One must be like water and watch as 30-something siblings Albert and Jennifer Chen, portrayed by Will Dao and Jenny Nguyen Nelson, embark on an “Asian Freedom Tour” to the Far East in order to find a deeper meaning within themselves.
Little did they know what they would discover on the other side of the salt.
The TheatreWorks production of Tiger Style, a play by Mike Lew that is now playing at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, is packed with pointed jokes, back-breaking misbehavior and gratuitous gallivanting.
Whereas an early life of achievement painted a bright future for the Ivy League siblings, now as grown adults they battle with themselves over what their lives should or could be. Albert lost out on a promotion, and Jennifer got ghosted by her loser boyfriend.
Perhaps, they ponder, the kung fu grip of their overbearing parents is to blame for their decidedly lackluster present lives. Off to China they slide. And conceivably, they will find what they’re looking for in China—or maybe they find shame and dishonor.
“It’s a very high-energy play,” director Jeffrey Lo says. The San Jose native, a professor of Asian American theater history and playwriting at San Jose State University, promises that the audience can expect “lots of vocal energy” in a show that is “packed with jokes at every turn and corner of the story.”
“There is a lot of depth that is explored through the play and I think that every audience member, regardless of identity, will find it funny and relatable,” Lo says.
This two-hour comedy is filled with antics and jabs at the beauties and intricacies of first-generation immigrant life in the U.S. And it serves to deeply describe life in the States versus life in the characters’ home country of China. The cast will be darting back and forth between quick-paced costume swaps and set changes between intense musical numbers.
“I’m having a lot of fun building this play and we’re really able to find the jokes together,” Lo says. “I really relate that way and I think it’s been very therapeutic to work on this play.”
This play aims to unite and relate as many familial upbringings as possible while focusing on the “intergenerational conversations with the Asian American community,” Lo says.
While Lo believes this piece is playful and amusing, there is an underlying message that helps to explain the crazy nature of growing up and raising a child. There is still honor to be paid in this play.
“Every parent is trying their best,” Lo says.
Tiger Style runs through through April 28 at the Mountain View Center for the Arts. Presented by TheatreWorks. Tickets $37-$82; (877) 662-8978. theatreworks.org
