The play follows the story of a Chinese immigrant working illegally in the kitchen but has no Asian actors.

The Golden Dragon, a production by Music Theatre Wales is being condemned for yellowface casting.

According to the Music Theatre Wales websiteThe Golden Dragon is a part-comedy, part-tragedy set in a pan-Asian restaurant. The story “follows the story of a Chinese immigrant working illegally in the kitchen.”

However, according to the ‘Cast & Characters’ section of the website, no Asian actors have been cast to play the Asian characters.

Lucy Schaufer has been cast as the “Chinese mother”, Andrew Mackenzie Wicks plays a “young Asian” and “Chinese aunt”, and Johnny Herford plays “an Asian” and “Chinese uncle”.



People have since taken to Twitter to express their outrage.

Rebecca Boey wrote, “This cast and characters breakdown is good value if White-actors-playing-Chinese does it for you

Jennifer Lim Tweeted, “The practise of in any art form is disrespectful, irresponsible and downright shameful!

“If is set in a “pan-African” restaurant/takeaway, would it be acceptable to have an entire white cast ?” Red Dragonfly Theatre asked.


Music Theatre Wales has since released a statement on Facebook in response to the criticism.

“The original play, and the opera on which it is based, is post-Brechtian story-telling: the cast narrate the story and introduce the multiple characters they are about to play,” the statement reads.

“Quite deliberately, there is no realism.”


However, statement from the production company has not gone down well with Twitter users.

“Oh it’s all ok because they’ve now explained that it’s post-Brechtian and not realism, so, silly us for being offended,” Rebecca Boey sarcastically wrote.

Ruth Scott also doesn’t buy the production’s claim of artistic merit, “they can’t excuse blatant discrimination by saying it’s an artistic choice? it’s lazy and unoriginal casting is what it is.”