Here's something you might be interested in.
David Henry Hwang knocked Broadway for a loop with M Butterfly (1988). The play explained itself: a male French diplomat, disguised as an opera diva, had a 20-year relationship with a man.
For Golden Child (1998), Hwang did a 180: he wrote a play about clashing cultures with no guideposts, no easily chosen side. And within each culture - even each character - positives and negatives flip-flop like Rubik's Cubes.
Andrew Eng's wife is about to deliver their first child. And he's not ready. So the spirit of his mother appears. She's a Chinese-Christian, she says, which gives her "the best of the East, best of the West." She tells the story of his grandfather, Eng Tien-Bin, who lived, as the saying goes, in interesting times.
Tien-Bin's a patriarch-businessmen. In 1918, after three years in the Philippines, he returns to a small town in China a changed man. Depending on who says it, the West has either enlightened or corrupted him. Reverend Baines has convinced Tien-Bin that he should become a Christian, and that having three wives is a sin.
In his traditional culture, Tien's ancestors inspect his every move. In effect, his social network extends back through time, and he is but a link in a 5000-year-old chain.
Reverend Barnes introduces a brand new idea: "individual." The word opens up heretofore unimagined possibilities and has tragic consequences. "When change come," a character says, "it come like fire."
The play and the Chinese Pirate production are slow to percolate, in part because Hwang does an amazing thing: he trusts his audience to find its way without easy handles or facile explanations. Watching the play is like watching a photograph slowly develop - and revealing the intricacies embedded in any change.
Albert Park bounces between torment and assertion in a precise performance as Tien-Bin (who, to embrace the new religion, must "kill the dead" - i.e. his ancestors).
Interest in the play grows when the three wives peek from behind servile facades and reveal the inner politics of polygamy. Wife #1 (Kimberly Miller) self-destructs from the pressure; Jyl Kaneshiro, as Wife #2, usurps the throne with sly, Iago-like eyes. Janny Li (the Golden Child), Karen Li (Wife #3), and especially Michael Nieto as the well-intentioned Reverend, also contribute.
Golden Child inaugurates an intimate new space on the fourth floor of Tenth Avenue Theatre. The uneven design work (mobile screens, soft lighting, but almost inaudible music, and backstage intrusions of noise) showed some of the room's potential, once it's broken in.
Tenth Avenue Theatre, fourth floor cabaret, 930 Tenth Avenue, downtown. Playing through February 18; Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Matinee Sunday at 2:00 p.m. 619-237-4510.
David Henry Hwang knocked Broadway for a loop with M Butterfly (1988). The play explained itself: a male French diplomat, disguised as an opera diva, had a 20-year relationship with a man.
For Golden Child (1998), Hwang did a 180: he wrote a play about clashing cultures with no guideposts, no easily chosen side. And within each culture - even each character - positives and negatives flip-flop like Rubik's Cubes.
Andrew Eng's wife is about to deliver their first child. And he's not ready. So the spirit of his mother appears. She's a Chinese-Christian, she says, which gives her "the best of the East, best of the West." She tells the story of his grandfather, Eng Tien-Bin, who lived, as the saying goes, in interesting times.
Tien-Bin's a patriarch-businessmen. In 1918, after three years in the Philippines, he returns to a small town in China a changed man. Depending on who says it, the West has either enlightened or corrupted him. Reverend Baines has convinced Tien-Bin that he should become a Christian, and that having three wives is a sin.
In his traditional culture, Tien's ancestors inspect his every move. In effect, his social network extends back through time, and he is but a link in a 5000-year-old chain.
Reverend Barnes introduces a brand new idea: "individual." The word opens up heretofore unimagined possibilities and has tragic consequences. "When change come," a character says, "it come like fire."
The play and the Chinese Pirate production are slow to percolate, in part because Hwang does an amazing thing: he trusts his audience to find its way without easy handles or facile explanations. Watching the play is like watching a photograph slowly develop - and revealing the intricacies embedded in any change.
Albert Park bounces between torment and assertion in a precise performance as Tien-Bin (who, to embrace the new religion, must "kill the dead" - i.e. his ancestors).
Interest in the play grows when the three wives peek from behind servile facades and reveal the inner politics of polygamy. Wife #1 (Kimberly Miller) self-destructs from the pressure; Jyl Kaneshiro, as Wife #2, usurps the throne with sly, Iago-like eyes. Janny Li (the Golden Child), Karen Li (Wife #3), and especially Michael Nieto as the well-intentioned Reverend, also contribute.
Golden Child inaugurates an intimate new space on the fourth floor of Tenth Avenue Theatre. The uneven design work (mobile screens, soft lighting, but almost inaudible music, and backstage intrusions of noise) showed some of the room's potential, once it's broken in.
Tenth Avenue Theatre, fourth floor cabaret, 930 Tenth Avenue, downtown. Playing through February 18; Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Matinee Sunday at 2:00 p.m. 619-237-4510.