Wolf Play, by Hansol Jung (Chicago, IL)

WOLF PLAY – Chicago Premiere!
By Hansol Jung
Directed by Guest Artist Jess McLeod
at The Gift, Theatre 4802 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago

A Korean boy is ushered into a new house by his adopted American father. This new house belongs to an American boxer and her wife. American father un-adopts boy by a single signature on a piece of paper. But just before he leaves the new house, ex-father finds out that the new couple to whom he has “re-homed” his ex-son to, is a lesbian couple. American Ex-father spends the rest of the play trying to get the boy back. In his corner is Ryan, the Boxer’s coach, and Wife’s brother. Ryan doesn’t like the new Korean boy who is a bit weird.

The boy is actually not a real boy. He is a puppet. The puppeteer is the Emcee of the evening, and spinner of the night’s tale: a lone wolf who slips in and out of the story as is needed. Wolf Play is a messy funny disturbing theatrical experience grappling with a wolf, a puppet and a very prickly problem of “what is a family, and what do we need from them, today? Is it very different from the things humans have needed from families before?”