There’s a robust ingredient in lots of dishes that’s racism; it’s identified to cooks all over the place as monosodium glutamate. The racist half is after we apply its initials — MSG.
To be clear, we’re not speaking about MSG in sizzling canine, mustard, ketchup, pepperoni or Cool Ranch Doritos. These are fixtures within the snackdom of Americana and trigger solely pleasure by its powdery magic. However chow mein is Chinese language meals, and judged on a special scale. MSG on this delicacy, additionally beautiful, apparently causes countless nausea and crippling complications.
Within the good “Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play” at San Francisco Playhouse, Ami is required to subscribe to this chop logic, and it’s private for her. In spite of everything, her grandfather crafted the substance in a lab in 1968, making style buds soar with pleasure. However someplace in the USA, and that is true, a heavy night time of ingesting and Chinese language delicacies consumption by a few mouth breathers turned a sketchy wager.
May one actually get an article about “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” right into a prestigious medical journal regardless of no scientific backing? Apparently sure, which modified the notion of MSG from scrumptious to harmful. Welcome to the newest, racist trope.
Keiko Inexperienced’s script gives wildly divergent storytelling pathways which might be executed fiercely by director Jesca Prudencio and a universally good solid. There are popular culture touchstones galore, together with Invoice and Ted, the connection between Goop goddess Gwyneth Paltrow and her beau Ben Affleck (however not really them, severely), and the enjoyment of “Street Fighter” and “Dragon Ball Z” (the soundscape created by designer James Ard to reinforce many of those dynamics is of the subsequent degree selection, a cacophony of speaker and subwoofer scintillation).
In 1999, the ultimate yr of the millennium, and the yr earlier than Y2K was speculated to wipe out civilization, Ami (Ana Ming Bostwick-Singer) isn’t a lot totally different from many youngsters. She stresses about issues which might be age-appropriate, grappling together with her brother and his genius, digging on a dude loaded with charming vapidity, and coping with her mom (Nicole Tung), who likes to kick butt in probably the most literal sense doable
However by her teen angst, one other layer of self-loathing emerges. Has her household lineage destroyed stomachs forever? Like several nice hero, discovering out the reality is extra necessary than touchdown a extra low-key lunch of hen fingers versus the specifically-scented bento containers her mom makes for her. A faculty report means a literal deep dive into her household historical past, with time journey the car to discovering her household’s MSG historical past.
The brilliance of Inexperienced’s script, regardless of moments of disconnected convolution, is that it isn’t straightforward and requires work to parse the soul-crushing reality beneath the painful laughter. Sure, the story is simple, however the solutions are usually not. Individuals of colour are continuously reminded that their contributions to society are valued otherwise, if in any respect. The truth that an individual is allowed to put in writing a falsehood and take down a whole neighborhood with nary a touch of interrogation is damaging. False stereotypes Asian persons are compelled to bear, yr after yr, carry a particular and well timed through-line in “Exotic Deadly.”
The terrific solid contains most taking up a number of roles (Kathleen Qiu’s costume design shreds), regardless of the calls for of bodily comedy. Phil Wong holds courtroom as a grasp of preening all around the stage, dialing in his dynamic variance in every iteration of his wild characterizations. Edric Younger and James Aaron Oh are each bit Wong’s equals when diving into their very own vary. Tung slides from MSG-infused goofball to tender with a slippery ease, and Bostwick-Singer, because the piece’s conscience, is adept at enjoying younger and playful with a connection to the viewers that feels common inside such meta theatricality.
The character most attention-grabbing to the story is Unique Lethal, taken on by Francesca Fernandez. Simply discover the way in which Unique bursts by the doorways with unapologetic ferocity, solely to be ripped down by society as she quietly strikes again to her perceived place on this planet. She lives in a duality, initially shattering the mannequin minority fantasy whereas being compelled to retreat all of the whereas as time marches ahead.
The play says a lot about meals, and the way damaging perceptions are when the default of white bread sandwiches, chips and juice containers are changed by a sure sort of identity-specific delicacy. Typically, these morsels are chopped within the kitchen between a number of generations of members of the family, guaranteeing {that a} meal isn’t simply scrumptious, but in addition historic, and undoubtedly lovely.
David John Chávez is chair of the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Affiliation and a two-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (‘22-‘23); @davidjchavez.bsky.social
‘EXOTIC DEADLY: OR THE MSG PLAY’
By Keiko Inexperienced, introduced by San Francisco Playhouse
Via: March 8
The place: San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Submit St.
Operating time: 100 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $35-$135; sfplayhouse.org
