Posted: 4/13/23 at 2:07am
One of my favorite plays of recent years, which I saw in 2018 at ACT's Strand Theater in San Francisco, was Vietgone, a wild mix of comedy, hip-hop and pointed drama about a Vietnamese family's reluctant immigrant journey to the United States in 1975 that was all the more effective because the drama often came out of the blue. It also had one of my favorite conclusions of a play, in part because of playwright Qui Nguyen and the marvelous, transformative performance by James Seol as Quang, the male lead and father of the playwright character who was born and raised in the United States.
The sequel, Poor Yella Rednecks, debuted back in 2019 at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa and is headed to the Manhattan Theatre Club this fall. Back at the Strand through May 7, the show has a similar format but a different cast and is told mostly from the playwright's mother Tong's perspective, looking back as she insists to her son in 2015 that her story be told "true and hard," and avoiding what she describes as his penchant for romanticism. The main story picks up about six years after the conclusion of the Vietnam War, with Quang and Tong married and living in a small Arkansas town with a young son (portrayed by actor Will Dao as a talking puppet). The marriage hits rocky times for a variety of reasons, and Tong - played by Jenny Nguyen Nelson - decides to split up with Quang, played by Hyunmin Rhee.
Like Vietgone, the new play is combination of Lin-Manuel Miranda-style rap, comic scenes (often involving Tong and her fierce mother Huong, played by Christine Jamlig, who still wants no part of learning English) and poignant drama. Nguyen gleefully peppers the story with F-bombs, even more than in the original, and I thought that sometimes worked to the show's detriment. The balance felt a little off, as the play goes from one rap song by Tong that's a profanity-laden rant to tender scenes with "Little Man," the couple's little boy who is struggling with English, bullies, unsympathetic teachers, and a mysteriously absent father. Vietgone, of course, had wild tonal shifts too - but it somehow worked more effectively. I re-read the first play on Wednesday to try to reconcile my different reactions. Yeah, the performances were stellar, but the comedy was fresher and the personal drama challenged both old liberal pieties about Vietnam and what Quang's family there really needed from him in 1975. There's nothing in the new play that is as "true and hard" as those Vietgone scenes.
Poor Yella Rednecks is not without its pleasures, and it's still fun watching the actors slip seamlessly in and out of different roles, but there's definitely a sense of sequel-itis this time. The play is rarely surprising, because Nguyen has used similar tricks to greater comic or dramatic effect in Vietgone. As the story of one family's struggles, with Quang often absent or passive, it's less compelling than the more universal story of war-torn refugees trying to survive and reluctantly adjust to America. There's a predictability about the play that is a little disappointing, and even a late scene addressing the fear of losing the family's Vietnamese identity by learning English - as close to the bone as Nguyen gets - plays a little too sweet.
Many of the actors have performed in Vietgone across the country, with Jamlig serving as an understudy during its 2018 run at the Strand. The show is intended as the second of a trilogy, which made its references to The Empire Strikes Back amusing if a bit optimistic. I'm honestly not sure where the story can go from here onstage and think Nguyen - who has plenty of other irons in the fire as a playwright, TV story editor and movie screenwriter (last year's unsuccessful Disney film Strange World) - may have to adjust his formula for a third chapter.
Updated On: 4/13/23 at 02:07 AM
