CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND- Page 2

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 3/5/20 at 8:44am

It looks like I am in the minority here, but I really did not care for this. I found the writing, direction, acting, and design to be extremely amateur. The second act definitely fares better than the first act, but the whole play is just very unbalanced and all over the place. That all being said, I do admire the play for making an effort to explore a dark time in history that I personally did not know a lot about, and I definitely learned a lot.

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 3/6/20 at 8:55pm

I'm in the camp that was also a bit underwhelmed.  I think the play has high ambitions but never quite reaches them, and the characters seem a bit surface-level, even when they're making tough decisions and recalling traumatic events.  A lot of it felt rather predictable and some of the character decisions seemed to be made just to tell a specific story that the playwright wanted to tell, without feeling true to the characters.  I don't think it's a bad play and I'm glad I went (the Cambodian genocide was new to me, and while I don't think prior knowledge was necessary, skimming Wikipedia during intermission definitely helped me a lot).  Joe Ngo is absolutely fantastic, and Courtney Reed's voice is stunning (I just wish we saw more of her acting).

Also, I don't think this was intended, but did anyone else think that Joe Ngo was playing a younger version of Francis Jue's character when first introduced?  It threw me for a loop a bit later when Francis Jue talked a bit more about himself. (I obviously did not read the playbill beforehand).  

[Det95]

Posted: 3/6/20 at 9:09pm

chrishuyen said: Also, I don't think this was intended, but did anyone else think that Joe Ngo was playing a younger version of Francis Jue's character when first introduced? It threw me for a loop a bit later when Francis Jue talked a bit more about himself. (I obviously did not read the playbill beforehand)."

No, you’re not the only one. I definitely thought that too. Overall, I really enjoyed seeing this. I thought the cast was strong all around and I didn’t have and issues with the direction. Can we talk about the band. Wow. I did have the same issues as everyone else though. The tone all over the place, and I felt the second act was a little long. Overall, I would recommend this, and thought it was a great night at the theatre. 

[Rosette3]

Posted: 3/8/20 at 2:06pm

I was able to get a ticket when they release a few seats last minute and just saw this last night and still gathering my thoughts. Overall I really liked it and it felt cohesive enough for as many changes back and forth in characters in time periods (contrary to Brantley's critisim). Also I did not connect the dots that the cast was going to play the actual band so that was a very nice surprise to discover cast doubling as musicians because they were fantastic. Shout out to Courtney Reed and her vocal performance. I know she's half Vietnamese but man she pulled off of her role lead vocalist in the band pretty well. I don't speak Khmer specifically but I personally know tonal languages are such a mind f*** I can only imagine the challenges of being taught to sing in a tonal language that is not your native tongue.

I cannot wrap my head over Francis Jue role as narrator the beginning. It was confusing for me plus he sitting on stage in the scene like an awkward bystander and then when he comes out and share who he really is? Um what? I get the narration was probably incorporated in order to tie the pieces together and nudge to the audience along but I was not a fan.

Joe Ngo was the stand out performance of the night for me but the direction for Chum bothered me. It read like the character was a bad attempt to mock an Asian dad with a forced broken English accent and not in a way where it could be pulled off as satire or something. Although some of the mannerisms were spot on and reminded me of my own father, I think he could have gone without the accent. If accents weren't utilized in S21 scenes (where they'd hypothetically would be speaking in Khmer) I don't think it was necessarily needed to execute Chum's character.

[bear88]

Posted: 3/6/23 at 4:00am

Cambodian Rock Band finally made its way to the Berkeley Rep last month. I saw it Saturday night and was very impressed - as was my wife, who went in completely cold. "The Khmer Rouge, genocide and rock and roll," I said, not terribly reassuringly. when she asked me what it was about on the way inside the theater. (That's all I remembered from long-ago reviews; I got tickets because there was a cheap New Year's Eve offer.)  Lauren Yee's play isn't perfect, with easy-to-guess revelations and sometimes clunky plot devices. But the play works once it settles in, daring the audience to have sympathy for the devil and riding the strength of its performances.

The most important characters, not counting daughter Neary/Sothea, are the same as in the Signature Theatre production and they don't disappoint. Joe Ngo had me a bit unsure at first, as I wondered if he was overplaying things as Neary's father. But that all changed once he transforms onstage into his younger self. Waiting in the wings is the always-reliable Francis Jue, as the math teacher turned torture camp head Duch.

Ngo's performance is a marvel. He, Jue, Moses Villarama - and Geena Quintos, taking over as Neary and Sothea - take Yee's script and make it sing. I had found the only other play of Yee's I had seen decidedly mediocre, but this was daring and thought-provoking theater with the power of a concert.

Updated On: 3/6/23 at 04:00 AM