What most of us know about Cambodia can probably be summed up in a few words: Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, and the millions killed or left for dead under their reign of terror.
Or as Duch (Francis Jue), the coolly charismatic narrator of the gripping, wildly original Cambodian Rock Band, says: “Boring. Tragique! Genocide genocide genocide. Boo.”
With this cheeky comment, you can almost hear the audience breathe a collective sigh of relief—this won’t be a didactic history lesson!—and feel everyone all snap to attention.
[Read Michael Sommers’ ★★★★★ review here.]
Playwright Lauren Yee is smart. First she piques our curiosity with a quintet of actors in a riot of polyester, paisley prints, bell-bottoms, and jangly gold jewelry playing psychedelic Cambodian rock; one of the songs is the supremely groovy “Uku,” by Dengue Fever, whose music appears throughout the show. Then she hands the narrative reins to the immensely appealing Jue, an actor whose presence enlivens and enriches any production (most recently, he starred as a playwright named DHH in the David Henry Hwang–Jeanine Tesori musical Soft Power). And it turns out—wait for it!—that he’s playing the villain: Pol Pot’s right-hand hatchet man.
Duch describes himself as “the meticulous, controlling, and utterly utterly charming head of Tuol Sleng prison—S-21.” Yet this isn’t his story. (To quote the despot himself: Boo.) Cambodian Rock Band centers on a family—Cambodian-born and -raised Chum (Joe Ngo) his daughter, Neary (Aladdin’s Courtney Reed). It’s 2008, and Neary in Cambodia—or, as Duch calls it, “the jewel, the pearl, the DETROIT of Southeast Asia”—working with an NGO, building a case to prosecute Duch for crimes against humanity, when her dad suddenly shows up in her hotel room. He wants to visit the spa where fish nibble the dead skin off your feet—apparently that’s a thing—and then he wants her to come home. He does not want her putting Duch on trial, and Neary can’t understand why. “My dad spent most of that time at a labor camp in Battambang, quietly planting rice, far far from Pol Pot,” she tells her coworker/boyfriend Ted (Moses Villarama).
But we know better, as does Duch—who’s lingering in the shadows, keeping a watchful, suspicious eye on the proceedings.
Flash back to Phnom Penh, 1975, when Chum is a headstrong 18-year-old jamming on an electric guitar. Alongside him are singer Sothea (Reed), bassist Leng (Villarama), drummer Rom (Abraham Kim), and keyboardist Pou (Jane Lui). They call themselves the Cyclos—you may recognize them as the musicians from the opening scene—and they are, Leng says, “the f**king BEST F**KING band in Cambodia!” Or, as Sothea adds, “the best f**king UNKNOWN band in Cambodia.” Outside, the Khmer Rouge is a very, very real threat—“They are executing civilians. Musicians. Intellectuals. Anyone with a college degree,” warns Chum, whose family is planning to flee to Paris—but the bandmates aren’t willing to acknowledge any imminent danger. It’s Cambodian New Year! Besides, the U.S. troops are there to protect them. “No way the Americans pull out,” Leng insists. “They bombed the shit out of us, they created this whole Khmer Rouge problem in the first place: they’re just going to leave us hanging? they owe us.” (Ah, how many times—and in how many different countries—must that sentence have been uttered in the past 45 years!)
If Duch is the play’s voice, Chum is its heart and soul, and Cambodian Rock Band, Yee, and director Chay Yew are lucky to have Ngo, who pinballs effortlessly between imprisoned frightened teenager and inscrutable frightened father. He has played Chum in three previous productions, and, more important, he’s a child of Khmer Rouge survivors himself, and helped develop the play. He also plays a wicked guitar, and turns in a stirring rendition of “Champa Battambang,” a synth-heavy slow jam that opens Act Two.
Don’t worry about not understanding the Khmer lyrics; the music will draw you in. And if you want to enjoy more Cambodian rock, good news: You can pick up a Dengue Fever recording at the Signature bookstore on your way out.
Cambodian Rock Band opens Feb. 24, 2020, and runs through March 15 at the Pershing Square Signature Center. Tickets and information: signaturetheatre.org
