‘Kween’ (world premiere), by Vichet Chum; Direction by Pirronne Yousefzadeh; Scenic Design by Cristina Todesco; Costume Design by Yao Chen; Lighting Design by Brian J. Lilienthal; Sound Design by David Remedios; Projection Design by Camilla Tassi; Stage Managed by Brian M. Robillard; Produced by Merrimack Repertory Theater in Lowell, MA. Runs through March 15.
By Liana Chow
Kween is a gorgeous new one-act play by Vichet Chum, written for Merrimack Repertory Theater and harmoniously directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh. Set in the present day and focusing on Cambodian American characters in Lowell, “Kween” reflects back to its audience the beauty that can be found in their community. Commissioned a few years ago during a surge of I.C.E. detentions and deportations, the play is premiering during another terrifying moment for immigrants and refugees that mirrors America’s apparent determination to repeat its long history of deportation and detention. Kween is a salve for despair because it makes a case for the everyday strength and wisdom of the younger generations, the millennial and Gen-Z children of diasporas.
The playfeatures a Cambodian American teenager named Soma (Pichanny Som) and her older sister Dahvy (Pisay Pao). Their father was deported back to Cambodia a few months before, and their mother, out of concern for his mental health, followed. That leaves Dahvy and Soma to care for each other in their home, uncertain when (and whether) their parents can return. But life must go on, and Dahvy prepares for her wedding without knowing whether her parents will be there for her special day. Soma alternately bottles her feelings and manifests them as percussive poetry (inspired by Lowell’s own Jack Kerouac).
Their parents and Cambodia are like a specter, as the play is firmly rooted in Lowell. Cristina Todesco’s modular set piece of the family home stands against a black backdrop, like a small, jumbled planet with its own gravitational pull. The house is used as a staging area for other settings, with images projected directly onto its walls, placing us in front of the high school or outdoors among the stars and trees. Kween’s other characters also respond to the magnetic pull of Soma and Dahvy’s home, making their way there for beautiful moments of community care in the play’s closing scenes. Todesco has lovingly adorned the walls with real family photos of playwright Vichet Chum and actors Som and Pao.
Som captures the genesis of Soma’s slam poetry beautifully, whether she is coming up with rhymes while walking or nervously performing. Costumed in a gray sweat suit and headphones, she delivers a natural, understated performance and is utterly convincing as the teenager grows into her swagger. Som deftly fleshes out the character’s various relationships by having her fidget when around her crush, feign apathy around her sister’s fiancé, and loosen up around her best friend, but she always retains Soma’s core indignant expressiveness. Soma’s poems bear the unique perspective of an American-raised child of refugees. She’s well-versed in U.S. border history from the Chinese Exclusion Act to Operation Wetback, as well as other violence encoded into law against immigrants and the refugees the U.S. purports to rescue — but this history isn’t abstract for her; her dad has been deported. Her poem “A Khmer Scene” describes the refugee’s experience of “unending warfare, when you really could swear you just had been there.” When Som performs Soma’s poems, you really believe they’re straight from the heart of a precocious teenager, not playwright Chum’s skillful hand.
As the older sister Dahvy, Pao is terrific. While Dahvy wants Soma to open up to her, Dahvy herself is keeping family secrets to protect Soma. Intentionally acting stilted and fussy in her first scene opposite Soma, Pao adroitly peels back her character’s layers as we come to realize that she is tender but overburdened.
As Soma and Dahvy wrestle with how to move forward in such bleak circumstances, three other characters offer them a different model of courage. Sophat, Soma’s ebullient dancer friend (Ray K. Soeun), is the ultimate hype man for both her poetry and later for the audience, when we stand in as Dahvy’s wedding guests. Ruben (Alfredo Antillion), Dahvy’s fiancé, is a gentle sounding-board for Dahvy and the only character around whom Dahvy feels she can relax. He is lovable throughout, especially when he can’t contain his giddy enthusiasm over learning Khmer dances and when he gets to carry a sword for their mixed Khmer-Catholic wedding.
Britney (Brittani J. McBride), Soma’s dungaree-clad school crush, combines a sweet tone with a tenacious worldview. When Soma balks at the idea of children saving the world in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, Britney counters with a blunt reality check: “The adults have led them into this mess. How can we expect them to save us?”
The young people in this play learn that they must start by trusting each other. The most compelling dynamic in Kween is the sister relationship between Soma and Dahvy, as they slowly break down the protective walls they’ve put up. This is best exemplified in a post-wedding scene where the lighting, blocking, costuming, and scenic decisions work together beautifully to portray this vulnerability. Dahvy and Soma move in tandem, taking off their heels and stripping the venue’s decorations. It is quiet, the soundtrack of Asian diasporic pop music extinguished. Dahvy wordlessly hands Soma her gray hoodie, and Soma wears it over her wedding attire, delicately portraying how they can help each other integrate the different parts of themselves. Dahvy adjusts the lights, and the festive colors switch to stark light that lays the scene bare. When Soma reaches out with a new poem, full of apology and understanding, she performs it just for Dahvy, but we also share in its glow.
For more information and tickets, go to: https://mrt.org/
