MANY PARTS ARE EDIBLE
It’s fascinating to watch a new generation of Asian playwrights — Mike Lew, Qui Nguyen, Lauren Yee, Dipika Guha, Christopher Chen — writing about the quest for identity as it pertains to traditional upbringing, here or abroad, and current frustrations as modern Asians in America, often addressing race within a meta, madcap, or farcical context. Now comes Dustin H. Chinn’s Colonialism is Terrible, But Phở is Delicious, a triptych 90-minute play which opened last night at Chance Theater in Anaheim. While four actors play different roles, each scene stands apart from the others, yet they all center on the subject of culinary cultural appropriation. What I like about the play is that Chinn makes societal criticism so much fun. It’s a cute play for the first two scenes, but the third became a bit annoying after a while.
Dustin Vuong Nguyen as Nguyên, Hannah Mariah as Thúy, and Casey Long as Guillaume
The first scene takes place in Hanoi 1899 (then French Indochina), where a highly prized and proud local chef is brought in by a Viet butler to a French aristocrat’s home to cook French food for a woman uninterested in local cuisine. The new cook will be taught by an outgoing French cook who grows vegetables in the backyard that can’t be found in Vietnam. The French language is heard in English with an exaggerated accent, but when Vietnamese is spoken, it sounds American. (Yes, it’s as funny as it sounds.)
Casey Long as Guillaume and Chloé Gay Brewer as Madame Gagnier
A hundred years later in 1999, we are in Ho Chi Minh City, where an excessively friendly tourism official is introducing two nervous Americans — who are dressed by costumer Maggie Whitaker as if they were visiting Disney World — to the traditional noodle soup dish known as Phở (pronounced in 2 sounds, sliding up at the end: fo/ə). His sister, selling from a roadside stall, doesn’t trust these food-tasting Americans (who have a hilarious cowboy accent when speaking English), and you’ll find out just why this is so.
Dustin Vuong Nguyen as Quang and Hannah Mariah as Mùi
Then in present-day Brooklyn, two foodie friends visit a chi-chi restaurant where an imperious white chef is charging $45 a bowl for his American version of Phở, the kind where all ingredients are already in the soup, giving the finger to traditional Phở, in which consumers add extra ingredients such as chilis and hoisin sauce. Something did not ring true about this part, as we wondered, Why don’t the girls just try his soup? And the shouting match between chef and customer didn’t make sense given director Oánh Nguyễn’s broad strokes; aren’t there other patrons in the restaurant? In the two preceding scenes, Nguyễn did great with the over-the-top humor.
Chloé Gay Brewer as Rose, Dustin Vuong Nguyen as Quang, Hannah Mariah as Mùi
In the first two parts, Hannah Mariah — always the imposing agitator — effectively plays two caustic cooks disinterested in the opinions of outsiders, but by the time she plays the headstrong customer, her righteousness began to get a little irritating. Dustin Vuong Nguyen — playing the bootlicker who wants to get ahead — positively soars as the Viet steward, a gadfly tourism “official” and and a pompous restaurant manager. When Chloé Gay Brewer’s puffed-up French woman incessantly fans herself, you can actually feel the humidity (it was particularly humorous when the aristocrat fans right up her gorgeous brocaded dress). Her fawning tourist speaking broken Vietnamese actually made me worried for her; but her blogger in the final scene was unremarkable. Chance Managing Director Casey Long got to chew some scenery as the French chef, a traveler amusingly stumbling to make himself understood, and a conceited, impatient restaurant chef.
Hannah Mariah as Danielle, Dustin Vuong Nguyen as Sam, Casey Long as Chris
Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre Company presented the first part of the rolling world premiere last November. After the Chance, there will be a third production at Oregon Contemporary Theatre in May. All three shows are being directed by Nguyễn.
Hannah Mariah as Thúy and Casey Long as Guillaume
photos by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio
Colonialism is Terrible, But Phở is Delicious
Chance Theater
Cripe Stage @ Bette Aitken theater arts Center, 5522 E. La Palma in Anaheim
Fri & Sat at 8; Sat & Sun at 3
ends on April 30, 2023
for tickets, call 888.455.4212 or visit Chance
