Actress-playwright Jo Tan on doing drag and restaging her one-woman play ‘King’

Earlier in her theatre career, Jo had to attend a workshop in character, so she grabbed some of her husband’s clothes and went dressed as a man. The accidental resulting character, Taylor Jin, had a personality that was based on someone she knew in real life.

“I went to town playing this super confident and pretty ignorant guy,” says Tan. “I said and did things that were very out of character for me. I got away with all those behaviours. I was able to do and say things I wouldn’t have been able to as myself. That was when I realised I was constantly second-guessing myself when I was Jo, yet I had no such concerns when I was Taylor.

“I started wondering why I felt so much more confident in drag, and if I was starting to enjoy this alter ego. All of those thoughts [went into creating] King!”