A sumptuous audio-visual experience and song cycle by award-winning vocalist, producer and multi-disciplinary artist Rainbow Chan 陳雋然. 

Drawing on her Weitou ancestry (first settlers of Hong Kong), Chan reimagines a Weitou ritual known as the bridal lament, a public performance of grief in which a bride wept and sang in front of family and friends. In this liminal space, brides expressed bitterness towards their arranged marriages and the prevailing patriarchal rule. 

Conceived and structured as a song cycle, The Bridal Lament brings to life intergenerational and cross-cultural perspectives on diasporic experiences and the complex history of Hong Kong. With a new suite of songs by Chan and direction from Tessa Leong, this lush and lavish work pays homage to ritual in a vibrant and dynamic world of projection, movement and colour. 

Rainbow Chan’s music and shows have been hailed as ‘genre-bending art pop’ (NME) and ‘bewitchingly elfin in the exactly the same way that those words have been used to describe Bjork.’ (The Music).

“A striking and unique homage to heritage and sisterhood that could only be led by an artist such as Rainbow Chan.” 

“A welcome return and uncompromising slice of art-pop.”  

“unmistakeably poetic in nature…The Bridal Lament 哭嫁歌 is tender yet intense.” – Suzy Goes See 

Performances

Wednesday 8 – Sunday 19 May 2024
Preview: Wed 8 May, 7.30pm
Wed – Sat, 7.30pm   
Sun 19 May, 5pm 
70 mins

TICKETS

Standard $35
Reduced $20
BLAKTIX $10
A small transaction fee will be charged per order.

Post-show Artist Talk 
Thu 16 May for all ticket holders

Auslan Performance
Thu 16 May, 7.30pm

Key Creatives

Lead Artist and Performer Rainbow Chan 陳雋然
Director Tessa Leong
Choreographic Consultants Amrita Hepi & Victoria Hunt
Video Design Rel Pham
Set Design Al Joel & Emily Borghi
Costume Design Al Joel
Lighting Concept Govin Ruben
Lighting Realisers Susie Henderson and Sam Read
Cultural Consultant and Narrator Irene Cheung 張翠屏
Video Programmer Daniel Herten

Produced by Contemporary Asian Australian Performance.

Co-commissioned by Performance Space and OzAsia Festival as part of Liveworks Festival 2023 and OzAsia 2023.

Supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, the NSW Government through Create NSW, the Besen Foundation, Playking Foundation, the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations, and West Kowloon Cultural District.

With commissioning support from City of Melbourne through Arts House, and Carriageworks. Generously supported by George Paramananthan and ParamCo.

Warnings 

The Bridal Lament contains haze, loud sounds, low lighting, lights that change in colours and intensity, black out and flashing moving imagery.

Performance includes translation of Weitou dialect into English through open captioning.

Detailed access information is available to download below
PDF | Word Doc

Check out Seven Sisters written, performed, produced and recorded by Rainbow Chan,

 

Previous Seasons

Liveworks Festival
19–22 Oct
Bay 20, Carriageworks 

OzAsia Festival 
1–2 Nov 2023
Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre Theatre 

 

Contemporary Asian Australian Performance’s annual Works In Progress showcase returns to Carriageworks on Thu 23 Nov, featuring fresh and original works in development by Asian Australian artists. This year’s featured artists will present a range of ideas spanning gig theatre, musical comedy, K-pop dance and sound installations.

Audience members are invited to participate in a facilitated feedback session during the event and stay for light refreshments with the wider CAAP community.

PROGRAM

Dog Meat/Thịt Chó by Andrew Dang
A supernatural coming of age story centred around a first-generation Vietnamese-Australian. This play explores themes of disconnection from culture and self-actualisation. Can you stay with your family if you have to kill a part of yourself to do it? And how do you reconcile where you come from with who you are becoming?

I Used to Think Wu-Tang Clan were Asian by Cheng Tang
It’s part performance lecture, part musical, and part spoken word that explores intergenerational expectations, colourism, racism, the myth of the model minority and cultural appropriation through the journey of a fictional Chinese Australian hip hop group pitching to a record label.

Fishing Songs by Jasmin Wing-Yin Leung
Fishing Songs draws upon two parallel handheld knowledges, finding the possibilities of resonance, touch, and second-hand memory within these one-to-one practices:
1. The virtuosity of Séuiseuhngyàn (水上人) handline fishing. Water currents and fish behaviour is transduced by the fingertip in contact with a single fishing line, feeling and knowing when the fish has fully swallowed the hook.
and
2. The virtuosity of playing the Erhu in rational intonation. Air vibrations and the sensations of tone are transduced by the fingertip in contact with a single string, feeling and knowing when you have precisely found a frequency to the hundredth of a semitone.

My Dad Never Saw The Beatles by Jules Orcullo
My Dad Never Saw the Beatles is a mythic retelling of an untrue event set in the Philippines in 1966, told by a daughter desperate to fulfil her Dad’s dreams. The 10 minute extract will be told by one person in the form fabulated and fabricated gig theatre with original music by Jules Orcullo.

STANs (A K-Pop Play) by Natasha Pontoh-Supit
STANs is set in the internet-verse and a place where 50% will get you through mostly everything, University. This piece showcases how pop culture shapes and impacts the identities of young people and delves into the politics of internal gatekeeping inside fan culture. Whilst also exploring the beginnings and pressures of adulthood.

 

TICKETS AND PERFROMANCES

Thu 23 Nov, 6pm
Bay 20, Carriageworks 

BOOK

 

Contemporary Asian Australian Performance and OzAsia Festival are back with their exciting professional development program led by South Australian performance maker Valerie Berry.

Connecting Asian Australian artists in South Australia, the CAAP Artist Lab is an unprecedented collaboration with leading SA companies. This program is a unique opportunity to meet fellow artists, and industry professionals that will not only enrich each participant’s artistic journey but also contribute to the creative community in South Australia.

Nine Asian Australian artists will gather for five days aimed at fostering learning, experimentation, skills development, and collaborative growth. Through this comprehensive week-long intensive, participants will engage in masterclasses, workshops, and seminars guided by accomplished industry experts from our partner organisations. To enrich the experience, each artist will be paired with a partner company, facilitating a deeper relationship with one particular organisation.

The Artist Lab program aims to align with the creative aspirations of each participant, equipping them with valuable tools and resources for their ongoing artistic endeavors. This opportunity not only encourages personal development but also cultivates connections that can extend well beyond the program itself.

An honorarium will be paid to each of the successful participants at the conclusion of the program.

KEY DATES

Participants will need to be available for the following:

• Mid-October (2 x Online Introduction Sessions, dates TBC)
• Monday 23 October to Friday 27 October (Intensive Week)
• Mid-October to early-Nov (3 x one-on-one coffee catchups with paired partner company)

PARTNER ORGANISATIONS

• Adelaide Festival Centre
• ActNow Theatre
• Australian Dance Theatre
• Brink Productions
• Assemblage Centre for Creative Arts - Flinders University
• Nexus Arts
• State Theatre Company of SA
• Vitalstatistix
• Gravity and Other Myths

HOW TO APPLY

Applications are now closed. 

ANY QUESTIONS?

If you have any questions about the program or the application process, you can contact the CAAP team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.