HOME is serving Rice

After winning numerous awards, including the Australian Writers’ Guild Award for Best Original Stage Play, Rice comes to Manchester. Directed by Artistic Director Matthew Xia and written by Hmong-Australian writer Michele Lee, it’s a powerful and fast-paced play full of humorous observations on gender, globalisation, family, and friendship.

The story follows Nisha (Anya Jaya-Murphy), an ambitious executive working for Australia’s leading rice producer. Her goal is to become the first female Indian CEO in the country. She’s close to finalising a deal with the Indian government, which would see her company take over India’s national rice distribution system.

Working late at night in the office, she meets Yvette (Angela Yeoh), an older Chinese woman with entrepreneurial ambitions of her own. Yvette works as a cleaner and is preoccupied with worrying about her daughter who faces court after protesting against the unethical practices of supermarkets.

Nisha and Yvette form an unlikely yet powerful bond as they navigate through their lives and through complexities of the world.

Playwright Michele Lee says: “I’ve always wanted to centre a story around two strong female actors of colour and that was my starting point. In this play their characters traverse a range of identities and jump between and transform across many different roles. I feel exhilarated that this drama is being staged on opposite sides of the world and hope its universal themes around gender, ambition and friendship will resonate with audiences in the UK.”

Rice plays at HOME for 2 nights only, on the 29th and 30th March, before visiting Newcastle and York in April, the last two stops of its UK tour.