Lauren Yee’s 2017 comic play about identity, family and heritage is bolstered by a top-notch cast and direction.
At the same time, the whimsy in this 2017 work by the widely produced Yee, as winningly staged by director Jennifer Chang, muses touchingly on identity, family and heritage. Tanya Orellana’s ebullient set places the heritage theme front and center: Beneath dangling Chinese lanterns stands the aforementioned door — actually, double doors, aged and weathered red, their style suggesting vintage Chinese architecture.
This scene represents a club in San Francisco’s Chinatown, where — a metatheatrical hall of mirrors here — a dramatist named Lauren Yee is rehearsing a new play about her father, Larry Yee. When Larry himself barges in, derailing the rehearsal and introducing a lion dance that Lauren hasn’t scripted, she’s exasperated.
While infusing warmth into break-the-fourth-wall moments — we’re treated as the audience at the play-within-the play — the cast aces the show’s comedy, including slapstick and wisecracks about showbiz. In well-calibrated straight-man mode, Nguyen’s Lauren radiates nerdy anxiety, while Chang works vulnerability into Larry’s expansive good humor. The other three actors seem to have a blast as they role-juggle.
Much humor stems from Jennifer Chang’s direction, be it the lights that flicker ominously when Shrimp Boy’s name is mentioned or the giddily over-the-top style of that FBI scene. It’s an irresistible more-is-more aesthetic, which has room for Lauren and the colorful lion-dance creature to pas-de-deux with both traditional lion-dance moves and soft-shoe.
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