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| West Liang and Feodor Chin in "Cowboy Versus Samurai," Artists at Play, 2013; photo by Michael C. Palma |
I don't remember much more than that, but, if that panel were held today, I would turn to Michael and say, "I just saw your play, Cowboy Versus Samurai, and your funny bone is definitely intact"—before punching him in the stomach because I can't stand to be reminded that I have not cornered the market on Asian-American comedies.
Cowboy Versus Samurai by Michael Golamco
Julia Cho and Daniel Vincent Gordh in "Cowboy vs. Samurai," Artists at Play, 2013; photo by Michael C. Palma
Produced by Artists at Play, Cowboy Versus Samurai is a modern-day re-imagining of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (or Steve Martin's Roxanne, depending on whom you ask).
In Golamco's charming and unexpectedly moving comedy set in Wyoming, Korean-American high school teacher Travis writes love letters on behalf of Caucasian gym teacher/country bumpkin Del who's trying to woo new-to-town Korean-American Veronica, who happens to only date white guys. Cyrano's unsightly nose (and his obstacle to romance) is replaced here by that pesky little thing called race.
But what could easily veer into the kind of polemic that you might find in an Asian-American Studies 101 final exam essay actually doesn't because Golamco fleshes out his characters enough so that they feel like real individuals rather than APA archetypes and looks at things through the lens of humor rather than academic inquiry.
All this is bolstered by a deft cast (Feodor Chin, Julia Cho, Daniel Vincent Gordh, and West Liang) and thoughtful direction by Peter J. Kuo, whose sound design elements (credited to Felix Lau) add layers to the text and make it uniquely theatrical.
This production of Cowboy Versus Samurai receives Bamboo Nation's first-ever Seal of Approval!
[Cowboy Versus Samurai is running until October 20, 2013, in Los Angeles.]
But wait! That's not the only play I saw this past weekend!
Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam by Trieu Tran
Trieu Tran; photo by LaRae Lobdell
Trieu Tran's solo show, Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam, is a harrowing Vietnamese refugee story playing at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.
The piece gets increasingly engrossing as it unfolds, piling on unbelievable (but true) tragedy after tragedy and ending in, we presume, triumph, by the very fact that Tran is standing on that stage—alive, resilient, transformed.
[Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam is running until October 6, 2013, in Culver City.]
Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling
Karen Huie, Ruth Coughlin, Hiwa Bourne, Dian Kobayashi, Lovelle Liquigan, and Patti Yasutake in "Steel Magnolias,"
East West Players, 2013
East West Players, 2013
Over in downtown Los Angeles, East West Players is giving Robert Harling's Steel Magnolias a thankfully refreshing Asian-American twist—refreshing because it pumps some life into a script that wears its fortune-cookie dialogue on its sleeve ("I would rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special," anyone? Anyone?) and emotionally manipulates you whether you like it or not.
Yup, I cried. How could you not cry?!
The cast acts up a storm, Southern accents and all, with a memorable Karen Huie elevating the text by putting on a thick Chinese accent—this is the kind of camp that the play has always desperately needed.
(While I believe drag versions of Steel Magnolias—Steel Dragnolias, anyone? Anyone?—have existed, they've also been squashed.)
[Steel Magnolias is running until October 6, 2013, in Los Angeles.]
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