By Lauren Yee
Directed by Desdemona Chiang
Sep 5-Oct 11 | Thu-Sat 8pm | Directions

"Wildly funny...makes hilarious splash in melting pot"
—Contra Costa Times

"Whip-smart and very funny... Particularly clever is Yee's
deft use of magical realism."
—East Bay Express

"Fast, furious and very funny... an exhilarating send-up"
—Berkeley Daily Planet

"Great laughs...unexpectedly moving"
—Examiner.com

The season begins with local playwright Lauren Yee’s irreverent new comedy Ching Chong Chinaman. The ultra-assimilated Wong family is as Chinese American as apple pie: teenager Upton dreams of World of Warcraft superstardom; his sister Desi dreams of early admission to Princeton. Unfortunately, Upton’s chores and homework get in the way of his 24/7 videogaming, and Desi’s math grades don’t fit the Asian American stereotype. Then Upton comes up with a novel solution for both problems: he acquires a Chinese indentured servant, who harbors an American dream of his own. Skewering every cliché about Asian American identity, CCC won the 2007 Yale Playwrights Festival and is racking up rave after rave—see below.

CCC represents Impact’s drive to find talented local emerging playwrights; the play was presented as part of the company’s staged reading series earlier this year. Yee, a Bay Area native who graduated from Yale in 2007, is the founder and executive director of the San Francisco Young Playwrights Festival. An accomplished young artist, Yee has received PlayGround’s June Anne Baker prize, a Theatre Bay Area CA$H grant, and fellowships with the Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, the New York Mills Art Retreat, and the Edward F. Albee Foundation.

Featuring Cindy Im, Lisa Kang, Arthur Keng, Sung Min Park, Pearl Wong, and Dennis Yen (returning to the Impact stage for the first time since he played the Narrator in the first three episodes of Money & Run).

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The Reviews

"Ching Chong Chinaman makes hilarious splash in melting pot... The Impact Theatre production does a wonderful job of taking the sensitive issue of ethnic identity and tearing it to shreds... The cast plays the script beautifully, with an understated sense of parody that makes the lines all the more hilarious... Director Desdemona Chiang has paced the play well and infused it with wildly funny sight gags — and with the help of the tech staff, has included some apt and funny surprises at almost every turn."
—Contra Costa Times | Read the whole review

"Whip-smart and very funny, in a snappy production by Desdemona Chiang with a strong cast... Particularly clever is Yee's deft use of magical realism, as embodied by Pearl Wong in a multitude of roles... The journey's so thoroughly enjoyable that one's just sorry to see it end."
—East Bay Express | Read the whole review

"A wild ride—fast, furious and very funny... a wealth of throwaways adding to the hilarity... On all levels, it’s an exhilarating send-up of that Yankee mock-up and fixation, Tradition."
—Berkeley Daily Planet | Read the whole review

"A gleefully irreverent, audaciously un-PC comedy about cultural identity... consistently defies sitcom rhythms and continually takes surprising turns... There are some great laughs in Ching Chong, but the play turns unexpectedly moving in its final moments... Chiang’s cast rolls with the surprises in Yee’s script and finds humanity in the comedy."
—Examiner.com | Read the whole review