Theatre review: The Hungry Ghost

What does a monologue for two people look like? In Mei Leng Yew's debut play The Hungry Ghost Mei Mac plays the Girl, a character in her twenties trying to figure out how to balance her need for independence with the demands of her family and her Chinese heritage. She's recently moved out of her parents' home to move in with her girlfriend of three months, Naomi, except she's not told her parents that: Every morning she tells Naomi she's going to pick up more of her stuff, before creeping into the house to pretend she's been sleeping there all night. In the middle of all this upheaval she forgets her mother's warning that it's the Chinese month when ghosts roam the earth, and picks up a coin from the street - a trap laid by a ghost (Isabella Wei) who latches onto her, hanging around in the background at first but increasingly possessing and controlling her body.

The titular Hungry Ghost is indeed hungry for food, making her host binge-eat but never finding satisfaction, but as she starts to take over the girl's life she becomes hungry for experiences and human interaction as well, to the point that she and Naomi might be in danger from her constant demand for attention.

The play feels like a monologue because that's how Mac plays the narrator, frantically taking on all the characters from the girl herself, to her domineering mother (her son has full freedom to choose his own career; any kind of engineer is fine) and the boss' detached assistant in a memorable cameo. But just like the ghost invades the character's life Wei begins to haunt the narrative as well, and even as Mac gives us a lovely collection of characterisations for the supporting characters, she starts to lose control of her own.

In Ailin Conant's production this is a funny, frantic and sometimes moving show - it doesn't really lean into the horror aspect much but it does flash a couple of creepy images along the way. And while Mac has the showy role Wei gradually makes as much of an impact in the more still but intense role of the ghost, whose reasons for latching onto the girl and her relationship slowly become apparent. And while the show's steeped in specifically Chinese culture, there's something universal about the mum who insists her daughter take her superstitions seriously, then dismisses it when she actually does.

The Hungry Ghost by Mei Leng Yew is booking until the 31st of October at the Bush Theatre's Studio.

Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Corinne Cumming.