What: Citizen Wong
Where: Mezzanine Theater - ART NY
502 W. 53rd St.
New York, NY
Who: Recommended for Ages 12 and Up
When: Through May 1, 2022
Citizen Wong takes place during the time when the Chinese Exclusion Act which limited Chinese immigration and rights and even denied them citizenship was in effect. Although this was in the 1870s and the 1890s, the current persecution of people of Asian descent as well as recent attempts to take away the rights of numerous groups of people not only Asians make the show extremely timely.
The show's central character is Wong Chin Foo. He was an actual activist and journalist during this time period, and there are other real people who appear as characters in the play as well. However, the story is not strictly biographical and the playwright does take quite a bit of artistic license. While that does not take anything away from the importance of this story, it does confuse things a bit at times and sometimes, takes the focus off what is really important about the story.
Richard Chang, the show's writer has said that he wanted to tell a story that would "make people laugh and cry, and care for this flawed hero" and he definitely succeeds in doing that, especially with the character of Wong Chin Foo in the most capable hands of Whit K. Lee who is extremely charismatic in the role. The playwright has also expressed hope that "Wong's vision and words will help us to transcend tribalism and become the "more perfect union conceived by our founding fathers" and we can only hope so as well and whatever little bit this show contributes to that is definitely a plus.
And that's our view. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.panasianrep.org/citizen-wong.
Tune in tomorrow for Still More Theater Sunday.
Photo Credts: All Citizen Wong production photos by John Quincy Lee
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment