White Pearl
by Anchuli Felicia King

Name: White Pearl
Brand: Anchuli Felicia King
SKU: 9780573710162
Rating: 4.23 (1 reviews)

White Pearl Book Cover — White Pearl Cover

Highlights

Female

Male

90 mins Present Day Role(s) for Asian Actor(s) Unit Set/Multiple Settings Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes Comedy

Synopsis

“It's just a fun ad.

Now the whole world is going crazy.”

In Singapore, Clearday™ has developed from a small startup into a leading international cosmetic brand in less than a year.

But when a draft of the company’s latest skin cream advert is leaked, the video goes viral globally for all the wrong reasons.

YouTube views are in the thousands and keep climbing; anger is building on social media; and journalists are starting to cover the story.

This is an international PR nightmare; the company cannot be seen to be racist, they’ve got to get it taken down before America wakes up.

Press Reviews

"King’s play brings a ruthless clarity to each line of dialogue – the writing ricochets effortlessly between its characters...King’s assured approach to her female characters – equally magnetic as they are spiky – reflects exactly what makes her play so riveting: the unapologetic display of blemishes and imperfections."
— Time Out

"White Pearl is a little gem. In 90 minutes [it] takes on a wide range of subjects: Corporate hypocrisy, the base values of the beauty business, the frenzy of social media and, not least, mutual suspicion between westernised and homeland Asians."
— The Guardian

"White Pearl makes a case that those seeking to make inroads into the Far East, perceiving a new El Dorado, are no better that colonial conquistadors of an earlier age — and entirely unequipped to understand the specifics of a complex cultural region."
— Variety London

"A scathing, gleefully nasty corporate satire"
— The Stage

"It has a boldness, ambition and acerbic humour on a scale that makes you sit up and pay attention."
— Time Out

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
Sunny Lee Female. Chinese-Singaporean. American dudebro-speak, becomes more Singlish/Hokkien depending on her audience.	female	—	Female. Chinese-Singaporean. American dudebro-speak, becomes more Singlish/Hokkien depending on her audience.
Ruki Minami Female. Japanese. Noticeable Japanese accent. Crisp English.	female	—	Female. Japanese. Noticeable Japanese accent. Crisp English.
Built Suttikul Female. Thai-American. Californian. Verging on valley-girl.	female	—	Female. Thai-American. Californian. Verging on valley-girl.
Soo-Jin Park Female. South Korean. Strong Korean accent but excellent English.	female	—	Female. South Korean. Strong Korean accent but excellent English.
Xiao Chen Female. Chinese. The weakest English speaker.	female	—	Female. Chinese. The weakest English speaker.
Marcel Benoit Male. Strong French accent with fluent-ish English.All characters are in their mid-twenties / early thirties.Casting note, courtesy of the author:“Casting this play is really fucking hard. If you want to put on this play, make sure you have the resources to cast it properly.Generally speaking, we’ve found that you can be more flexible with the ethnicity of actors playing the 'Westernized' Asians in the team: Priya, Built, to a certain extent Sunny. And of course Marcel. But the actors must have some ethnic or cultural resonance with their character. Have an open dialogue with the actors you’re auditioning, reach out to your local Asian theater community, be culturally cognizant, and just generally don’t be a dick about it. With the 'homeland' Asians (Ruki, Soo-Jin and Xiao), it is absolutely imperative that the actors be non-native English speakers from the specific cultural background of their characters. Trust me. I’ve seen the alternative. It doesn’t work. I don’t mind if you move around some of the phraseology but generally speaking, stick to the text. The highly specific language in this play is the result of extensive development, as well as my life experience. There is no one way of speaking Singlish, or Californian English, just as there’s no one way to define 'dudebro-speak'. Collaborate with the actors to determine their character’s idiosyncratic mode of speaking and their level of English fluency, and be open to adjusting this as your process evolves.”	male	—	Male. Strong French accent with fluent-ish English.All characters are in their mid-twenties / early thirties.Casting note, courtesy of the author:“Casting this play is really fucking hard. If you want to put on this play, make sure you have the resources to cast it properly.Generally speaking, we’ve found that you can be more flexible with the ethnicity of actors playing the 'Westernized' Asians in the team: Priya, Built, to a certain extent Sunny. And of course Marcel. But the actors must have some ethnic or cultural resonance with their character. Have an open dialogue with the actors you’re auditioning, reach out to your local Asian theater community, be culturally cognizant, and just generally don’t be a dick about it. With the 'homeland' Asians (Ruki, Soo-Jin and Xiao), it is absolutely imperative that the actors be non-native English speakers from the specific cultural background of their characters. Trust me. I’ve seen the alternative. It doesn’t work. I don’t mind if you move around some of the phraseology but generally speaking, stick to the text. The highly specific language in this play is the result of extensive development, as well as my life experience. There is no one way of speaking Singlish, or Californian English, just as there’s no one way to define 'dudebro-speak'. Collaborate with the actors to determine their character’s idiosyncratic mode of speaking and their level of English fluency, and be open to adjusting this as your process evolves.”
Priya Singh Female. Indian-Singaporean. Mumbai accent, rounded out by years of British education.	female	—	Female. Indian-Singaporean. Mumbai accent, rounded out by years of British education.