It is a tribute to the importance of a lifestyle and to its scale
when art is created specifically for those that live it. Life in
Beijing for many ex-pats has become so recognizable, so
identifiable that Elyse Ribbons' attempted send-up thereof is an
easy decision to understand. The very title of her play
I Heart
Beijing screams audience appeal, promising to deliver
easy-to-grasp comedy for anyone who knows the situations it
describes. But therein lies the play's ambiguity and ultimately its
downfall. It is hardly original to pack a play with cultural
references for the audience to chuckle at. This can be an effective
foil to the main storyline, keeping the mob entertained while the
plot progresses. Unfortunately,
I Heart Beijing offers
plenty of chuckle-worthy references but little glimpse of anything
else.
The action revolves around the lives of four friends living in
Beijing: Sylvia (Elyse Ribbons), an educated American ex-pat and
who works as the play's connecting character. Her friend, Jon
(Jonathan Haagan), is the typical fresh-off-the-plane laowai with
bad Chinese and worse manners, seemingly with every Chinese girl he
meets, naming them all Apple for the sake of convenience.? The
most interesting dynamic in the play connects Tingting (Delilah
Liu), Sylvia's Beijinger flat-mate, and Lucy (Dan Ouyang), an
air-headed American-born Chinese who struggles with her
multi-national identity. Tingting's elder brother, Liu Ming (Liu
Feng), is a gruff but charismatic male presence who finds the
group's fun-loving lifestyle clashing with his traditional sense of
morality. While indulging in stereotypes can be a useful tool to
highlight provocative areas of satire, Ribbons struggles to elevate
her characters above this level, letting them revel in their own
normality to obtain cheap laughs.
One strongpoint of I Heart Beijing is its ability to
never take itself seriously, preferring to outline cultural clashes
through humor and to resolve them in the same vein, never picking
sides and ridiculing both worlds with similar abandon, in set
scenes as well as in smaller vignettes. Haagan's send-up of the
type of foreigner anyone in Beijing is familiar with punctuates the
play with constant laughs while Liu Ming's first appearance is pure
comedy gold. However, such moments pale against the backdrop of
rapid-fire dialogue that feels staged instead of spontaneous. In
this, the blame may not be dropped on the actors who do their best
with one-dimensional characters, fleshed-out personalities
butchered for the sake of situational comedy.
Elyse Ribbons, the play's director, writer as well as main
actress, has a commanding presence making Sylvia stand out more
than she should. Delilah Liu gives a mixed turn as Tingting, a girl
tortured between what her brother expects of her and how she wishes
to lead her life. Ironically, Tingting's fate is the one the
audience ends up caring most about but Liu's swaying between
independent woman and immature crybaby causes more confusion than
it does resolution.
The portrayal of Tingting's protective older brother does credit
to Liu Feng, who gives his character an effective dark and brooding
persona. Unfortunately, every scene in which he appears depicts him
as a judgmental, uncompromising prig who will tolerate no deviation
from his views. It is odd that Ribbons elected not to allow Liu
Ming any redeeming moment, relying instead on two throwaway
comments by other characters labeling him "hot" and as "having a
kind heart."
Dan Ouyang lends a charismatic air to Lucy, the conflicted yet
enthusiastic Stephen Colbert-obsessed ABC. However, the character
of Lucy symbolizes all that I Heart Beijing attempts to do
and its ultimate failure to do so. In Lucy, we find a well thought
out portrayal of a familiar personality, the culture gulf that
divides East and West assembled inside one soul. Instead of
capitalizing on this, it is truly saddening that Dan is reduced to
the level of comic side-kick, explaining her confusion in an out of
the place rant or having an orgasm that would make Meg Ryan blush
at the mere mention of Colbert's name. It would have been far more
enjoyable to see her interaction with Tingting taken to the next
level of perception and perhaps yield some true insight but as in
several instances, a sliver of originality is drowned out by a
cacophony of the banal.
One actor that must be singled out for praise is Jonathan Haagan
who uses the limited arsenal with which he is provided to portray
Jon as a truly likeable and well-rounded character, including his
rather predictable sexual revelation at the death. Haagan appears
to be the only thespian fully at ease with a stage too large for
the scenes it contains, making full use of a good range of movement
and an acute sense of timing to lift I Heart Beijing out
of the depths of rank amateurism.
Early promises of ingenious stage direction, such as the minimal
furniture being revealed at the start being complemented by the
characters entering with much of Tingting's furniture, are
unfortunately dashed by far too many pauses in the action for prop
changes.
Finally, a seemingly missed cue in the play's final scene leads
to momentary confusion on stage and thus leads to a rushed and
nonsensical conclusion, leaving the audience baffled as to the lack
of resolution in two of the major plotlines and shows a potential
lack of rehearsal time.
Ultimately, Ribbons attempts an Orson Welles tour-de-force but
seems to have over-extended herself, a real shame for a writer and
actress whose talent could have shone brighter. For someone who has
been writing plays since high school, I Heart Beijing
would have been a laudable effort at that level.
Details:
I Heart Beijing is on at the Beijing City International
School, produced by Cheeky Monkey Theatre.
Dates: 15th, 16th, 17th of June – 7.30 PM
Admission: 100 yuan.
www.iheartbeijing.com
(China.org.cn?by Chris Dalby, June 11, 2007)
