By Alex Lin
Directed by Joshua Kahan Brody
With Cindy Cheung, Wai Ching Ho, Amy Keum, Jon Norman Schneider, andDaisuke Tsuji
Don't mess with a Chinese grandma.
When a high-rise developer threatens to buy out A-Poh’s successful Chinatown restaurant, the martyr-complex matriarch gathers her three precious grandchildren from all corners of the country to plan their next mode of attack.
There’s just one problem – A-Poh's memory is rapidly fading. What follows is a chaotic journey through reality, myth, and magic as A-Poh travels through now and the great beyond in a last-ditch effort to preserve what’s left of her family, legacy, and sanity.
A caustic and imaginative spin on King Lear that explores the changing face of America's Chinatowns and the fight to preserve a fading cultural memory.
Please join us for post-show talkbacks after the following performances:
Erin Daley, Artistic Director
Primary Stages is dedicated to inspiring, supporting, producing, and sharing the art of playwriting. We operate on the strongly held belief that the future of American theater relies on nurturing playwrights and giving them the support they need to fully realize their vision. Primary Stages is the Resident Off Broadway Theater Company at 59E59 Theaters.
Read more at: www.primarystages.org
"[Lin] has a genuinely fresh perspective – warm and wise but also tough-minded and wickedly funny – to bring to depictions of the Asian American experience in theater."– TheaterMania
"Laowang does not merely retell King Lear; it refracts it, reframes it, and ultimately reclaims it, transforming the old king’s howl into something recognizably, wrenchingly modern."
"If this Chinatown Lear is any indication, [Alex Lin] is poised to become one of the theater’s most incisive chroniclers of the Asian-American experience. Her voice—wry, wise, compassionate, unsentimental—cuts through the noise with something rarer than originality: clarity."– Theatre Beyond Broadway
"You can't mistake its vigor, comic energy, and knack for surprise revelations"
"Lin makes a writing debut that makes one eager to see what she does next."– Lighting and Sound America
"Wai Ching Ho combines steel, sarcasm and tenderness in a manner she has patented. She's always worth seeing"– Windy City Times
"Laowang is an effervescent romp, with insights about human folly and other timeless themes."– OffOffOnline
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