Confessions of a Boba Liberalist- Qtopia PrideFest 2025: Review

Electric. Chaos. Fun.

Those are the words that immediately popped into my head as I walked down the Substation steps. Before I could catch my breath, the performer herself, Juanita Navas-Nguyen, greeted me with a bright smile and offered a mochi to me. It was a surprising and endearing way to break the ice. Suddenly, the space felt less like a theatre and more like her living room. A space she still commanded, but more like a warm host.

The format of, Confessions of a Boba Liberalist, mirrored the same casual homeliness. It was a one-woman show mixed with audience interaction. Although, it wasn’t audience interaction in the usual “performer vs audience” sense. There was no invisible divide, and it felt more like a casual conversation than anything. That’s a credit to Juanita’s bright and boisterous personality where everyone felt instantly comfortable. There was no “us and her,” just all of us together, jumping in to share our own stories of favourite family comfort foods. 

Speaking of food: she serves her secret-recipe guacamole and a bowl of instant noodles that’s so legendary she insists we must try it. It’s through this that we learn that her love language is making food for people, but instead of just talking about it, I love how she puts it into motion for us. It adds to the warmth of the space and the narrative of the piece.  

One of the backbones of her confessions was this idea of categorisation. Everyone is constantly trying to fit you into a box. But what happens when none of them fit quite right? You don’t quite feel at home in the “Asian” category, but you’re also not “Latina” enough—and, well, “Australian” is only ever thought of as a white person. So… where do you go? 

Juanita’s critique of Australia’s self-congratulatory “multicultural” label hits hard. This country loves the badge but leaves the hard work of dismantling racism to be swept under the rug. And she talks about it through her interactions with micro-aggressions: people parodying the way you say words, the dreaded “No… but where are you really from?”, or the friends exoticising your food after once scowling at the smell of that same lunch in school. Juanita lets us into that private headspace where you wonder if you’re “overreacting”, and how much energy it takes to swallow the hurt for the sake of keeping the peace.

I think one of the most intriguing parts of the piece is her experience with representation as an actor. Being a mixed woman and part of the uprising of diversity on our screens and in our theatres, she fleshes out her quarrels with having to be at the front lines of this representation, talking us through the intimidation of having to be this person suddenly. I found it extremely refreshing to watch. 

As Juanita’s first debut in Sydney, it’s not easy to perform your one-woman show on Oxford Street while the club next door is blaring ABBA’s, “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!”— but Juanita worked with it very gracefully.

Overall, I can say with certainty that you will definitely have fun at this show. Juanita will make sure of it. It was a truly wholesome experience to watch and close off my week with.

4.5 Stars