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Instead, she remained in the public eye for almost two decades.
Suh uses this real story as the armature for his instructive, occasionally devastating play.
She is annoyed with Atung for his passive aggression (Atung is irrelevant!
When he talks directly to us, Isaac steers hard into every head-bobbing, eager-to-yo Asian stereotype.
Its deliberately awful, most painful when the audience laughs.
Every time Atung draws the curtain after Afong Moys short exhibition of tea and walking, years leap past.
She could bring back a white girl to further cultural understanding, she thinks.
Atung closes the curtain.
Atung opens the curtain.
She seems less enthusiastic as she pours the tea, though shes still smiling.
Decades go by; she never leaves.
Suh and director Ralph B. Pena premieredThe Chinese Ladyin 2018, produced by Penas group the Ma-Yi Theater Company.
I sawThe Chinese Ladyin that first production in 2018.
It had the same cast and director but it looked quite different.
The Public revival approaches the mise-en-scene more impressionistically.
These look blobby and sterile, the kind of thing you see in hotel art.
The production has lost a good portion of its loveliness with these changes.
It has lost its visual tartness and humor, too.
Suhs careful stitching, though, has not pulled loose over the years.
He balances workplace comedy weve all worked with an Atung!
and swift, excoriating bitterness with a measuring hand.
Every time she picks up verbal speed, hes there with a metaphorical clothesline.
The Chinese Ladyis at the Public Theater through April 10.
