The Bottoming Process
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
IAMA Theatre Company and the Los Angeles LGBT Center
Through June 12
RECOMMENDED
What happens when ethnic identity stops being a gift and starts being a curse? In Nicholas Pilapil’s The Bottoming Process, a gay Filipino American man becomes so obsessed with how his Asian-ness —and his sexuality — is perceived that he torches a mutually loving relationship with someone who, it would seem, genuinely cares for him.
An LA native and the American-born son of a Filipina immigrant, Milo (George Salazar) is an unpublished essayist and social commentator in his late 20s. One day in a trendy communal workspace he meets John (Rick Cosnett), a published author renowned for a hit series of books for young people. The two begin to date, after which — helped along by John’s connections — Milo’s career is launched. He moves into John’s comfortable home, and they share an idyllic few months before Milo’s inner demons seize control and sow doubt and dissention both in his own mind and heart and between John and himself.
The main issue tormenting Milo, reiterated over and again in his writing, is his identity as an Asian in a White society — which means, for him, that he’s viewed as someone lesser. More than anything, he’s haunted by the sexual stereotypes of Asians that have been perpetrated within Western culture, as either exotic or submissive or both. Milo takes this very personally because he translates it into the “feminization” of gay Asian men. His partner’s past struggles —as a youth, John fled a homophobic “Christian” community in Nebraska before establishing a life for himself in cosmopolitan LA —are perceived by Milo as of miniscule importance compared to the burdens he juggles daily as a gay man of color.
This toxic blend of hubris, resentment and raging insecurity plays out in vivid hues in Salazar’s high-powered performance. His Milo is one of those people who’s always “on” — an “on,” moreover, without a filter. Whatever Milo happens to think and feel at any given moment is laid out for anyone to hear. He often shares his passions and pains with his Korean American friend Rosie (Julia Cho) — whose tongue is as facile and biting as his but whose perspective embraces an affinity for the work of the very British Jane Austen, whose 19th century heroines strive for domestic bliss in marriage, as does Rosie herself. (Some of the conversations between Milo and Rosie go on too long, either because one may not recall the particulars of Austen’s work that Rosie references, or because Milo’s racial resentments have been articulated once too often.)
Directed by Rodney To, The Bottoming Process is visually pleasing, with Christopher Scott Murillo’s harmonious, uncluttered set nicely augmented by Nick Santiago’s video design — a mix of gardens and other upscale interiors with multiple projections of the characters’ faces flooding the backdrop as they vent their opinions. Josh Epstein’s lighting and Jeff Gardner’s sound enhance these effects. The adept ensemble includes Anisha Adusumilli as John’s, and later Milo’s, poised and worldly agent, as well as Ty Molback in a variety of supporting roles, including Rosie’s laidback White boyfriend Daniel and a good-looking stranger whose attentions John fends off out of respect for his relationship with Milo. As John, an understated Cosnett serves as foil for Salazar’s hyper Milo; it’s a truthful performance, though I had been expecting a more mature persona; the age gap stipulated by the script is not apparent with these two actors.
Altogether, the production is well-assembled and directed. Yet it bears mention that, for any audience member who actively strives to respect others regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or gender preference, Milo’s diatribes against White people can offend. Only within the context of the character as a hurting and damaged individual do they become palatable.
LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center, Renberg Theatre,
1125 N McCadden Place, Hollywood. Fri.-Sat., Mon., 8 pm, Sun., 2 pm, dark on May 29; thru June 12. iamatheatre.com. Running time: approximately one hour and 40 minutes with no intermission.
