A disco ball sparkles on a defiant matriarch, matching the glint in her eye. Armed with a microphone, some Gloria Gaynor sass, a karaoke track and a set of formidable pipes, she recruits us as her enthusiastic support crew. As she sings “at first I was afraid, I was petrified”, we learn that she is about to start her life again. Amid the performing and dialogue, heavy with miked plosives, this newly single Asian female, Pearl Wong (Fiona Choi), has survived.

Kristen O’Dwyer as Katie, Kathryn Adams as Lana, Elvy-Lee Quici as Mei in Single Asian Female. Photo © Matt Byrne

The location of this rebirth in Michelle Law’s play Single Asian Female is the Golden Phoenix Chinese Restaurant on the Sunshine Coast, where owner/operator Pearl is making a new start with her two daughters after their dad-turned-cad has exited to start his own new life.

The second single Asian female of this story – eldest daughter Zoe (Juanita Navas-Nguyen) – moves back in to cramp the style of the tale’s third single Asian female – youngest daughter Mei (Elvy-Lee Quici). Before we have time to consider...