Square-jawed and muscular, he embodies the character – and he plays him so well. This play renders that sacrifice ridiculous and tells us what was more likely to happen.Ĭlark is played by Tom Weston-Jones ( Copper, Dickensian, Warrior). Rather, Kim gives the child to him so that he can have a better life, before killing herself: her child cannot survive with her but she cannot survive without her child. In the original story, Clark does not kidnap the child he abandoned. He kidnaps their mixed-race, bastard child, before abandoning her again – leading to Kim’s suicide. Years later, he returns, now married to a snooty, blonde, White woman, Evelyn. Untitlted f*ck m*ss s**gon play begins with a speedy run-through of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly – minus the opera! It highlights the main plot points: Kim (Olivier nominee Mei Mac, a tour-de-force), a Japanese geisha, falls in love with an American soldier, Clark. The play could have been earnest and preachy but Lee’s writing is punchy and cathartic it’s hard-hitting but hilarious.

The play, to put it simply, is a huge “F you” to a century of dangerous East Asian stereotypes, from Madama Butterly to M*A*S*H to Miss Saigon to modern times. Yet, I remained grateful to have seen myself onscreen, something which previous generations were denied.Īuthor Kimber Lee answers my opening question with a resounding “no” – and that no comes in the form of a Bruntwood Prize-winning play – untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play – which is currently having its world premiere at the Royal Exchange Theatre, as part of Manchester International Festival. Hilariously, it is being staged at the same time as Sheffield Theatre’s controversial revival of Miss Saigon. As I got older, I realised just how troubling Aladdin was and why we need to fight for better representation. In Aladdin, I was not a terrorist, I was a Prince.

Racially problematic, it may be, but it was the best representation I had. Is bad representation better than no representation? I loved Aladdin as a kid.

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