C4 THEATER REVIEW ‘Dragons’ skewers Asian stereotypes by Peter Marks If you’re going to be discomfited,
harangued and quite possibly even dragged onto the stage, let it be by someone as scathingly mischie- vous as Young Jean Lee. Her wildly sardonic performance piece at Stu- dio Theatre, “Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven,” is a provoca- teur’s funny, guns-blazing take on the utter banality of ethnic stereo- types and other cross-cultural out- rages. Mind you, public-service an- nouncement material this is not. “Songs of the Dragons” begins with a recording of a man repeatedly hitting a woman, and what follows is an unsettling series of sequences of varying degrees of shock value and satire: three Korean women in traditional costumes, taking turns punching and kicking a young Ko- rean-American woman; a porno- style shadow-puppet play; a rous- ing Korean version of “Amazing
Grace”; a dull white couple in- terrupting the proceedings to air their run-of-the-mill relationship issues. The events of “Songs of the
Dragons” are not tied together dra- matically in a classic sense: The play segues uncertainly from one vignette to another and ends in a most bizarrely anti-climactic fash- ion. The connectedness springs from the idea that any assigning we try to do of behavior by ethnic identity is patently ridiculous. And just as ludicrous, “Songs of the Dragons” tells us, is the “Kumbaya” notion that we could ever walk a mile in the other guy’s shoes. “There is minority rage inside me!” mutters the evening’s main character, engagingly played by Jiehae Park and identified in the program only as “Korean Amer- ican.” She addresses us directly, as if the 90-minute play were a town hall grievance session, and con- fides what she believes to be scan- dalous realities about the nation’s
racist pecking order. “Asian wom- en,” she declares snippily, “will date white men that no white woman will touch” — the kind of general- ization that carries its own whiff of bias.
Like the comedian Sarah Silver-
man, Lee is a subversive who toys with our accepted wisdom about identity and femininity. In her case, it’s the perceptions of and ex- pectations about Asian women that she’s undermining. A large portion of “Songs of the Dragons” is given over to the portrayal of the three gowned Korean women, identified as Koreans 1 through 3 and portrayed with an enjoyable verve by Patricia Penn, Sue Jin Song and Youngsun Cho. They mercilessly taunt Park’s character, awoman who is alienated from her ethnic heritage. If that were not ostracism enough, the women — depicted so often as shy and demure in gauzy works of fiction with titles like that of Lee’s play — begin taking turns
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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2010
tend to look a little bewildered. Lee seems perfectly content stay- ing one or two steps ahead of her audience. Part of the pleasure of “Songs of the Dragons” is in letting down your guard and simply allow- ing her jarring images to force themselves rambunctiously into your imagination. The play, first produced in New
York in 2006 and here presented as part of Studio’s 2nd Stage program, retains its day-of freshness thanks to a director, Natsu Onoda Power, who’s plugged in to the dramatist’s no-holds-barred circuitry. In its sly- ly eccentric way, it’s an evening of enlightenment.
marksp@washpost.com
Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven
CAROL PRATT
NO JOKE: Patricia Penn, left, Sue Jin Song and Youngsun Cho taunt a Korean American woman alienated from her heritage.
beating the daylights out of her. The sequence goes on and on; it’s so brutal that you laugh at the audac- ity of it. All through “Songs of the Dragons” are moments meant to explode an audience’s complacen-
cy, its typically passive role in the theater. Several times, the actors beseech theatergoers to join them on Luciana Stecconi’s utilitarian rendering of a temple, in Studio’s penthouse raw space, where they
By Young Jean Lee. Directed by Natsu Onoda Power. Set, Luciana Stecconi; costumes, Elisheba Ittoop; fight and dance choreography, Joe Isenberg; lighting, Joyce Liao; video, Tae Jung
Choi. With Rachel Holt, Brandon McCoy. About 90 minutes. Through Oct. 24 at Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW. Visit
www.studiotheatre.org or call 202-332-3300.
MUSIC REVIEW
Gyptian comes up short until ‘Hold Yuy’
by Chris Richards
Spittle was leaking from the skies. The wind was damp. The queue zigzagged around puddles and across the parking lot. Sum- mertime couldn’t have felt farther away.
But hundreds of umbrella-hoist- ing fans braved the bluster outside the Crossroads in Bladensburg on Wednesday night, lining up to re- visit the sweltering glories of July via the biggest reggae hit of the summer: “Hold Yuh” by Gyptian. Just a few months ago, it seemed to stream out of every open car window in the city — a pliant reg- gae tune that ripens into some- thing anthemic using just a few spare ingredients: that twinkling piano line, those sputtering bass notes, an erratic snare drum and the pining patois of Gyptian, a 26- year-old native of St. Andrew, Ja- maica, now riding a white-hot summer into the soggy chills of fall. In addition to most of the fans lined up outside the Crossroads, the crossover success of “Hold Yuh” has also earned Gyptian an opening slot on Mary J. Blige’s up- coming European tour.
EVY MAGES FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
WHAT’S THE RUSH? Gyptian performed for 25 minutes at the Crossroads.
But indoors, Gyptian’s perform- ance was as aggravating as the weather outside. He took the stage shortly after 1 a.m. and lingered for a meager 25 minutes, deliv- ering his lovelorn songs in truncat- ed forms that didn’t give the singer or his smitten fans much of a op- portunity to get comfortable. And for a crooning lothario like Gyptian, comfort is key. The lilting beat of “Beautiful Lady,” — a slow- motion love song about a fast- forward seduction — gave him this space for his dreamy falsetto to luxuriate, but he inexplicably end- ed the song at the halfway mark.
Talk about rushing it. Perhaps to compensate, he elic- ited screams from the crowd by rolling his tongue between songs, purring like a lion then revving like a Ducati. He kept the playful- ness going as his DJ cued up each track, cooing non-verbal ooh-ooh- oohs and nah-nah-nahs to fans’ de- light. But his hype man was quick to kill the mood, barking, “LA- DIES, PUT YOUR HANDS UP FOR GYPTIAN!” It even soured the sweet intro of “Nah Let Go,” one of the most effective Valentines in Gyptian’s collection. The show wasn’t all lovey-dovey.
Turning to Jamaican poverty, “Se- rious Times,” his politically charged 2005 single, was clear- eyed and compelling, its shambol- ic bongos transposed into a taut, digital thump. “These are serious times,” he sang. “All I can see round us is violence and crime.” The track trafficked in the same
strange of minimalism of “Hold Yuh,” which, of course, closed the show. But where every other song in Gyptian’s set was abruptly clipped, “Hold Yuh” warranted and received an extension. After the DJ dropped a recording of rapper Nicki Minaj’s guest verse from the remix into the proceedings, Gyp- tian took the chorus for one more victory lap, “Put m’arms right around yuh!” He waved goodnight and hustled offstage. Just like summer, it was over
way too soon.
richardsc@washpost.com
DANCE Awards night marred by missteps by Rebecca Ritzel
One step forward and two steps back. That about sums up the faux-pas-filled 10th Metro D.C. Dance Awards ceremony, held Wednesday at the Har- man Center for the Arts. The annual event migrated down- town this year from the Ken- nedy Center, and while the cer- emony was as celebratory as ever, the hall was only about a quarter full and many in at- tendance couldn’t help but cringe. The mayor’s rep botched
people’s names. Founder Cheles Rhynes went off on an indulgent tangent about his adorable nephews. Spotlights were misaimed. A host acci- dentally introduced a Balan- chine pas de deux before a trio of Indian dancers came on- stage. And the troupe that won the most awards (Step Afrika!, with five) was in Egypt. They sent their regards via Face- book.
Such glitches would seem less glaring if last year’s cer- emony hadn’t been a smoothly run success, complete with a Martha Graham impersonator to serve as emcee. Thankfully, the dancers who performed
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Wednesday acquitted them- selves better than the present- ers. The show closed with two particularly strong demos. George Mason University’s Dance Company put oomph into the “Polka” movement of Mark Morris’s grand duo, and Andile Ndlovu of the Washing- ton Ballet delivered a striking solo that fused ballet, hip-hop and African dance. Ndlovu is one of several doz- en local dancers who will be back at the Harman Friday night to perform in the Veloc- ityDC Dance Festival, a bargain four-show sampler featuring CityDance Ensemble, the Washington Ballet and 11 other local troupes that continues through Saturday. Last year’s VelocityDC festival was a sell- out smash, so here’s hoping that after a subpar awards cer- emony, the dance community can gain momentum over the weekend.
Winners at the 10th annual Metro D.C. Dance Awards in-
clude: Emerging Choreographer: Jakari Sherman for “Trane” Emerging Performer or Group: Andile Ndlovu for “Barbara Liotta: Icarus”
Outstanding Overall Production — Small Venue: Dana Tai Soon Bur-
gess & Co. for “Hyphen” and “Is- land” at Dance Place Outstanding Overall Production
— Large Venue: The Washington Ballet in “The Great Gatsby” at the Kennedy Center Outstanding Individual Perform-
ance (Tie): Ryan Johnson of Step Afrika!, guest performing in “The Great Gatsby” and Maki Onuki of The Washington Ballet in “Wunder- land”
Outstanding Group Perform- ance: Step Afrika! for “Celebrating 15 Years”
Outstanding Youth Performance:
Tappers with Attitude for “Tap into the Energy” Excellence in Costume Design:
Reed Griffith, LaTasha Barnes and Rashaad Pearson for Urban Art- istry’s “Digital Funk 5002” Excellence in Sound Design/ Original Composition: Jakari Sher- man for Step Afrika’s “466(nine)4” Excellence in Lighting Design: Stefan Johnson for “My Ocean Is Never Blue” The Should I Quit My Day Job?
Dance-Off: Team Joy Outstanding Achievement in Dance Education: Lucy Bowen McCauley Alan M. Kriegsman Award: Karen Bernstein Founder’s Award: Stephen Clapp and Laura Schandelmeier Pola Nirenska Lifetime Achieve- ment in Dance: Seda Gelenian
style@washpost.com Ritzel is a freelance writer.
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