{"id":22408,"date":"2021-06-21T14:46:06","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T21:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=22408"},"modified":"2021-06-21T17:21:35","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T00:21:35","slug":"the-late-wedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/the-late-wedding\/","title":{"rendered":"The Late Wedding"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Tyler Jeffreys (above), Moshe Goodman (below). All photos by Squirrel Visuals.<\/p><\/div>\n

Christopher Chen, born and raised in San Francisco, is one of the Bay Area\u2019s favorite playwrights.\u00a0 Innovative in structure and subject, funny and thoughtful, his plays break new ground.\u00a0 But the title block on the program itself suggests that \u201cThe Late Wedding\u201d goes a step beyond even his extraordinary.\u00a0 Rather than stating that the play is \u201cby\u201d the playwright, it indicates that the play is \u201cfrom the notes of Christopher Chen.\u201d\u00a0 This odd citation becomes the crux of the play\u2019s structure and the basis for its criticism.\u00a0 Those who favor the absurd; who value creativity; who appreciate skit comedy; and who follow the work of the playwright will be most drawn to this play.<\/p>\n

With their fully-staged production of Chen\u2019s work, kudos to Mountain View\u2019s Pear Theatre for leading the way in the return to indoor theater after 15 months of pandemic-imposed darkness.\u00a0 The adventuresome small company not only offers socially-distanced indoor performances to a play with a full cast, but also outdoor performances and online streaming, to accommodate all manner of theater lover.\u00a0 Hallelujah!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Carissa Ratanaphanyarat, Stephen Kanaski.<\/p><\/div>\n

The company gives a spirited rendering of the play, directed by Sinohui Hinojosa.\u00a0 The cast is led by the highly animated Annamarie MacLeod as the narrator, who tries from time-to-time to inject meaning into the proceedings.\u00a0 Six other actors play multiple roles in the dozen-ish sketches that comprise the narrative.\u00a0 Largely, the performers fit the characters well and imbue them with verve, though not all are equally convincing.<\/p>\n

So, what is the playwright up to?\u00a0 Chen acknowledges in the play itself the influence of Italo Calvino\u2019s \u201cInvisible Cities,\u201d in which Emperor Kublai Khan discusses with merchants the cities that they trade in \u2013 thereby learning the nature of people in the various outposts.\u00a0 In the case of \u201cThe Late Wedding,\u201d relationships replace cities.\u00a0 The unfolding of funny foreign social practices yields farcical situations that produce more smiles than hardi-har belly laughs.<\/p>\n

The first three segments provide a humorous anthropological look at what conventional people would consider strange marriage practices in these fictional places.\u00a0 For example, in one venue, courtship is so revered and marriage considered such a letdown that true believers remain apart after marriage for as long as they can!\u00a0 In another, marriage is so open that parents routinely don\u2019t know who the fathers of their children are.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Annamarie MacLeod.<\/p><\/div>\n

The formula then shifts to what Chen calls interludes, which are also segments largely focused on relationships.\u00a0 In a thriller episode, a spy meets her handler and tries to prove legitimacy, despite having forgotten part of the passcode.\u00a0 In a latter segment, a spaceship seeks the celestial bodies of the Calaman Islands, which played as a separate honeymoon destination for the earlier couple who planned to live blissfully apart.\u00a0 While this closes one story loop, it doesn\u2019t provide a prism through which to see the full procession of vignettes.<\/p>\n

Many other playwrights have used absurdism as a central theme, such as one of Calvino\u2019s inspirations, Luigi Pirandello, with his \u201cSix Characters in Search of an Author.\u201d\u00a0 And giving broad latitude to directors on fleshing out and casting shows with many roles has been done by the likes of Caryl Churchill in \u201cLove and Information.\u201d\u00a0 But as opposed to Chen\u2019s play, those pieces convey the sense that they were completed as designed. That said, while much action in \u201cThe Late Wedding\u201d is fanciful and disjointed, it is underscored by important themes such as social mores, time, perception, change, and morality.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Gaz Jameel, John S. Boles, Tyler Jeffreys.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe Late Wedding\u201d gives the sense that the playwright cobbled together several ideas that he couldn\u2019t fully develop individually.\u00a0 The fact that attribution of the play is to \u201cthe notes of Christopher Chen\u201d and that a comment within the play notes that it includes leftovers conforms with the thinking that the sketches are an omnium gatherum.\u00a0 It even raises the question of whether he is responsible for the final text.\u00a0 Also, extraneous \u201cnotes\u201d appear throughout the play, including grocery lists and questions whether certain commentary in the manuscript was intended to be text or the playwright\u2019s notes to himself.\u00a0 And the final support to the notion that the design is not premeditated is that there is explicit reference to writer\u2019s block.<\/p>\n

Of course, all of these diversions could be subterfuge \u2013 red herrings to make the audience think that the structure is chaotic rather than calculated to seem incoherent.\u00a0 In any case, it is provocative and entertaining. \u00a0But ultimately, does the work stand on its own as patchwork comedy? As metatheatrical exposition? As an expression of absurdism?\u00a0 Is it art?\u00a0 It\u2019s up to you to decide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Late Wedding\u201d from the notes of Christopher Chen is produced by Pear Theatre and plays on its stage and outside of that venue at 1110 La Avenida, Mountain View, CA, and streaming online through July 18, 2021.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Victor Cordell, PhD<\/p>\n

American Theatre Critics Association<\/p>\n

San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christopher Chen, born and raised in San Francisco, is one of the Bay Area\u2019s favorite playwrights.\u00a0 Innovative in structure and subject, funny and thoughtful, his plays break new ground.\u00a0 But…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[664],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-victor-cordell"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"