Review-Chinglish-Hong Kong Arts Festival

  7-3-13

By: Satoshi Kyo

Chinglish is a comedy by Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang about an Ohio businessman, Daniel Cavanaugh (Alex Moggridge), who went to Guiyang in China to gain a contract for his sign company and all the misadventures of misunderstanding and miscommunication between cultures that he experienced in doing so. The show, directed by Leigh Silverman, opened on Broadway on October 27, 2011 to critical acclaim and was performed in English and Putonghua with smartly placed and translated English surtitles projected.

Upon knowing the theme behind the play, Sofia Coppola’s movie Lost in Translation immediately came to mind and I wondered how much unpleasant stereotyping would be directed toward the yellow people this time. On the other hand, Chinglish is written by a Chinese-American and perhaps it would be different… and indeed it was very different.

Though the play is written from a Western perspective, there were more than a few glimpses of lucid understanding of the complex dynamics in the Chinese socio-political system. For those who have done business or have spent enough time in China, the relevance was relentless. While the situations were intelligently funny, the undercurrent subject of shifting tides, both between the USA and China and within China itself, was uncanny and most timely. Oh, the caricatures were still there; after all it is a comedy. I am just glad that there was no spitting on stage.

Moggridge as the bewildered Cavanaugh was believable and able to craft an attractive balance of being cocky and clueless. Michelle Krusiec’s Xi Yan was the perfect Dragon Lady and carried beautifully most of the underpinning subtext. Raymond Ma as Minister Cai was spot-on and Celeste Den as an incompetent interpreter was pure comic relief. The superb set design of David Korins helped keep the story moving forward seamlessly.

If there is one thing that I wish was better, it has to be the accents, British or Mainland Chinese. But overall, Chinglish was an absolute delight.

Hong Kong Arts Festival's production of Chinglish has closed. For more information, click here.


Rate This Show: 1 2 3 4 5 Audience Rating: 4.0

Comments

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    07 March 2013

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  • Francesca Wood
    07 May 2013

    I feel that this show was mainly aimed at Chinese people, being a caucasian person watching the show I did not understand the majority of the conversation.

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