There’s a lot going on in Poor Yella Rednecks, the second play in Qui Nguyen’s semi autobiographical saga of Vietnamese refugees who landed in Arkansas soon after the Vietnam war. The first play, Vietgone introduced us to his characters – a fractured family that fled Saigon. …Rednecks expands their journey with a love story that the protagonists insist is not a love story. However you regard it, Nguyen packs his play with wit and wisdom in a buoyantly original production that’s also a whole lot of fun.
It begins with the character of the playwright interviewing his mother, named Tong, who is reluctant to share her story, especially because she says only white people go to the theater and won’t like it. But she eventually comes around, and what she has to say is not what you’d expect from an elderly Vietnamese woman. When describing her early days in a relocation camp with her then boyfriend, she spews obscenities, adding “We comforted each other with our crotches”.
Jump back in time to 1975 as the story unfolds with young Tong and Quang making out in the back of a pickup truck. And then it quickly moves ahead to 1981. The couple is now married with child. Tong’s scrappy mother lives with them in a cramped trailer and they are struggling mightily. Never mind the language barrier, to be a Vietnamese refugee in the American South means jobs are hard to come by, money is scarce and racism is very real. That’s the basic plot but once again, Nguyen defies expectations with some wild doings.
Early on in the play, the two leads break into a rap song about their dreary existence being uprooted from their homeland, separated from their families and forced to learn English. It’s the first of several rap songs that artfully reveal the characters’ yearnings and heartbreaks. They’re also peppered with 4 letter words, hundreds of them. And, like mother like daughter, Tong’s mom reveals her own sexual appetite, going after the young men who come to visit. It’s all pretty eye-opening and deliciously amusing.
Nguyen offers some fun observations as well. When it comes to American food, one character describes it saying: burgers, pancakes and French fries – you either dip it in grease or lay it in grease – it’s all pretty much the same.
Poor Yella Rednecks tries to be many things but it is mainly a very engaging love story that speaks volumes about the immigrant experience wrestling with priorities when food and love are often mutually exclusive. Quang and Tong fight over such things as she contemplates a loveless union with a white guy who can reliably bring home the bacon for her and her young son, whom they call Little Man.
Another surprise: Little Man is portrayed by a puppet that is brilliantly designed by David Valentine. So adorably lifelike is he/it, after a few minutes, you will completely buy into his humanity. The dynamic is especially touching in the scenes with his devoted grandma Huong who secretly teaches him martial arts to fend off school bullies. The fight choreography, directed by playwright Nguyen himself, is quite a trip!
Samantha Quan plays the feisty Huong with maximum spunk. As a stubborn woman who does not suffer fools, she represents the impossible sacrifices older immigrants are expected to make in a foreign land.
The entire company is outstanding. Maureen Sebastian and Ben Levin as Tong and Quang have great chemistry. They manage the romance, the comedy, and the rap with tremendous versatility which is no mean feat in this challenging production. On the night I attended, the audience was so invested in those two, you could hear people reacting audibly as tensions heated up.
Jon Hoche plays Quang’s best friend Nhan with a goofy devil-may-care swagger and he too is terrific.
Paco Tolson as Tong’s white suitor is hilarious playing a redneck struggling to communicate in mangled Vietnamese.
And Jon Norman Schneider does strong work principally as Little Man’s puppeteer and the playwright. He’s also tapped to provide occasional narration.
And this is where the play could use some tightening. Nguyen’s creative impulses seem to have gotten the better of him. He throws in a narrator named Stan Lee which makes no sense until discovering in the Playbill that Nguyen wrote for Marvel Studios. That likely explains all the comic book references that seem to come out of nowhere. Nguyen also studs the dialogue with pop culture references that are irrelevant. It’s clear that he’s attempting to point out the humor in miscommunication when it comes to language barriers, but throwing in the names Mitch McConnell and Tucker Carlson is more head-scratching than funny. I did appreciate the tip of the hat to Hamilton in one of his raps with the line “Immigrants: we get the job done”.
Very special mention to scenic designer Tim Mackabee who came up with one of the cleverest configurations I’ve seen on a small stage. At first, all we can see are giant letters spelling Y-E-L-L-A but as each scene plays out, a letter rotates to reveal a different setting. It’s all very functional and simultaneously provides a focused intimacy that keeps the storyline nicely grounded,
The Manhattan Theatre Club production is directed with a very deft hand by May Adrales who expertly juggles the comedy and pathos without missing a single beat. And that’s quite an accomplishment considering all the wacky directions it takes to navigate this wild ride of a show.
At times, the nearly two and a half hour long play feels over-stuffed, like a spring roll filled with so many delights it’s hard to swallow. But it also offers some profound nuggets of truth. “Assimilation costs a lot” as one character says. And from another: “Stories are the only things that matter in this world”. Nguyen certainly understands that and spins quite a universal tale that lovingly and humorously translates the foreign experience into the familiar.
Poor Yella Rednecks opened November 1, 2023, at City Center Stage I and runs through November 26. Tickets and information: manhattantheatreclub.com
