With just two actors onstage for 90 minutes, The Heart Sellers relies entirely on the chemistry, charisma, and emotional intelligence of its performers—and in TheatreWorks’s production, Nicole Javier as Luna and Narea Kang as Jane more than rise to the occasion. Under the fluid direction of Jennifer Chang, their performances are vivid, honest, and remarkably nuanced.
Playwright Lloyd Suh’s script, sharp and emotionally rich, brings together two immigrant women—strangers at first—who find solace and unexpected kinship in each other’s company over the course of one Thanksgiving evening in 1973. Luna and Jane meet by chance at a Kmart, where they’ve unknowingly picked out identical winter coats. Both are new to the U.S., both married to overworked medical residents, and both facing the holiday alone. Luna extends an invitation. Jane accepts. Luna and Jane decide they will cook a turkey—their first in America—even though they know very little about how to cook one or, for that matter, any of the side dishes that make up a typical American Thanksgiving dinner. What begins as awkward small talk slowly unfolds into something tender, funny, and quietly revolutionary.
Arnel Sancianco’s set captures the texture of a 1970s apartment with uncanny accuracy—from the yellowish refrigerator, the medium-brown cabinets, the beige oven, and mustard, patterned Naugahyde kitchen chairs to the modest, lived-in touches that hint at the characters’ lives beyond the frame. It’s not just a nostalgic backdrop; it’s an environment that breathes, one that enhances the intimate storytelling at the play’s core.
Fueled by Lancer’s wine to let down their inhibitions, they laugh a lot, and even to share what they would love to do if only they could let down their hair a bit. The women trade hopes, regrets, and confessions. Jane reveals a hidden passion for singing and dancing (and she demonstrates both); Luna longs to be a painter, though she fears she never will. Their stories echo across generations of immigrants who have struggled not just to adapt, but to be seen—as more than wives, more than workers, more than appendages to someone else’s dream. Once their residency is over, the husbands will be sent somewhere else to become doctors.
The Heart Sellers is more than a play. It’s a quiet rebellion against invisibility, a celebration of small acts of courage and connection. And thanks to two luminous performances, it becomes something unforgettable: a reminder that sometimes, all it takes to feel a little less alone is a bottle of wine, a shared coat, and someone who finally listens.
photos by Alessandra Mello
The Heart Sellers
TheatreWorks
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St. in Mountain View
90 minutes, with no intermission
ends on April 27, 2025
for tickets ($34-$115), call 877.662.8978 or visit TheatreWorks
