Merlynn Tong
Merlynn Tong is a playwright, screenwriter and an actor. Her work Golden Blood, mounted by Griffin Theatre in 2022, will be staged by Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company in 2024. Some of her other playwriting credits include Antigone (adaptation, Queensland Theatre & Mercury Theatre, UK), Legends [of the Golden Arches] (co-writer, co-director, Performing Lines WA), Good Grief (Queensland Theatre), Caesar (co-writer, La Boite Theatre), Blue Bones (Playlab Productions), Come to Where I am (Critical Stages Touring & Paines Plough Theatre Company, UK), SKIN (Dear Australia, Playwriting Australia) and Ma Ma Ma Mad (Wax Lyrical). She was a resident writer at La Boite Theatre in 2022 and the 2020 resident writer at Melbourne Theatre Company.
Her one-woman-show Blue Bones by Playlab Productions, in which she also performed, has won 6 Matilda Awards including the Lord Mayor Award for Best New Australian Work, Best Mainstage Production and Best Female Actor in a Leading Role.
She is also the prize recipient of Screen Queensland’s Stage to Screen pitch, The First 10 Pages 2.0. Through this program, Merlynn has since been mentored by Jane Campion.
In 2023. Her work Golden Blood was short-listed for a Victorian Premier Literary Award, NSW Premier’s Literary Award, as well as Sydney Theatre Award (Best New Australian Work).
Some of her performances include The Poison of Polygamy (La Boite & Sydney Theatre Company), IDK (Force Majeure) (Golden Blood (Griffin Theatre/ Melbourne Theatre Company), Blue Bones (Playlab Productions), Enlightenment (Elbow Room), New Babylon (Brown’s Mart Theatre), White Pearl (Sydney Theatre Company & National Theatre of Parramatta), The Shot (Queensland Theatre, The Scene Project), Top of the Lake: China Girl (BBC & Sundance Films, Jane Campion), Nautilus (Disney),The Mathematics of Longing (La Boite Theatre), The Lost Lending Library (Punchdrunk & Imaginary Theatre), Hotelling (Bleached Arts), Bitch: Origin of the Female Species (Brisbane Festival), Viral (Shock Therapy Productions), Straight White Men (La Boite Theatre) and Hot Brown Honey (Judith Wright Centre).