Photo by T Charles Erickson
‘The Heart Sellers’ – Written by Lloyd Suh. Directed by May Adrales. Scenic and Costume Design by Junghyun Georgia Lee. Lighting Design by Kat C. Zhou. Sound Design and Original Music by Fabian Obispo. Hair and Makeup Design by Rachel Padula-Shufelt. At Boston Center for the Arts Calderwood Pavilion/Wimberly Theatre, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, through December 23, 2023.
by Linda Chin
In this season of gratitude, I am grateful to be seeing more stories about Asians on American stages, and for playwrights, like Lloyd Suh, who create these possibilities. Three of the award-winning American playwright’s plays have been produced on professional stages in metro Boston in the last eight years, and I’ve had the good fortune to see all three. The Wong Kids in the Secret of the Space Chupacabra Go!, brought to ArtsEmerson by Ma-Yi Theater Company in 2016, is the fantastical tale of imaginary modern-day teens Bruce and Violet Wong, who use their newly discovered powers for intergalactic teleportation. The play’s blend of engaging live actors, clever dialogue, puppetry, and an underscore (!) changed people’s perceptions – that theater for young audiences could have broad appeal and that superheroes could be young, extraordinary, and Asian.
The Chinese Lady, produced by Central Square Theater in partnership with CHUANG Stage in 2022, tells the little-known story of Afong Moy – who was the first woman from China to step (with her tiny bound feet) onto US soil in 1834 and was displayed with other Chinese objects in a life-sized diorama for “the education and entertainment” of paying spectators for many years. Suh’s new narrative (which includes Moy’s interpreter/caretaker Atung, who is invisible in most historical accounts) calls out anti-Asian prejudice and exploitation and reclaims Asians’ roles in American history. The play also enhances Asian representation, challenges stereotypes, and celebrates individuality. Suh’s writing sparkles with wisdom and wit.
As part of its 2023-24 season (and with the brilliant The Band’s Visit, also about cross-cultural communication and connection, across town), The Huntington presents The Heart Sellers, a two-hander set in a mid-sized U.S. city in November 1973, fifty years ago. Suh tells the ‘simple’ story of two ‘ordinary’ women, Luna and Jane. They’re newly arrived immigrants who feel lonely and isolated and are homesick for who and what they left behind in the Philippines and Korea, and housewives who feel hungry for attention from their hardworking physician-husbands and have hopes, dreams, and desires of their own.
In The Heart Sellers, we’ve been invited to Luna’s apartment, where Jane is visiting for the first time. It is cold outside, but the apartment is cozy and warm. Luna and Jane (Jenna Agbayani and Judy Song, both positively luminous and joyous) are newly acquainted, having met by chance in the grocery store hours before. As Asian women in a predominantly white city, they were drawn to each other but broke the ice by chatting about their identical winter coats (both purchased from K-Mart!) and preparing a traditional holiday meal. Learning that their husbands are both working at the hospital and they were planning to spend the holiday cooking and eating alone, they agree to spend the day together.
The world that scenic (and costume) designer Junghyun Georgia Lee has created for this play (supported by Kat C. Zhou’s lighting) is both detailed and realistic and spare and otherworldly. Luna’s apartment has been created in a box, diorama-like, with the overstuffed couch, wooden coat rack, harvest gold appliances, and knick-knacks typical of the period. In contrast, the box itself is ultra-contemporary, dark and glossy, and seems to be suspended/floating on the stage. The costumes were a thoughtful blend of traditional, possibly home-sewn (the colorful, comfortable, flowy housedresses they don at the end of the play) and modern, mass-produced (their matching winter coats from K-Mart), possibly imported from Asia.
Peering into the diorama, we are treated to both sad and light-hearted moments, which Suh writes, May Adrales directs and Jenna Agbayani and Judy Song perform with extraordinary sensitivity and skill. Loosened up from drinking wine and giddy with pleasure from connecting with people who feel familiar, Luna and Jane spend the afternoon talking about life in America – topics ranging from frozen turkey, favorite TV shows, disco dancing, penises, and places they’d like to go – nightclubs (to research dance styles), porn flicks (to research penis sizes). They also talk about life back home – Communist regimes, their families, how they met their husbands, how differently yams taste, and how differently rain smells.
Suh’s fascination with the experience of Asians in America, past, present, and future, and careful research about what’s documented (and not) in history books is also evident in The Heart Sellers. Thursday, November 22, 1973, marked not only Thanksgiving but the 10th anniversary of the tragic death of President John F. Kennedy and the breaking news about Watergate in the Nixon administration. These events are written into the play and set the time and place. Additionally, the play’s title is a homophone of the Hart-Celler Act of 1965, which abolished immigration quotas based on national origin and included “highly skilled” labor in its priorities. The law’s passage led to heightened immigration from southern Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa in the 70s.
Playwright Suh and director Adrales are both children of Asian immigrants – their parents came to America in the 70s from Korea and the Philippines to pursue the American Dream, experience political and financial freedom, and create better lives for their future children. The Heart Sellers and Suh and Adrales’ continued collaboration grew from a conversation they had during the pandemic about social isolation, their mothers, and their shared connection as children of the Hart-Celler Act. While at its core a deeply personal story about his mother, Suh’s multi-layered The Heart Sellers has broad appeal. And not just for mothers, immigrants, or Asians. It will resonate with anyone who has felt isolated, lonely, unseen, or has faced challenges navigating unfamiliar territory – a new country or a new friendship. The Heart Sellers is a delightful and delicious story, engaging – even mesmerizing – from start to finish. It will make you laugh and cry, and will also steal your heart. For tickets and information, go to: https://www.huntingtontheatre.org/whats-on/the-heart-sellers/
