Two women, one Chinese, one Indian. One a cleaner, the other a manager. Both are key players in this pseudo-fairytale about global food politics. Trippy sounding stuff, we know. But as with all ambitious projects, just crazy enough to work.
Director Lee Lewis writes with relish of meeting playwright Michele Lee at a writers' workshop. "She didn't have much more than an idea, an instinct, a title — Rice –—and an extraordinary talent for dialogue." In the five years since then, Rice has picked up the Queensland Premier's Drama Award and with a successful Queensland season under its belt, is on a national tour, of which Griffin is but one stop.
Michele Lee describes the play as working on two scales, giving a glimpse of mass agriculture and the corporations that move food from the ground onto supermarket shelves, while simultaneously developing a friendship between two women from vastly different social spheres.
Rice may make you think twice before shopping in a supermarket again, but as theatre goes, you'll be hard-pressed to find anything more homegrown. Support local theatre, kids.