Yellow Face at The Park Theatre – review

Gemma Chan and David Yip in Yellow Face. Photograph: Simon Annand.

A play entitled Yellow Face that sets out to “explore race and identity through the east Asian experience in America”, appears at first glance to smack of deliberate controversy.

But this production at the newly opened Park Theatre in Finsbury Park is a magnificent piece of social satire that entertains throughout.

Reality and fiction grapple alongside each other throughout the narrative in which playwright David Henry Hwang casts himself as the protagonist.

But far from being self indulgent, Hwang cheerfully pokes fun at himself through this self-portrait.

He is played by Kevin Shen, who gives a sympathetic portrayal of a man wrestling with his social conscience, as events follow on from Hwang’s real life involvement in early 1990s  protests against the casting of a Caucasian actor for an Asian role in a production of Miss Saigon.

Things take a humorous turn when Hwang inadvertently becomes guilty of the same faux pas by casting Marcus G. Dahlman, who he believes to be Asian but is in fact a white American, in his own play, Face Value.

Hwang subsequently tries to cover his blunder by upholding the “Asian” legitimacy of his lead actor as a Siberian Jew.

Marcus is compellingly brought to life by newcomer Ben Starr, who inspires sympathy for the plight of his character.

In persuading Marcus to adopt the more ethnically ambiguous stage name ‘Marcus Gee’ and jumping to his defense during a Q and A session to cover his own tracks, Hwang unintentionally creates the very thing he previously fought to reject.

The lie is sustained but comes back to bite Hwang when Marcus is cast in an award-winning role as the King of Siam in The King and I.

The crux of the play’s themes of identity and belonging becomes deeper as the characters attempt to discover their respective callings.

With Marcus living a lie by trying to ‘become’ an Asian man, Hwang’s father emerges as the victim of a dubious investigation into Asian Americans.

In one of the play’s most engaging and well-acted scenes, an interview takes place between Hwang and a New York Times journalist (Christy Meyer) who is investigating the accusations levelled against his father.

The interplay in this fully developed passage is where the production takes on a new depth and level of sincerity and provocation, as the characters are led to discuss their reasoning and purpose of expressing and communicating what they write through their respective professions.

The journalist’s manipulation of Hwang in making him divulge secrets about his father is acted with shrewdness and plausibility – and so equally is Shen’s portrayal of a playwright who has the bright idea to turn around accusations and threats back on his antagoniser.

He tells her her morally questionable search for scandal serves as a good basis for a central character in his next play.

A series of quotes from the New York Times and other publications are read out between scenes to advance the plot and contextualize the action, which is neatly worked into the idea of using all corners of the stage.

The actors sit among the audience, who are placed on all four sides of the central action and take it in turns to stand up and read these quotes when not on set.

It is a neat trick and one that typifies the quality of Alex Sims’ choreography throughout and the superb acting fully lives up to the direction.

Finsbury Park has waited 50 years for its first theatre. With productions like Yellow Face, it is certainly setting the bar high for the future.

Yellow Face
Park Theatre
Clifton Terrace
N4 3JP
Until June 16