REACHING FOR THE
AMERICAN DREAM

Henry Ong’s final play transforms
one man’s remarkable life
into a timely cautionary tale

Ascent is a small gem. It is not ostentatious enough to be affixed to the crown of some monarch, nor sumptuous enough to be a gaudy piece of “bling” dangling about some rapper’s neck, but it has the value to be intimately treasured.

Playwright Henry Ong (1949–2018) was a much-beloved fixture in the Los Angeles theatre community, and the staging of Ascent at the Skylight Theatre Company has benefited from that love, having been chiseled and sheened to a stunning illumination by producers Carrie Menkel-Meadow and Bob Meadow, in collaboration with Plain Wood Productions and Stella Ong, the playwright’s sister.

Trieu Tran (photo by Angel Origgi)

Ong’s play is truthful, timely, and tidy, a trinity all playwrights should keep in mind.

Truthful: the tale told involves the real-life triumphs and tribulations of Qian Xuesen (Trieu Tran), a young Chinese engineer who pursued the American dream and, in the process, made major contributions to the nation’s aerospace industry and this country’s security.

Timely: arriving prior to the outbreak of World War II, Qian faces the racial barriers firmly rooted in the land of the free. Soon, however, Qian is recognized for the brilliance of his ideas and the contributions he can make to the war effort against Japan, which now occupies China.

Russell Edge, Trieu Tran, Iris Liu and Jorge-Luis Pallo (photo by Randy Wong-Westbrooke)

Eventually, Qian earns a slice of the American dream for himself and his wife Jiang Jean (Iris Liu), who joins him in the “land of promise.” But with the advent of the Cold War and the rise of Hoover and McCarthy, that promise is broken, and Qian is shown the nightmare behind the dream. Qian’s ordeal as the “stranger,” the “immigrant,” reflects all the sins seen daily on CNN, and Ong’s Ascent is a morality play for our time, one that needs to be seen.

Tidy: the play’s settings roam from China to both American coasts and a few stops in between; the period covered extends from 1935 to 2012; but Ong contains this on an elegantly precise and lovely set by Randy Wong-Westbrooke, accented by John Zalewski’s sound design, Joey Guthman’s lights, and the artful projections of Yuki Izumihara.

Iris Liu, Trieu Tran (photo by Randy Wong-Westbrooke)

With Tran and Liu as our central characters, a dramatis personae of some thirty characters—from presidents to toddlers—are portrayed with chameleon-like aplomb by Russell Edge and Jorge-Luis Pallo. Diana Wyenn has done more than merely direct this piece; she has crafted it with a sculptor’s attention to detail.

Central to the success of this production are the performances of Liu and especially Tran as our two lovers, not crossed by the stars, but brutally sacrificed to appease the fear of an unraveling society.

Trieu Tran (photo by Angel Origgi)

Ascent has been mounted with an amazing amount of love, and it shows in every moment. Ascent is not a massive storm, but a delicately fashioned tempest in miniature—not one that belongs in a matchbox. Henry Ong’s Ascent is a tempest in a Fabergé jewel box.

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photos by Randy Wong-Westbrooke and Angel Origgi

Ascent
Skylight Theatre
1816½ N. Vermont Ave. in Los Angeles
Thurs-Sat at 8; Sun at 3
ends on June 14, 2026
for tickets, visit Skylight Theatre

for more shows, visit Theatre in LA

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