"It’s funny when we’re telling the jokes, but what happens when we’re not the ones laughing anymore? "

Welcome to the live taping of the first ever prime-time Asian sitcom in Aotearoa. It’s a blazing moment in canned-laughter history, but behind the cheerful trash-talk lies a more sinister question: given a seat at the table, how much are you willing to compromise everything you stand for?

Clever, probing and anarchically cheeky, The First Prime-Time Asian Sitcom is a genre-messing black comedy that exposes the conversations haunting our writers rooms and the characters that swing between subversion and stereotype.

This thrillingly unique-to-Aotearoa premiere comes from writer, filmmaker and producer Nahyeon Lee. Building on development seasons with both Proudly Asian Theatre’s Fresh Off The Page and Tawata Production’s Breaking Ground, this work marks Lee’s playwriting debut and follows the success of her section in anthology feature film Kāinga, which was selected for the New Zealand International Film Festival (2022) and Melbourne International Film Festival (2022).