Writing, Comic Timing Make Playfest 8 a Class Act

A child gives suspiciously accurate tarot readings. A mother calls her son across prison plexiglass. And audience members are pulled on-stage to compete for the ultimate high-stakes prize — a waitlist letter to the Harvard Business or Harvard Medical schools. Each of these were found at the Asian American Playwright Collective’s 8^th Playfest show in Cambridge.

Performed at The Foundry’s black box theater the weekend of Nov 8, Playfest featured nine short stories from a band of Boston-based playwrights. Each compellingly showcased the creative heft of local writers and the comedic chops of an all-Asian American and Pacific Islander cast and crew.  

The setup was minimalist, with over a dozen actors sitting in a semicircle with their scripts, while those in play took center stage. Each set was distinct in subject and tone, with half focusing on a range of AAPI  experiences and others exploring topics like folktale-inspired setups or budding relationships. The performances shifted between light-hearted portrayals of Asian family dynamics and heavier immigrant narratives of being caught between two worlds. Excellent comedic timing by actors allowed several plays to shine, and the show ended with a bang delivered via an enthusiastic, endorphin-inducing dance party.  Three directors, Violet Villanueva, Jake Sung-Guk Sullivan, and Mordecai SJ Choi split duties over the nine plays, while Sarah O’Neill stage managed.

The festival started short and sweet, with Greg Lam’s “Occupied.” A tense standoff develops between one distraught bathroom-goer (Audrey Adji) who is unable to relax while an increasingly impatient man (Nicholas Papayoanou) waits outside. Both are desperate, skillfully evoked by the physical comedy of frantic pacing on one side of the imagined door and a shivering, head-in-hands frustration on the other. The man, Dennis, is between a rock and a hard place: a bursting bladder and bowels that won’t let go. Things escalate until Dennis comes to a slow realization of where exactly they might be — and it’s a cursed situation.

Next, “Visiting Jimmy” by Christina R. Chan, took the show in a poignant, gut-wrenching direction. We are dropped into a prison where a worried Kathy (Karla Goo Lang) is visiting her son, Jimmy (Nicholas Papayoanou). The first thing she asks, in Cantonese, is if he’s eaten. Cantonese phrases are peppered into this story, but the main dialogue is in English, where we learn Jimmy and his brother are in prison for killing a white boy in self-defense. Kathy explains that she moved into a white neighborhood because they felt more familiar, while Jimmy shares that it’s the Black kids who are nicer at his school. We hear convincing portrayals of a concerned mother doing everything she can to support her son while holding down a garment factory job, and a teenager trying to put on a brave face while watching his future fracture around him. Ultimately, we’re left wondering what happens next for Jimmy, as time runs out and he must hang up the phone.

In the off-the-rails adventure “In Search of the King Shag” by Vivian Liu-Somers and Angele Maraj, sister and brother duo (Naomi Ibasitas and Elijah Estolano Punzal) are hunting for the New Zealand King Shag, a (real) rare bird that’s the key to their bird-obsessed late aunt’s inheritance. Self-styled bird guide (Vivian Liu-Somers) appears with a handful of mysterious berries, which— why not?  — they all partake in. If you’ve seen "The Desert" episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, where a thirst-quenching cactus juice takes the main cast on a hallucinogenic trip, you’ll have a sense of what comes next. Liu-Somers commits to flapping her arms like a chicken as their berry-addled brains process her as the King Shag, with extra laughs erupting when she pauses mid-flap to turn a page. The meeting turns out to be a fortuitous one, although not without its share of bumps on the road, including crisscrossing the thin line between human and avian. 

Jamie Lin’s “Little Red Setup,” an irreverent reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood as a seasoned spy, was originally written and performed in a 25-hour period. In the beginning, it was hard to follow as the secret agents Little Red (Noli French) and Wolff (Steve Bermundo) unveil layers of deception and posturing both from each other and their spymaster, the Grand Mare (Kai Chao). Bermundo’s slinky exaggerated mannerisms and Chao’s sly meddling are fitting to their characters and bring flavor to the scene as the final romantic truth is revealed.

A more serious, but subtly comedic affair comes through in “Verbatim” by Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro. The premise is reminiscent of R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface, where a white writer steals the words of a female Asian author and passes them off as her own. In this case the culprit is white author Steve (Chantha Luk), who is ostensibly visiting Barbara (Linda Chin) to apologize for lifting 14 pages of her work. Luk is convincing as someone too self-centered to even do that properly. It’s particularly galling to watch him give a perfunctory demand for more tea while a guest in Barbara’s home. She pauses a moment then, frustratingly, fills his cup with no pushback. We do find out why she entertains his self-pitying monologues, although her end goal is not fully clear.

“Madam Tiffani, The Minor Arcane” by Michael Lin is enjoyable from start to finish. We begin as the titular Tiffani (a kneeling Noli French) sets up her tarot readings, commanding our attention with mystical gesticulations and her own whooshing sound effects. Two friends, an intrigued Andie (Naomi Ibasitas) and staunch non-believer Ducky (Mordecai SJ Choi) approach her booth and are drawn in by her second-grader cuteness. The reading is an absurdly reasonable 25 cents. Shuffling giant playing cards (an effective prop), Tiffani proceeds to tell Andie that there’s something, or perhaps someone, missing in her romantic life, and the two cajole Ducky into a reading of his own. When Tiffani hits him with the uno reverse, a literal surprise card in the deck, it elicits shouts of laughter. As the pair leaves, the final reveal is not unexpected but still satisfyingly well-executed with a just-subtle-enough interaction between Andie and Tiffani.

“Check Please,” by Michelle M. Aguillon and Erin Davis, dives into the deeply awkward subject of our parents’ sex lives and pulls it off. Young couple Drew and Anna (Elijah Estolano Punzal and Mavis Joy Manaloto) prepare to introduce their father and mother, respectively. As it turns out, Mike (Chantha Luk) and Lina (Lisa Fermin-Granada) have already met. Intimately. At the very restaurant where they’re currently all eating. The ensemble has clear chemistry as conveniently timed exits allow each pair to speak to each other in private. Lina and Mike’s dynamic is hilarious to watch, one striving for nonchalance while the other is increasingly unable to keep their secret. Drew and Anna, meanwhile, are just trying to keep the conversation going. When things finally bubble over, it’s a disaster you can’t look away from.

In “The Further Adventures of Secret Asian Man” by Dev Luthra, an immigrant (Ankur Singh) is struggling with the decision to trade his original citizenship for an American one. When he finally takes the leap, he faces an exasperated immigration officer (Audrey Adji) who wants just the facts, and none of these endless stories, please. The man, referred to as CP, is aching to be seen as a fully human character with a rich inner life. He’s earnest and introspective but leans long-winded, jumping from the history of passports to his experiences with border control to specifics of the citizenship exam

The final act, “Asian Reindeer Games” by Hortense Gerardo, is a strongly written crowd pleaser with artfully exaggerated acting and its own sound effects (Audrey Adji on the gong). Originally performed in California, the prizes for the family-feud style game show are tailored to the classic stereotypical Asian desire for a prestigious education. Two families are competing against each other, but neither is complete — and the missing member, their child, is drawn from the audience (where the parents are easily able to find an East and South Asian representative). Flustered newly minted actors soon settle into their role, one ad-libbing excitement at the prospect of Harvard Business School and the other quavering, “Do I really have to go there?” when he’s presented with the prospect of medical school.

To their credit, acting parents Elijah Estolano Punzal and Lisa Fermin-Granada roll with the punches, while Kai Chao and Vivian Liu-Somers on the other side could not be prouder of their daughter. Aston Martin (Karla Goo Lang) hosts while assistant Jeeves (Steve Bermundo) oils his way across the stage, holding the schools’ waitlist letters aloft. Neither the audience nor the acting audience know what’s happening next, and that’s where the excitement lies.

At the end of the Playfest, with its plentiful laughs interspersed with moments of reflection, many audience members gather around their friends who acted or wrote, exchanging congratulations. The festival brings out a supportive and engaged community each year, and it’s a joy to have this creative ecosystem within Boston, creating timely snapshots of stories written for and by AAPI artists.