Reviews - Charles Francis Chan Jr's Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery and Fool for Love

I think it's become apparent that I need some sort of twelve-step program to deal with my addiction to theater.  In a ten-day period, I will have seen eight productions (two were readings, but still).  I have lost my mind.  And all sense of budgetary responsibility.  But you tell me, what am I supposed to do when I get an e-mail that says 'you didn't win the $5 ticket lottery, but if you come to one of these performances, your ticket will only be $20'?!  I just can't seem to help myself.  Therefore, I am going to try to go on the theatrical wagon.  Ish.  I do already have two shows booked this week and one next week, but after that, I may try to wait until the New Year.  We'll see if I can do it.

Getting back to the two most recent productions I've enjoyed, last Friday night I went to see Lloyd Suh's new play Charles Francis Chan Jr.'s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery, produced by NAATCO (National Asian American Theatre Company).  I'm a big fan of Lloyd's and know him slightly; I'll admit, however, that I may have missed this play if not for the recent contretemps around him and another of his plays.  I stand firmly behind Lloyd and his rights as a playwright, so I figured the best way to show my support was to buy a ticket for his new show.  I wish I would've gone sooner so I could've recommended the show to everyone.  Unfortunately, it closed yesterday.  If social media is to be believed, it closed with multiple sold-out houses.

But I DID have a good time!  Charles Francis Chan Jr.'s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery was a fast, funny and completely thought-provoking piece on racial inequality and self-discovery.  The title character was a 1960s college student who is beaten down by the politics of the time, especially because he flunked out of school and now has to register for the draft.  Thinking about being an American, yet Asian, man, going to an Asian country and fighting against Asians, was too much for him, especially after living through so much hatred and discrimination here at home.  Frank (which is the name he prefers, given the incendiary quality of the name 'Charlie Chan') rails against the world in very funny and pointed commentary about the world around him.  He seems completely irrational and unhinged, yet, when you listen to what he's actually saying, you understand where he's coming from.  The audience got quite a big laugh out of a huge diatribe of Frank's, where he decides to coin the term 'Asian American' and the best way to get the name out into the world is...by writing a play!

photo credit: Hiroyuki Ito

The action of this play alternates between Frank's struggles and scenes from the play he's writing, which features a white actor in deliberate yellowface playing Charlie Chan.  It's a very complex satire, which gets louder and sillier, yet scarier and more disturbing as the evening goes on.  I thought Lloyd's use of satire was excellent, and his dialogue always rang stingingly true to me.  I thought he had a deft touch with the heavier stuff and the conversations about race were very thoughtful and done well.  The casting of the actors across racial boundaries was also very smart. If maybe the second act wasn't quite as successful as the first act for me, well ok.  The play was extremely well-written, well-directed, well-acted and well-designed.  I laughed a lot, gasped a bit and was a tiny bit horrified (in the best theatrical way).  And boy have I been thinking a lot since I saw it.  So thumbs way up from me and I can't wait to see what Lloyd brings us next.

My other Tony-voter boss invited me to see yesterday's matinee of the revival of Sam Shepard's Fool for Love.  I believe I've made my love for Shepard known already and I especially love the early stuff.  Probably because they were the first plays of Shepard I ever read and they are plays that I've been lucky enough to act in.  I always wanted to play May in Fool for Love and worked on scenes from the play in acting class many years ago (the teacher: 'MissTari, you'll never play May.'  me:  'I KNOW!  That's why I want to do it in class!!!')

Fool for Love is a brutal play, yet rather dreamlike, with its scenes that obviously have taken place before and will take place again.  The inevitability of everything is shattering.  It shows the agony of love and co-dependence.  There's so much sadness, and rage, in the room, both from what they have and what they can never have.  And it's all on display with Shepard's particular brand of poetic yet utterly naked dialogue.  The contrasting monologues of Eddie and May are positively magical in their complete specificity and also complete universality.  Very few playwrights can capture the ugly and the beautiful in the same dialogue - Shepard is a master at it.

photo credit: Robert Altman

This play doesn't work if there isn't an equal amount of genius between the co-stars and this production is blessed with Nina Arianda and Sam Rockwell.  I've been a fan of Arianda's since Venus in Fur - she is so real yet unreal at the same time.  She's broken and beaten, yet keeps finding the fire and will inside herself.  She knows how her story will play out, yet you still see the hope inside.  The hope that this time it will all turn out differently.  And Sam Rockwell is cowboy-personified.  But you can still see the neglected teenaged boy, trying to be noticed, inside the brutish man who won't take no for an answer.  The man who wants what he wants when he wants it, until he doesn't want it anymore. They play against each other beautifully.  Gordon Joseph Weiss as the Old Man is also brilliant in his speeches, always injecting the right amount of laconic irony into his worldview.  Tom Pelfrey is terrific as May's boyfriend who has walked in on something he will never be able to comprehend or get away from.  When he comes in, with his air of normality, you're sort of jolted out of the ugly symbiosis that Arianda and Rockwell have created.  Oh, and I would remiss if I didn't mention the amazing things Rockwell can do with his lasso rope...

This was just a blistering, sad and scary 90 minutes and I'm so glad my other Tony-voter boss invited me to join him.  To add to the fun, we sat behind Jennifer Grey and her handsome husband, Clark Gregg, and we sat across the aisle from Kevin Bacon.  So there was handsome handsomeness all around.  Thumbs up for that!!  Before the show, I also did a little holiday shopping and window-viewing, so I'll include some photos at the bottom.  We're in the home stretch, people!  Maybe an intervention won't be necessary...