You've Got (Revolutionary) Mail

Letters to a Student Revolutionary

Letters to a Student Revolutionary

Directed by Due Quach '00

Produced by Flora Kao '00, Jaynie Chen '02, Carey Hsu '00

Starring Angela Hur '02, June Mee Kim '00

Loeb Ex

Dec. 8-11

Letters to a Student Revolutionary is a powerful production that swells between moments of extreme emotional drama and wonderful humor. It is the story of a ten-year friendship between an Chinese-American woman and her mirror image in China, which begins with Bibi's (Angela Hur '02) 1979 family tour of China while she is in her late teens.

The charming details of this play strengthen Bibi and Karen's (June Mee Kim '00) authentic performances. The minimal set includes a banner that drapes above the audience and includes us in the conflict between the jail-barred motif of the Chinese half of the banner and the American stars and stripes that is at the heart of this play. From the very beginning, color is central to the understanding of the contrasts between China and the consumerist American society with which Bibi identifies herself. Bibi comes onto the stage dressed in rainbow colors; in contrast, the only colors that are allowed in China, according to Karen, are "gray, blue and green." This is part of the goal of director Due Quach '00 to present "true historical events in an art form."

Other carefully thought out details of this production include the sound-effects and the slide projections. The vivid slides more than make up for the paucity of the physical set. These images remind the audience that this is not just a play about two individuals out of time and place, but that they refer to historical events that actually occurred. The penultimate scene of the Tiananmen Square Massacre becomes real for the audience as they see Karen and her friends suffering from physical and mental pain in front of the backdrop of projected photos of the real actors and victims of Tiananmen Square.

The script is subtle and complex, and this production takes full advantage of its depth. Nor is it one-sided: as we learn from a ten-year correspondence (often wonderfully interactive on stage) between Karen and Bibi, Karen feels stifled by the oppressive Chinese regime that imposes the role of a "good citizen" on its people at the expense of the individual. Karen feels like "a beautiful bird in a cage" whose colors will never be seen nor its song heard. Reading about America and the freedom allowed in the West in books sent by Bibi only makes Karen more depressed.

But the originality of this play lies in the fact that Bibi too has problems, despite the freedoms of America. This play does not idealize American society--the only quibble one might have with the play is that it never mentions any positive aspects of Chinese culture, perhaps because it is written from a Chinese-American viewpoint. Bibi's problems include a lack of direction and dissatisfaction with her career in journalism--her dilemma stems from an overabundance of choices. While Bibi's problem lies in too many men from which to choose, Karen can only choose one. Bibi complains of quickly changing one job for another, but Karen cannot leave her job. When Bibi contemplates suicide in a letter, Karen says the only freedoms that remain for the Chinese are "when to die, how to die and for what we will die." When Bibi complains of her mother's disapproval of her career and life choices, Karen wishes she still had a mother to scold her: her mother had been taken away and executed by the government for stealing food for her children. Bibi and Karen shine realistically in their roles--they, like their countries, are not idealized. Each reacts selfishly to the other's problems. Each wants what she does not have.

The dramatic moments of this play do not tend toward melodrama; they reveal the talents of Hur and Kim. The loss of Karen's mother, the collapse and death of Bibi's father, and of course the Massacre itself are such powerful moments that very real emotion travels between Bibi and Karen and reverberates through the audience. Bibi and Karen seem to be connected through their experiences. Throughout their friendship, they learn that they have much in common, and although the premise is that they are never reunited after their first encounter, they often speak directly and even touch across the geographic and political divide, which thus becomes an imaginary barrier in the human sense.

Due Quach must be congratulated for her brilliant direction of this play. The chorus, which consists of a small number of actors who play various other roles, is effective, and one does not get confused by the changing roles. My personal favorite, Debbie the Cat (Bill Maskiell '02), captures perfectly the essence of feline nature with a human personality. Such humor makes Letters not only a dramatic and moving testament to the universal human need for freedom and self-fulfillment, but also a funny and delightful play to watch.