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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Jackson County elected officials to get pay raises ... Making ancient stories new again ... Former firefighter accused of theft from District 3 faces charges in Virginia ... Jackson County elected officials to get pay raises ... Making ancient stories new again ... Former firefighter accused of theft from District 3 faces charges in Virginia ... THEATER REVIEW Review: An immigrant story told nonlinearly in OSF's "Vietgone" Comment By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune Posted Apr. 3, 2016 at 8:38 PM By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune Posted Apr. 3, 2016 at 8:38 PM » Social News How do you introduce a sex comedy about your parents? An actor (Paco Tolson) playing playwright Qui Nguyen does it by walking onto the stage of “Vietgone,” a farce with heart about South Vietnamese people who fled their country in 1975, and issuing a mock denial that the main characters are his (Nguyen’s) parents. Going all meta on us right out of the gate doesn’t actually give us any information about the characters, but it does tell us a bit about the play, which opened Sunday afternoon in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s intimate Thomas Theatre. Part of what it says is that Nguyen has his tongue deep in his cheek. It also hints that we’re about to see some stereotypes exploded. Quang (James Ryen) is a hunky South Vietnamese pilot who helicoptered a lot of people from the chaos of the American embassy to the safety of an American aircraft carrier the day in 1975 that Saigon fell. But he couldn’t get his wife and two children out, an objective that’s a through line in the play. At a refugee camp in Arkansas, Quang meets sexy, independent Tong (Jeena Yi), and it’s lust at first sight. But Nguyen has bigger things in mind than the romance plot involving his parents. In a mad, postmodern pastiche that jumps around in time and quotes memes from the pop culture of the ‘70s and elsewhen, the playwright has created nothing less than a foundation myth for Vietnamese-Americans not entirely unlike what Shakespeare did for Protestant, Renaissance England in the Henriad. Nguyen grew up in Arkansas, studied theater at Ohio University and founded Vampire Cowboys, a theater company in New York City pioneering what he calls “geek theater,” which is marked by a comic book sensibility complete with superheroes and elaborate fights (a spectacular kung fu fight scene in “Vietgone” is as good as any I’ve ever seen at OSF). Part of the pleasure of “Vietgone” lies in seeing familiar history from an alternative point of view. The play’s characters are plunked down in an alien culture, yet they are at bottom no different from any other Americans. “We’re like American cowboys. John Wayne and s—-,” Quang says. Decades later, he says he hates for Americans to apologize to him for the war, since in his view the Americans saved his life. Although the events are taking place in the ‘70s, as we are reminded by video projections and a soundtrack that runs heavily to vintage soul and Motown, the characters talk and act like young people of today. They bid to turn the air blue with creative cursing (the OSF put out a language warning), they banter, they rap. Some of the raps fail to move the plot along, instead becoming platforms for actors to express thoughts and emotions we already know they have. But they inject the hip-hop vibe of Nguyen’s generation, and most work emotionally, perhaps in part because we’re jumping around in time anyway. The play’s handling of languages has the virtue of assuming a smart audience. When Vietnamese characters speak among themselves they sound like American Millennials (no “Me so solly” Asian stereotypes here). But when characters speak in a language not their own, it comes out as comical pidgin language. We hear Quang speak like a young American dude through nearly the whole play, but in a key, time-bending scene involving the ears of a younger character, he sounds like an elderly Asian immigrant. As the play jumps around in time — perhaps like real refugees remembering their difficult lives but refusing to be defined by them — it threatens for a time to get confusing. Relax. Nguyen knows where he’s going, and May Adrales, who directed, has a firm command of all the goodies Nguyen has assembled. And what goodies. Sex, drug use, violence, the horrors of the first television war, a buddy story, a proto-feminist, a road story, a ratty old motorcycle on which Quang hopes to begin his journey back to his homeland, comic characters like an outlaw biker and some cliche hippies who, given Nguyen’s esthetic, come off as a comic quote of a quote. There’s a lot of doubling (and more) from a strong cast (Will Dao plays four characters, and Amy Kim Waschke and Paco Tolson each play six), as the play roams across a mythic America as Quang’s motorcycle Odyssey seems to trace the old Highway 66 Mother Road. As Tong’s horny, manipulative mother, Amy Kim Waschke is a hoot. Among other things, the play gives the Thomas a chance to show off its tech capabilities, with Shane Rettig’s spine-rattling sound and Shawn Duan’s videos combining in sometimes jaw-dropping effects such as a panicked helicopter flight. It’s rare that the final scene of a play can pull things together and cast a different light on the whole thing, but Nguyen pulls it off in “Vietgone.” That’s no mean feat. It’s said he envisions a five-play series. If that’s so, sign me up for the next four. —Reach freelance writer Bill Varble at varble.bill @gmail.com. By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune Posted Apr. 3, 2016 at 8:38 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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