Throughout my life, I've been more than willing to suspend disbelief during magic shows. Nor have I ever been able to guess the identity of the villain in courtroom procedural dramas. I may not be involved the BDSM/kink subculture or a ravenous consumer of science fiction, yet I've enjoyed Pablo Greene's gay bondage tetralogy entitled "How To Kill A Superhero" as well as Chuck Tingle's deliciously witty "Handsome Sentient Food Pounds My Butt and Turns Me Gay: Eight Tales of Hot Food and Beverage Love" because these two authors have twisted imaginations and are highly entertaining storytellers.
Writing fiction allows authors to defy common sense and embrace magical realism while setting off cluster bombs in a reader's mind. However, the challenges facing playwrights are quite different. In order to make a comedy or drama effectively come to life onstage, they must entrust their work to actors, designers, directors, and other members of a creative team who can shape their story and enlighten the audience with the tools of their respective trades.
While many playwrights stick to realism (and might even keep the action within the theatre's fourth wall), others itch for a creative challenge. Some are young and eager to dare an audience to keep pace with them through the course of a wild adventure. Others are seasoned professionals who fully understand the mechanics of writing for the stage but seek to explore new territory. The most enticing challenges may be to (1) write a play that would seem almost impossible for a director to stage, or (2) write a play which would be difficult for a designer to frame, but was crafted so meticulously that a director could easily bring its characters to life.
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Soon to celebrate his 80th birthday, British playwright Alan Ayckbourn has written and produced more than 70 plays (including his popular trilogy, The Norman Conquests) and seen his work translated into more than 35 languages. Those familiar with his writing are continually impressed by the complexity of his plotting, the solidity of his craft, the humanity to be found in his characters, and his ability to wrap the dramatic arc of a play in a healthy mixture of humor and compassion. As critic Peter Marks once noted: "Ayckbourn's plays are worked out with the intricacy of whaling ships carved in scrimshaw."Center Rep's artistic director, Michael Butler, has directed his company's latest production (a staging of Ayckbourn's 1994 "comedic thriller" entitled Communicating Doors) with appropriate levels of mirth and mayhem. The play is set in an upscale London hotel with a value-added benefit. As the playwright explains:
“I've stayed in a lot of hotels (mostly in the course of touring plays around) and, in most cases, there's this mysterious communicating door, locked from both sides, which leads God knows where. The rational side of me supposes that it's used when my room is opened up to combine it with the one next door to become a suite. But there's a side of me that much prefers the other explanation (that, actually, beyond that door lies another universe, another time continuum). I wanted to write about how, in many cases, our futures, our destinies rest in our own hands."
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| Sharon Rietkerk (Poopay) and Robert Sicular (Julian) in a scene from Communicating Doors (Photo by: Kevin Berne) |
“Science fiction is, amongst other things, a wonderful way to tell allegorical stories. It also creates a level playing field wherein the author is able to create a world in which all the laws are altered, reaffirmed, or even inverted so that, in a sense, we are all strangers. In Communicating Doors, the comedy grows out of the tension created by the thriller element. The narrative tool offered by the use of time is a fascinating element (under-used in my experience) for a dramatist to explore. In Poopay's case, the opportunity is given to her to rewrite her life.”
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| Sharon Rietkerk appears as Poopay in Communicating Doors (Photo by: Kevin Berne) |
Poopay (Sharon Rietkerk) is the working name of a young dominatrix whose birth name is Phoebe. Her alias is an obvious play on the French word "poupee" (as opposed to hinting at a sex worker who specializes in clients with scatological fetishes). The play begins in July of 2023, as Poopay is welcomed into a suite at the Regal Hotel by the older Julian (Robert Sicular) while her intended client, Reese (Charles Shaw Robinson), is getting dressed in another room.
After some problems with mistaken identity and unrealistic expectations are put to rest, the elderly Reese orders Julian to leave the room and asks Poopay to witness his signature on a document in which the wealthy businessman admits to have had his first two wives killed. When Reese returns to the bedroom, Julian realizes that Poopay now has the key to solving the murders he committed for his employer. A struggle ensues during which Poopay seeks shelter in a closet which (unbeknownst to her) has a communicating door with magical properties.
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| Sharon Rietkerk and Julie Eccles in a scene from Communicating Doors (Photo by: Kevin Berne) |
Upon re-entering the room, Poopay finds herself in October of 2003. Her presence comes as quite a shock to Reese's second wife, Ruella (Julie Eccles), who has trouble believing Poopay's warning about her impending murder. After listening to Poopay describe details of how Reeses's first wife, Jessica (Brittany Danielle) died, Ruella summons a hotel clerk, the dimwitted Harold (Mark Anderson Phillips), to her room.
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| Mark Anderson Phillips plays an imbecilic hotel detective in Communicating Doors (Photo by: Kevin Berne) |
After arguing about who should venture a trip through time in the closet (which only has room for one person), Ruella decides to test Poopay's theory. But instead of returning to the room in 2023, she arrives in May of 1983 where she encounters the newly-wed Jessica, who is deeply in love with Reese. When Jessica calls the front desk for help, who should show up but Harold!
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| Mark Anderson Phillips, Brittany Danielle, and Julie Eccles in a scene from Communicating Doors (Photo by: Kevin Berne) |
Working on Richard Olmsted's handsome unit set (with costumes by Maggie Morgan, lighting by Kurt Landisman, and sound design by Cliff Caruthers), Butler does a splendid job of keeping the actors on their toes and the audience on the edge of its seats as Poopay, Ruella, and Jessica travel back and forth through time with a winning combination of doubt and desperation. At one point, all three women end up in the same room at a farcically inconvenient moment which results in a grand display of physical comedy.
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| Sharon Rietkerk, Julie Eccles, and Brittany Danielle in a scene from Communicating Doors (Photo by: Kevin Berne) |
Though Poopay's race against time is almost as delightful as 1973's intricately plotted The Last of Sheila (co-written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins), it also affords the selfish Ruella a chance to develop some empathy and skillfully manipulate time (and Harold) in order to rewrite history. The six-character ensemble is top rate, with Sharon Rietkirk and Julie Eccles carrying the plot forward while Mark Anderson Phillips brings a talent for British buffoonery to bear as the bumbling Harold.
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| Charles Shaw Robinson and Sharon Rietkerk in a scene from Communicating Doors (Photo by: Kevin Berne) |
The play's final scene delivers a surprise ending which wraps things up quite nicely, sending the audience home with big smiles on their faces. Performances of Communicating Doors continue through February 23 at the Lesher Center for the Arts (click here for tickets).
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San Francisco Playhouse is currently presenting the Bay area premiere of Lauren Yee's hilarious King of the Yees. Unlike the tale of The Prodigal Son, this is a cross-cultural and cross-generational tale of a Asian-American woman's quest to understand some of her father's major choices in life while coming to terms with her own emotional distance from the Chinese community in her home town of San Francisco. |
| Krystle Piamonte appears as playwright Lauren Yee in King of the Yees (Photo by: Jessica Palopoli) |
Much of the play focuses on the intense devotion of Lauren's father, Larry, to the Chinese community and how he rose to a leadership role in the Yee Fung Toy Family Association. While there are lots of in-jokes about similar groups comprised of Wongs and Lums, King of the Yees lets audiences in on the family traditions by which every male Yee is an uncle, every female Yee is an auntie, and there are numerous ways of determining which Yee comes from which part of the family tree. As the playwright explains:
“My parents were born in America, and didn’t really speak the language at home. I’m American born and never went to Chinese school. A lot of my classmates were born in Hong Kong or were the children of immigrants. For me, that was the bigger divide; I kind of represented American culture while my other classmates represented this foreign outsider part of San Francisco. My experience as an Asian American was not growing up in an all-white neighborhood and feeling like I was an outsider because I was Chinese. Growing up, the biggest thing dividing me from Chinatown was the language barrier. For me, Chinatown was this dirty, crowded, noisy place where I didn’t speak the language and (for the most part) didn’t eat the food. I never enjoyed being in Chinatown. I didn’t feel part of it.”
“With every new generation, there is a feeling of being unworthy and being unprepared to take up the cultural mantle. With this play, I’ve been able to explore not only my self-consciousness in my own community, but it’s also shed a light on how that is a universal experience. This play explores those feelings of inauthenticity and inadequacy. I never really enjoyed the Yee Fung Toy dinners. In my research, I traveled to several different Yee Fung Toy branches across the country and, in each branch, there was a guy like my dad (around 60 years old and American born). When I asked why they joined the Yee Fung Toy, each said the same thing: they never intended to join, but somebody from the previous generation told them if they didn’t, this organization would die out. So, in a way, it’s this club of Yees filled with people who never wanted to be there in the first place, who felt out of place and uncertain but eventually decided, okay, well, if it’s got to be someone, I guess it’s got to be me.”
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| Krystle Piamonte and Francis Jue in a scene from King of the Yees (Photo by: Jessica Palopoli) |
The structure of King of the Yees allows for an extremely rapid and fluid form of storytelling. The one main scenic element is the set of red doors which offer entry into the Yee Fung Toy Family Association's headquarters. Only two actors have clearly identifiable roles throughout the performance. Krystle Piamonte appears as the playwright, with Francis Jue giving a high-energy and extremely poignant performance as her father, Larry.
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| Rinabeth Apostol and Jomar Tagatac in a scene from King of the Yees (Photo by: Jessica Palopoli) |
Three actors portray a wealth of supporting characters from San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chinese mythology. In addition to several female roles, Rinabeth Apostol appears as a whiskey seller from the Lum family and the actor portraying Lauren Yee in a play about her father. Jomar Tagatac appears as the Chinese-American gangster known as "Shrimp Boy," a face changer, and a Los Angeles-based actor visiting San Francisco while preparing to portray Larry Yee in his daughter's play. Will Dao pops up in numerous cameos ranging from a lion dancer to the spirit of the Model Ancestor.
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| Will Dao appears as the Model Ancestor in a scene from King of the Yees (Photo by: Jessica Palopoli) |
Shortly after the playwright began to do research in preparation for telling her father's story, a series of unexpected events threw the play's format into a much clearer perspective. “California State Senator Leland Yee, whom my father knew and had volunteered for (and who had officiated my wedding) was arrested on charges of bribery along with Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow (a Hong Kong-born felon with ties to a San Francisco Chinatown street gang and an organized crime syndicate,” she recalls. “That day became the impetus of what makes this play happen.”
As directed by Joshua Kahan Brody, the SFP production of King of the Yees has a manic, helter-skelter kind of zaniness with enough slapstick moments to make it feel like a Marx Brothers film (keep an eye out for a Chinese chiropractor-acupuncturist and three Chinese oracles in Portsmouth Square who get their wisdom from fortune cookies that fall from the sky). Clashes between the aspirations of different generations are reflected in Larry's struggle to have an intimate conversation with his daughter and a scene in which a tough gangster like Shrimp Boy is nearly reduced to tears by his mother's caustic tongue.
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| Jomar Tagatac appears as the gangster Shrimp Boy in a scene from King of the Yees (Photo by: Jessica Palopoli) |
Originally commissioned by the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, King of the Yees has also been staged at the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, Gateway Theatre in Richmond, B.C., the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, ACT Theatre in Seattle, and the Baltimore Center Stage. The play has finally arrived at San Francisco Playhouse (where Lauren Yee first discussed her hugely ambitious concept with artistic director Bill English in 2014).
With scenery by Bill English, costumes by Sarah Nietfeld, sound designed by Mikhail Fiksel, and lighting by Wen-Ling Liao, SFP's production moves at a dizzying pace. At the center of the evening is yet another glorious performance by Francis Jue (who starred as playwright David Henry Hwang in Soft Power last June) as a loving father desperately trying to juggle all kinds of balls in the air while struggling to understand why his daughter wants to move to Berlin because of a job that was offered to her Jewish husband.
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Francis Jue stars in King of the Yees
(Photo by: Jessica Palopoli)
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Like many relationships, King of the Yees is "complicated." While the story easily touches the heart, much of the play unfolds with the kind of wacky spirit that made 1963's It's A Mad, Mad, Mad Mad, World so entertaining. Performances of King of the Yees continue through March 2 at the San Francisco Playhouse (click here for tickets). Another play by Lauren Yee (The Great Leap) will be presented by American Conservatory Theater from March 6-31 (click here for tickets).
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