Lauren Yee's plugged-in confrontation with genocidal history, one of the top 10 most produced new American plays of the current season, has its New York premiere at SignatureTheatr
When the sinisterly charming emcee played by Francis Jue clicks through black and white slides of the Khmer Rouge period near the start of, he rolls his eyes at the automatic associations most people have with the Southeast Asian country. "Bor-ring," he groans. "Tragique," he adds, with an archly campy gestural flourish and just a hint of a conspiratorial wink.
Directed by Chay Yew with an assured hand at maintaining focus through Yee's time jumps and tricky tonal shifts, the production opens with the band The Cyclos powering through two propulsive numbers. Well, one and a half really, before Jue's character cuts them off mid-song with mock politeness as he clarifies that this is his story even if he may not appear for quite some time.
The version Neary knows of her father's family history and his experiences during the Pol Pot years is far from accurate, and the playwright methodically sets about assembling the full picture. Chum claims to have returned to Cambodia to retrieve Neary and steer her back to law school at Cornell. But his true motives are connected to her work to convict the first Khmer Rouge official for crimes against humanity.
Yee deftly parallels the American perspective of Neary, who believes tenaciously in the justice process, with the more jaded view of her father. Chum says that Pol Pot might be dead and the Khmer Rouge removed from power, but their thumbprint is still everywhere in the country, notably in the failure to convict even one regime official in 30 years.
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