NEW YORK—Somewhere between off-off Broadway and obscurity, the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre is one of the few small New York theater companies to have stayed afloat for more than 30 years—already an achievement in this town, but even more remarkable is that it's made up almost entirely of Asian actors and actresses.
Tisa Chang founded the theater in 1977 at a time when Asians were generally offered degrading and stereotypical roles in film and theater. The Pan Asian Repertory Theatre offered Tisa and her colleagues a chance to write, direct, and produce original work, as well as adaptations of Western classics—such as Tisa's first hit, a bilingual version of A Midsummer Night's Dream set in 1,000 B.C. China.
The company's latest musical production, The Missing Woman, strings together a series of Vietnamese folk tales in order to examine the role of women in Vietnamese society. Directed and written by Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc, the play includes Vietnamese dialogue, but is designed for viewing by English speakers.
The woman in this play is an accomplished zither player. Out in the world she is admired and appreciated by her audience, but at home her husband, a self-absorbed painter who cares only for his work, gives her the cold shoulder. One night she leaves him. The clueless husband is left to figure out why.
The twist is that the husband turns to the women in his paintings to find an answer. Each of the figures in the paintings is a Vietnamese historical or legendary figure and each has sacrificed, and suffered, for love.
The first woman is a character in a Vietnamese epic poem. She is given to a king as a peace offering even though her heart belongs to another, so she jumps into the sea, committing suicide, to stay true to her love.
The second woman is a famous female general in the Vietnamese resistance against Chinese rule in the 1st Century. When the Chinese army captures her husband, she is faced with the decision of either surrendering to save her husband or continuing their battle. Her choice is to move ahead with their attack even as she mourns her husband as though he were already dead—an act of selflessness and sacrifice for a greater cause.
There are five women in all. After seeing and speaking to all these women in his portraits, the artist understands more about loyalty, love, and loss, and how on some level all women sacrifice a part of themselves for their husbands and their families. He sees that his wife left him because he failed to truly appreciate her as both a wife and an artist.
The singing style is reminiscent of the highly stylized forms of Chinese opera with other traditional and modern forms thrown in.
Overall, Tisa and Minh Ngoc brought to light a number of interesting Vietnamese legends that most New Yorkers would never have otherwise been exposed to. Despite its rough edges, the effort that was put into making this production happen was obvious, and that effort is greatly appreciated.
The play runs through April 12 at the West End Theater, 263 West 86th Street at 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $20 - $40. For more information visit http://www.PanAsianRep.org
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