Keeping up with Jake in October

The OzAsia Festival started in 2007 and has grown to become the biggest Asia-focused arts festival in Australia. Indian Ink had been before in 2018 with Guru of Chai and were invited back this year with Paradise or the Impermanence of Ice Cream.

We were honoured to be one of the opening acts for the festival which includes theatre, dance, music, visual art and my personal favourite – dumplings. Sadly, the schedule was such that we were literally in the theatre on the day we landed and between taking workshops, media interviews and performing I didn’t get to see much of anything beyond my hotel room and the venue for the four nights we were there (although I did poke in the odd post-show dumpling from the Lucky Dumpling Market next door because I’m not an idiot).

The final Saturday was a monster double show day: 3pm matinee followed by a Q&A followed by a 7pm show followed by pack-out. Luckily the hotel was a two-minute walk from the theatre and I figured I could dash back to my room after the Q&A, have a 20 minute lie-down before coming in, refreshed, for the evening performance.

10 minutes into my power nap, just as I was drifting into oblivion, the hotel phone rang:

Me: (groggy) Hello?

Receptionist: Hello, Mr Rajan, this is Janice from reception.

Me: Yes?

Receptionist: We noticed you’ve hung the “Do Not Disturb” sign on your door.

Me: Yes?

Receptionist: Is everything alright?

Me: (confused) Yeeees?

Reception: Great. Have a nice day. [click – burrrrrrrrrrrrrr]

Words failed me. The “Do Not Disturb” sign failed me. Luckily the show didn’t suffer. The audience reception eclipsed the hotel reception and all was forgiven when the dumplings arrived.

 

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