31 Asian American Plays in 31 Days:
#27 YELLOWFACE by David Hwang
The lines between truth and fiction blur with hilarious and moving results in David Henry Hwang’s unreliable memoir. Asian-American playwright DHH, fresh off his Tony Award win for M. Butterfly, leads a protest against the casting of Jonathan Pryce as the Eurasian pimp in the original Broadway production of Miss Saigon, condemning the practice as “yellowface.” His position soon comes back to haunt him when he mistakes a Caucasian actor, Marcus G. Dahlman, for mixed-race, and casts him in the lead Asian role of his own Broadway-bound comedy, Face Value. When DHH discovers the truth of Marcus’ ethnicity, he tries to conceal his blunder to protect his reputation as an Asian-American role model, by passing the actor off as a “Siberian Jew.” Meanwhile, DHH’s father, Henry Y. Hwang, an immigrant who loves the American Dream and Frank Sinatra, finds himself ensnared in the same web of late-1990’s anti-Chinese paranoia that also leads to the “Donorgate” scandal and the arrest of Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee. As he clings to his old multicultural rhetoric, this new racist witch hunt forces DHH to confront the complex and ever-changing role that “face” plays in American life today.
A sort of companion piece to M. BUTTERFLY, YELLOWFACE stands on its own feet as an outrageous mix of the personal, the artistically ambitious, politically relevant and catty inside gossip. Much of the action in the place actually took place (at a MUCH higher rate than most will guess), with the tittering heightened with the casting of David’s wife in the piece. Yet, the power of writing remains cutting and succinct (in my own production, an actor gave a reading that was the spitting image of the person she was emulating, both in vocal cadence and in body language, without ever having met the person or getting any coaching).
or getting any coaching).What’s often underappreciated in YELLOW FACE is David’s use of casting across age, across sex and even across race (something he’ll continue to use in his future plays such as KUNG FU), which subsequent productions have sometimes not been as brave to emulate. As well, the focus on the Republican witch hunt on Chinese American donors is still quite relevant, as it’s a close relative to the Islamaphobia gripping the country now.
Los Angeles Theatre Group/Mark Taper 2007
In Association with East West Players
Directed by Leigh Silverman
DHH – Hoon Lee HYH/others – Tzi Ma Marcus Gee – Peter Scanavino Leah/others – Julienne Hanzelka Kim Jane/Miles/others – Kathryn A. Layng Stuart/Rocco/others – Lucas Caleb Rooney The Announcer – Tony Torn
Photos taken from the Mark Taper production
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