Julia Cho (Photo by Grettel Cortes Photography)
Reviewed by G. Bruce Smith
Los Angeles Theatre Center
Through October 15
RECOMMENDED
Can playwright Preston Choi take two of the most tragic – and stereotypical – fictional Asian women characters and give them depth and agency? And can he take a third, real-life and lessknown but equally tragic Asian woman and make her the catalyst for humanizing the two fictional characters? The answer to both is a resounding yes.
Choi’s This Is Not a True Story, an Artists at Play production in association with Latino Theater Company, is inventively told, sprinkled with humor and, ultimately, graced with a moving ending.
The play focuses on Cio-Cio from Madame Butterfly and Kim from Miss Saigon who are trapped in a torturous loop of performances from which they cannot seem to escape. Each commits suicide, thousands of times, as they are abandoned by their American lovers.
It takes the entrance of Kumiko, who is initially as confused as Cio-Cio and Kim by the purgatory in which they find themselves, to get the other characters to question their shallow depiction by White male writers (embodied by offstage and uncredited men’s voices). In fact, they start to question all aspects of the scripts in which they appear.
Kumiko is the title character in the 2015 film Kumiko the Treasure Hunter, which is based on an urban legend about a real-life person, Takako Konishi, who was found dead after traveling from Japan to North Dakota. According to the myth, Konishi believed that the Coen Brothers film Fargo was a true story and went looking for buried cash. The real story was that Takako went to Fargo — a place she had previously visited with her former married American lover — to commit suicide after losing her job following 9/11.
For those who don’t know the back story of Kumiko/Takako — and an educated guess is that most people don’t — her character’s story can be confusing initially. But eventually it makes sense. And the final action taken by Cio-Cio and Kim out of love for Kumiko/Takako provides the touching conclusion.
A heads-up to audiences: Be patient for the first 10 minutes or so. While the action moves along at a good pace, the play could get to the heart of the story more quickly. Director Reena Dutt coaxes outstanding performances from the cast. Julia Cho captures the befuddled Cio-Cio
superbly and delivers the funniest lines in the show. Zandi de Jesus as Kim looks and sings as if she has just finished a performance of Miss Saigon on Broadway. And Rosie Narasaki as Kumiko/Takako plays what is arguably the most tragic character with compassion.
The scenic design by Yuki Izumihara is simple, with jagged black-gray flats flanking the stage and three white flats installed at angles on which most of the action takes place. The design keeps the focus on the actors. In addition, the discreet use of projections, designed by Vanessa D. Fernandez, adds depth to the narrative.
The meaning of the title, This Is Not a True Story, has several layers. Obviously, what Choi has written is not true. Nor is Madame Butterfly or Miss Saigon or, as it turns out, the film about Takako. But when it comes to a truth, as opposed to something true, Choi delivers through the dignity of his characters.
Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St., downtown LA; Fri.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 4 pm; thru Oct. 15. latinotheaterco.org or (213) 489-0994. Running time one hour and, 30 minutes with no intermission.
