The Hungry Ghost at Bush Theatre – review

If a rumour started that Roald Dahl had been reincarnated as an east Asian lady, the believers may well point to Mei Len Yew to prove their point. Granted, her debut play, The Hungry Ghost, sounds like it could have been penned by Dahl, but also like him, the surface of what she’s presenting hides a surprising level of depth, nuance and social commentary.

Girl (Mei Mac) is about to sneak out of the family home as she starts the secret process of moving in with her girlfriend. This portentous day coincides with the start of the seventh lunar month and the Festival of Hungry Ghosts, when the gates of hell open and hungry ghosts (the spirits of people who have had a violent or unhappy death) roam the earth in search of food, entertainment and to settle unfinished business.

Ghost (Isabella Wei) is one such spectre who ends up possessing Girl to satiate her earthly desires. Once inside Girl, she undertakes a period of physical and emotional gluttony: a hedonism fuelled by food and sex that pleasures Ghost but at the cost of Girl.

The story, founded on Chinese folklore, could easily be a clichéd ghost story, but in Yew’s hands it’s turned into something much more exposing. With more than a nod to the differences between western and east Asian sensibilities, we’re thrown into a world of parental deference, cultural differences and the subjugation of personal wants. Through Ghost, this is turned upside down and, probably for the first time, Girl is able to speak her mind and surrender to her desires. This is a ghost story where the possession of a human body is both frightening and liberating.

Mac, who also plays Girl’s mother, brother, a police officer and her girlfriend, Naomi, delivers a highly commanding, shape-shifting performance, switching seamlessly between characters, mannerisms and accents. She is equally matched by Wei’s Ghost, who also adopts a number of personalities.

Ailin Conant’s direction is able to turn a two-hander into something that feels like an ensemble piece and keeps the narrative moving and, most importantly, coherent for the audience.

It is Mac, though, who anchors the evening, her multi-character performance giving the piece its pulse, and she is handed a script that is nuanced, layered and, for a play steeped in death and the afterlife, frequently very funny. As with the best of Dahl’s work, the comedy is dark, the laughs arrive with a shiver attached and there is real substance lurking beneath them.

For a first-time playwright, The Hungry Ghost is a confident and wonderfully original piece of writing, and one that leaves its audience hungry for whatever Yew serves up next.