The Society for New Cuisine is the debut play for East-Asian playwright and West End Performer, Chris Fung. This dark Buddhist fable blends visceral storytelling with poetic flair, challenging perceptions of capitalism, mental health, and identity, and we took the opportunity to chat with Chris to tell us more.
Q) Your play is inspired by a Buddhist fable, would you be able to give us a quick summary of the fable?
Two teachings by Lama Yeshe and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche sit at the centre of this, and I’m not a Buddhist teacher, so I may be a little clumsy:
‘When we are little we crave ice cream, chocolate and cake and we think if only we eat enough ice-cream chocolate and cake, then we will be happy. Now we can have all the ice-cream, chocolate and cake that we could want, but still we are not happy, instead we crave a better job, a husband, a wife, a dog, a house, a TV, a car, then we will be happy.
But think deeply, have we ever truly been lastingly happy when we have had any of these things?’
Lama Yeshe uses this simple and powerful teaching to implore people to understand their minds. My main antagonist uses it to encourage our hero to do … other things.
Q) Your upcoming debut play discusses themes of identity and mental health; would you be able to elaborate further on the importance of this; especially for men and people of colour?
Hikikomori, Tang Ping/Lying Flat, The Quiet Quit//The Great Resignation, Karoshi. There is a globally recognised mental health epidemic of folk who have realised that they are not happy.
Is the antidote more HUSTLE CULTURE? GRIND? RISK IT FOR THE BISCUIT?
Increasingly, the world is a global village, and we impact each other a lot now. International borders are as thin as a website browser window. There is a point when the very Asian difficulty of expressing love and honest affection becomes a very masculine difficulty, and this gives way to becoming a very human difficulty.
It’s super interesting to think about these inflection points.
Q) After starring in Your Lie In April, the first full East and South East Asian cast in a West End Musical, Disney’s Frozen and Cyrano de Bergerac, which heavily featured diverse casts, do you feel that the West End is ready and more receptive for more diverse and inclusive stories?
We are at the break of a new cresting wave. All that we need now are folk to step up in skill and vision and ideal. There is a global hunger for new perspectives and ways of thinking.
Q) You've shared quite a detailed insight into the process of developing your debut play and bringing it to Fringe Theatre. Would you be able to explain a little more about the current challenges that new theatre companies face, getting their plays produced? And why did you, admirably, choose to be so open and honest with your journey?
I have a series on Instagram where I detail honestly what it has been to make SFNC for the Fringe/Off-West End. Growing up I was absolutely enamoured by Sir Antony Sher’s Year of the King and Branagh’s Beginning.
Fringe theatre is hard because people are poor in money, but also information. How does stuff work? How does someone LEARN how stuff works? Pitching to theatres? Marketing and PR? What makes a set designer better/worse? What’s the importance of pre-production dramaturgy? What happens when people lie or renege on deals? How can you handle obstacle and conflict beautifully? How can we wriggle through with honour?
I’ve made something I hope will help other people like me feel less lonely.
Q) Just a couple of fun questions to finish off. If you could sit down and have a meal with three people, dead or alive, who would they be?
The Buddha. Robin Williams. Dave Chapelle.
Q) Is there a particular folktale or fable that you'd love to one day adapt for the stage?
I grew up with the Monkey King, and there have been a tonne of recreations, including the bible of my childhood - Journey to the West. I wonder what a modern retelling might look like in the style of The Bear, Succession or The West Wing. That’d be fun. Would it be lighter in tone, like an adult serialised crime fighting show ala Captain Planet//Power Rangers//Rick and Morty, or would it be darker, like Black Mirror or Westworld?
Q) The play has been described as a "blend of visceral storytelling with poetic flair", would you be able to elaborate on what audiences can expect from the show?
This is a dynamic play. It’s bold and full of hope and terror. We hope you will see a bit of yourselves in it. A secret, honest bit that thrums in the back of your mind. We hope you to walk away full of life.
The Society for New Cuisine runs at Omnibus Theatre from 19th March until 05th April.
Photography provided by Chris Fung
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