 out of 5 stars

‘Effortlessly funny and wonderfully twisty.’

The Age
This is rated 4 out of 5 stars

‘An ever unraveling puzzle that is both wickedly fun and heartbreaking.’

Cultural Binge

ABOUT THE SHOW

Left to fend for themselves, a teenage girl is taken under the wing of her older brother. Trouble is, his gangster swagger is the real deal, and thug life doesn’t come with a parenting manual.

Golden Blood takes us beneath the skyscrapers and shopping malls of Singapore into the seedy realm of violence, drugs and chaos that forms its underbelly. The aspirational world above finds its mirror below, as the orphaned siblings at this story’s core envision a future glittering with Chanel and Miu Miu bling. At the same time they’re reckoning with the ghosts of their own past and the half-remembered rituals they’ve inherited.

The Griffin Theatre Company premiere of this production was a Sydney sensation that signalled a major new talent. Merlynn Tong both wrote and stars in this intense two-hander, alongside the charismatic Charles Wu (Bernhardt/Hamlet, Torch The Place).

Unfolding with all the urgency and pace of a rollercoaster in a lightning storm, Golden Blood will set your pulse racing all the way to its inevitable, unstoppable and ultimately heart-rending climax.


A Griffin Theatre Company Production
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Commissioned through Melbourne Theatre Company’s NEXT STAGE Writers' Program with the support of our Current and Inaugural Playwrights Giving Circles. Developed through the NEXT STAGE Writers’ Program, Cybec Electric Play Reading Series and Griffin Theatre Company. 

Current Playwrights Giving Circle
Paul and Wendy Bonnici & Family, Tony and Janine Burgess, Kathleen Canfell, Fitzpatrick Sykes Family Foundation, Jane Hansen AO and Paul Little AO, Larry Kamener and Petra Kamener, The Margaret Lawrence Bequest, Helen Nicolay, Tania Seary and Chris Lynch, Craig Semple, Dr Richard Simmie 
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Inaugural Playwrights Giving Circle
Louise Myer and Martyn Myer AO, Maureen Wheeler AO and Tony Wheeler AO, Christine Brown Bequest, Allan Myers AC KC and Maria Myers AC, Tony Burgess and Janine Burgess, Dr Andrew McAliece and Dr Richard Simmie, Larry Kamener and Petra Kamener
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Accessibility

  • Wheelchair Accessible

  • Hearing Assistance

  • Audio Described

  • Tactile Tour

  • Open Captioning

  • Closed Captioning

  • Auslan Interpreted

Performance Type Performance Date(s)
Audio Described
by Vision Australia
Saturday 16 November at 2pm
Tuesday 19 November at 6.30pm
Tactile Tour
at venue
Saturday 16 November at 2pm (Tactile tour commences at 1pm)
Open Captioning
via screen
Saturday 23 November at 2pm
Closed Captioning
via GoTheatrical App
Saturday 23 November at 2pm
Auslan Interpreted
by Expression Australia
Tuesday 26 November at 6.30pm
Artwork for Merlynn Tong

Merlynn Tong

Girl

Merlynn Tong is a writer and actor. Playwriting credits include Legends (of the Golden Arches) (Performing Lines WA), which she also co-directed and will stage at Melbourne Theatre Company in 2025, Congratulations, Get Rich! (La Boite Theatre/Sydney Theatre Company/Singapore Repertory Theatre), Antigone (adaptation, Queensland Theatre/Mercury Theatre UK) and Blue Bones (Playlab Productions). Stage performances include The Poison of Polygamy (La Boite Theatre/Sydney Theatre Company) and White Pearl (Sydney Theatre Company/National Theatre of Parramatta). Screen performances include Top of the Lake: China Girl (See Saw Films) and In Our Blood (Hoodlum Productions). Her one-woman-show Blue Bones won six Matilda Awards including The Lord Mayor Award for Best New Australian Work, Best Mainstage Production and Best Female Actor in a Leading Role.  Golden Blood was shortlisted for a Victorian Premier Literary Award, NSW Premier's Literary Award, and Sydney Theatre Award (Best New Australian Work). She was the 2020 Resident Writer of Melbourne Theatre Company.

Current as of October 2024

Artwork for Charles Wu

Charles Wu

Boy

Charles Wu returns to Melbourne Theatre Company following Bernhardt/Hamlet and Torch the Place. Other theatre credits include Miss Peony, Scenes from the Climate Era, The Cherry Orchard, An Enemy of the People, Jasper Jones, Samson, The Overcoat: A Musical (Belvoir); The Importance of Being Earnest, Mosquitoes, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Three Sisters, Chimerica, The Lifespan of a Fact (Sydney Theatre Company); The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Darlinghurst Theatre); Golden Blood (Griffin Theatre); The Questions (State Theatre Company South Australia). Television credits include Doctor Doctor, The Letdown, Here Come the Habibs, Secret City, Harrow, Summer Love. Other credits include the film, Australia Day and the web series Liberty Street. Charles is Co-Artistic Director of the Corinthian Food Store Collective. As a musician, Charles releases music under the name Earthquake Magnificent.

Current as of October 2024

Artwork for Merlynn Tong

Merlynn Tong

Writer

Merlynn Tong is a writer and actor. Playwriting credits include Legends (of the Golden Arches) (Performing Lines WA), which she also co-directed and will stage at Melbourne Theatre Company in 2025, Congratulations, Get Rich! (La Boite Theatre/Sydney Theatre Company/Singapore Repertory Theatre), Antigone (adaptation, Queensland Theatre/Mercury Theatre UK) and Blue Bones (Playlab Productions). Stage performances include The Poison of Polygamy (La Boite Theatre/Sydney Theatre Company) and White Pearl (Sydney Theatre Company/National Theatre of Parramatta). Screen performances include Top of the Lake: China Girl (See Saw Films) and In Our Blood (Hoodlum Productions). Her one-woman-show Blue Bones won six Matilda Awards including The Lord Mayor Award for Best New Australian Work, Best Mainstage Production and Best Female Actor in a Leading Role.  Golden Blood was shortlisted for a Victorian Premier Literary Award, NSW Premier's Literary Award, and Sydney Theatre Award (Best New Australian Work). She was the 2020 Resident Writer of Melbourne Theatre Company. 

Current as of October 2024

Artwork for Tessa Leong

Tessa Leong

Director

Tessa Leong (she/her) is the Artistic Director of Contemporary Asian Australian Performance. She is a theatre director and dramaturg who has worked extensively across theatre, performance, dance theatre, live art and socially engaged projects. Her love of new work has led to collaborations with artists and companies across Australia, Europe and North America. She was Griffin Theatre Company’s inaugural Associate Artistic Director 2020-2022 where she directed the world premieres of Kendall Feaver’s Wherever She Wanders and Merlynn Tong’s Golden Blood. She is a founding member of Adelaide-based theatre company isthisyours? for which she has directed Angelique by Duncan Graham and the company, David Williamson’s The Club (an all-female, 3 actor version),  #YouwannatalkaboutitBest We Forget and Make Me Honest Make Me Wedding Cake. She most recently worked with Rainbow Chan on The Bridal Lament which has had seasons at Liveworks Festival, Oz Asia Festival and Arts House Melbourne. 

Current as of October 2024

Michael-Hankin_Brett-Boardman.jpg

Michael Hankin

Set & Costume Designer

Michael is an award-winning set and costume designer working in Australia and internationally. Some of his career highlights include Il Trittico (Opera Australia); On The Beach (STC); Into The Woods, Hir, Ghosts, Mark Colvin’s Kidney, The Sugar House, Jasper Jones, Ivanov, The Glass Menagerie, Twelfth Night, The Dark Room, A Christmas Carol, Angels in America and The Boomkak Panto (Belvoir); Memorial (Barbican/Brink Productions); Insane Animals (Home Theatre, Manchester);  The Aspirations of Daise Morrow (Edinburgh Festival/Brink Productions);  247 Days (Chunky Move/Malthouse/Nederlands Tour); Ugly Mugs (Griffin Theatre/Malthouse Theatre); Jumpy (Melbourne Theatre Company/STC); Three Little Words (Melbourne Theatre Company); The Merchant of Venice,  As You Like It (Bell Shakespeare);  Tartuffe (STCSA); You Animal You, Flock (Force Majeure); Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Theatre Royal); The Queen’s Nanny, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf (Ensemble Theatre). Film/TV credits include roles on Three Thousand Years of Longing, Limitless, Survivor Australia (S6) and Ireland’s 2020 entry for Eurovision. Michael is a NIDA Graduate and has taught as an Associate Lecturer of Design.

Current as of October 2024

Artwork for Fausto Brusamolino

Fausto Brusamolino

Lighting Designer

Fausto devises lighting and generative visuals for live performances, filming, and creates art installations. In his work, lighting and video are dynamically manipulated in real time, following, supporting, gauging, enhancing the performance and the entire space as they happen, shift and unravel during each unique show. Fausto's approach to lighting design organically embraces a wide range of visual and video techniques and uses Creative Coding to build custom made software, allowing a creative, engaging and unique control over the aesthetic of the work. Fausto’s designs have toured extensively in Australia, Europe and the US. He has designed shows, collaborated and worked for: Sydney Festival, Sydney Opera House, MONA, Adelaide Festival, Rising Festival, City Recital Hall, MCA, Biennale of Sydney, New Zealand International Arts Festival, Victoria Hunt, Justin Shoulder, Lewis Major, The Cad Factory, Teatro Stabile di Torino and many, many more. Fausto won the 2022 Australian Production Design Guild Award for Best Lighting Design for a Live Performance for Unfolding and S/Words.

Current as of October 2024

Artwork for Chun Yin Rainbow Chan

Chun Yin Rainbow Chan

Composer & Sound Designer

Rainbow Chan is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist, singer and music producer. She has exhibited and performed nationally and internationally at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Art Gallery of NSW, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Opera House, Phoenix Central Park, Carriageworks, Queensland University Art Museum, SXSW Festival in Austin, I-Project Space in Beijing and Tai Kwun Contemporary in Hong Kong. Signed to Gaga Music Publishing, Chan is also a composer for film, television and theatre. Her credits include an original soundtrack for The Glass Bedroom, original theme for Everybody Knows podcast and original theme for ABC Art Works. Her film score for Butter: A Love Story was nominated for Best Original Score in St Kilda Film Festival. Chan’s experimental song-cycle, The Bridal Lament 哭嫁歌 premiered at Performance Space’s Liveworks (Sydney), OzAsia Festival (Adelaide) in 2023 and was presented at Arts House (Melbourne) in 2024.

Current as of October 2024

Artwork for Jennifer Medway

Jennifer Medway

Dramaturg

Artwork for Emily Parsons-Lord

Emily Parsons-Lord

Effects Consultant

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