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| Hsieh (Xi Yan) and Whitfield (Daniel) /Brunk |
by MK Scott
As a fan of both the film and play of Hwang's M. Butterfly, I was curious to see any of his other works, and of course Artswest, who are in the middle of one of their best seasons in years, has brought Hwang's latest, Chinglish, to thier latest production.
Chinglish is a play by Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang. It is a comedy about an American businessman desperate to launch a new enterprise in China, which opened on Broadway October 2011 for a short run through January 2012.
Like with M. Butterfly, Chinglish has international intrigue and deception, and is operatic but is more of a comedy. Like Opera, it is 40% Subtitled and the translations alone is what makes the play funny.
An American businessman, Daniel Cavanaugh (the Fab, Evan Whitfield) arrives in a bustling Chinese province looking to score a lucrative contract for his family’s sign-making firm. He soon finds that the complexities of such a venture far outstrip the expected differences in language, customs and manners – and calls into questions even the most basic assumptions of human conduct.
A game of deception, orchestrated by another beautiful woman (Yes, really a Woman), shapes the plot of “Chinglish” too. And once again Mr. Hwang uses one man’s callowness to probe the elusive and illusory nature of love. The object of desire in this case is Xi Yan (Kathy Hsieh), a vice minister of culture who is transformed from Daniel’s adversary into his ally, as he tries to sell his proposal for providing the signs for the city’s new cultural center.
Those characters include Daniel’s “business consultant,” Peter Timms (Guy Nelson) — a slightly shabby British interpreter college professor — and Minister Cai Guoliang (Hing Lam), Xi’s boss, who is plagued by an unseen wife of great ambitions and many relatives. Like Daniel and Xi, they are all operating on several dissembling levels.
When this American man and Chinese woman exchange passionate words in his hotel room, with neither knowing what the other is saying, we are piquantly reminded that what we call love is sometimes nothing more than two people’s convenient misreading of each other. But, as in most of “Chinglish,” the point registers only intellectually, which means numbly.
So one of the Funniest moments was when Daniel confesses he spent some time in the Fed Pen, from his association of Enron and suddenly becomes desirable to the Chinese. Also like in Butterfly, Xi has ulterior and selfish motives and uses lies and deception to get it. In the end Daniel gets what he truly wants, but at what cost?
Chinglish continues at West Seattle's Artswest through March 29th! Click HERE for Info and TIX!
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