Australian Graffiti tells of Thai restaurateurs in a less-than welcoming country town

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Some of the kids who grew up on it are now becoming writers themselves.

One of them is Disapol Savetsila, 23, whose debut full-length play, Australian Graffiti, is about to open at the Sydney Theatre Company.

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Mason Phoumirath stars in the play Australian Graffiti. Photo: Rene Vaile
"Harry Potter is the book I learned to read with," he says. "I still remember it took hours and hours to read that first page. But then I think I read that first book 11 times."

Born in Sydney to Thai migrant parents, Savetsila grew up as the "bookworm" in the family. "Everyone used to make fun of me, saying I was too much of a bookworm to have time to make friends."

Home life was more about food than literature. Savetsila's parents are restaurateurs. Dad, who died when Savetsila was a baby, ran a Thai restaurant in Crows Nest. His mum operated another in the Market City food court.

"We moved to Parkes when I was in Year 6," Savetsila says. "Mum started a restaurant there called Rice Thai. Then we moved to Bathurst and that's where I lived until I went to uni in Wollongong. My mother and brother still live there and work in the restaurant."

Savetsila's background informs Australian Graffiti, he says. "When I finished the first draft, it was very different to what it is now. I had decided to play it safe and I wrote this generic sort of thriller about stolen money within a Thai restaurant. But it just wasn't working. But there were ancillary characters who would talk about the sense of isolation that comes from being in a tiny community of four Thai people in a country town. In the next draft, I decided to just explore that."

Directed by Paige Rattray, and featuring actors Airlie Dodds, Mason Phoumirath and Peter Kowitz, Australian Graffiti centres on a family of Thai restaurateurs who have moved further and further inland from Sydney until they reach a fictional country town. But the locals prove less than welcoming. No one comes to the restaurant. "While the family is trying to decide whether to move one more time, the cook dies and they don't know what to do with the body," Savetsila says.

Australian Graffiti tells of Thai restaurateurs in a less-than welcoming country town

I enjoy Australian movies immensely and this sounds like a good un. An Aussie Thai movie is a romantic evening watch with Thai Wife . It's got the main ingredient , topic ,
Thai FOOD.

I'll certainly catch up with it (I like aussie cinema), but the concept is a fair bit dated.

Thai/Chinese/Viet etc Asians moving to a country town and opening up a chinkie? No worries. I remember how they spread, because I used to drive across the Hay Plains between Sydney & Adelaide quite often. Sometimes, an Asian family would take over a chippy- but expand the menu to include some Chinese dishes. Or tie in with the local RSL/ bowling club, and open up there- with a cheap rent. The locals loved it- as well they might, living in a late 70's/ early 80's Australian country town.

Of course, things move on. If a place has a pub and a post office (which often doubles as a general store/ chippy/ newsagent/ petrol station etc), then it counts as a town in orrstralia. But to be a decent sized town, you've got to have at least one Chinese, and a Thai restaurant. Even if they're owned by the same people.

Your right on there mate, what a ripper of a reply, but it's the same in the U.K. a Chinky takeaway in most towns, even in Nothern Ireland during the troubles , and the locals lov the food.

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Australian Graffiti

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That's really original ... (wheres the Mid sarcastic smiley gone? )

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the sense of isolation that comes from being in a tiny community of four Thai people in a country town.

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Racist kunts, they are not in a community of 4, they are in a community of the size of the town.
If they don't like it they can piss off back from whence they came.
That or get a proper job that involves more than heating up some frozen shite in the microwave

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I had decided to play it safe and I wrote this generic sort of thriller about stolen money within a Thai restaurant.

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That failed, so he went even safer and decided to pull out the discrimination card and tug the heart strings of the hideously white libtards- the old hacked cliche circa 1990s.

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But the locals prove less than welcoming.

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Perhaps because you are insular racist kunts, who probably cannot cook, offer modern customer service

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Originally Posted by Chittychangchang

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Some of the kids who grew up on it are now becoming writers themselves.

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That's got to be front-runner for most tenuous link of the year award!



Also; LOOK, blue, HOMOS!!!! Over there >>>>>>>> go get 'em boy, good boy, good boy blue!


Right, that's got rid of him for a few hours.