Drama on Race and Ethnicity Has Heart, Humor--and Length

There was a time, perhaps in the late 1980s, when the answer to at least one ethical quandary was so clear. At least among enlightened people familiar with theater history, it was patently unacceptable to put blackface on a white actor and send him onstage to play a black character. And, by extension, it was wrong to cast a white actor as an Asian.

The devil, as usual, is in the details, a point made alternately with strident passion and sentimental humor in Yellow Face, which runs through March 25 at CSUN's Little Theater.

In 1988, Little Miss Saigon concluded its successful run in London and prepared to open on Broadway. In London, the key role of an Asian pimp had been played by Welshman Jonathan Pryce, a white actor who had been widely praised for his performance. However, after he was chosen to reprise the role on Broadway, Asian-Americans and others objected to what they saw as yet another example of "yellowface."

Should the part of an ethnic Asian be played by an ethnic Asian or should, as others argued, the role go to the best available actor? Actors Equity originally sided with those who claimed casting a white actor was racist, then later reversed itself.

Initially, respected  playwright David Henry Hwang, a native Angelino and the first Asian-American to win a Tony for best play (M. Butterfly), joined the attack on the casting of Pryce.  In this play, a long and penetrating examination of ethnicity and identity on stage and in real life, Hwang doesn't specifically repudiate his position but he comes to realize that the question will not yield to absolute pronouncements or even good intentions.

In Yellow Face, Hwang, played by Jeffrey Sabino, puts himself front and center as he reviews a series of events, some real and some fictitious, in which he subsequently became involved and that shed new light on the significance of racial and ethnic identity.  Seven other cast members play a smorgasbord of other parts to dramatize each new development in Hwang's intellectual odyssey over the next 17 years.

Hwang examines the issue from more than a dozen perspectives which, as it turns out, is a little too much of a good thing. The play becomes an unfiltered receptacle for Hwang's fears, hopes, dreams, irritants and criticism of both politics and media.

As the play limps to its conclusion, the character, undoubtedly aware of the exhaustive path he has taken his audience, offers an explanation, only partly in jest. "I'm a writer and, in the end, everything's about me." A more sincere apology would have also required a considerable edit.

Director Christine Menzies, using minimal sets and props, elicits more than credible performances from the student cast. Her pacing goes a long way to offset Hwang's all-inclusive drama.

Sabino, as Hwang, has to manage an unusually large amount of dialogue while convincing us that this play is less about him and more about an increasingly complex issue made even more difficult by an increasingly diverse population which continues to redefine the very concept of race and ethnicity. Sabino was partly successful at both tasks, although there were signs of opening night jitters, particularly in the second act.

At the same time, special credit goes to Travis Thi, whose roles included Hwang's proud and optimistic father, as well as Grace Yoo and Rebecca Silberman, for being particularly effective in virtually all of the parts they played.

Performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and March 24, as well as at 2:30 p.m. Sunday and on March 25. For information call the ticket office at 818-677-2488.