You For Me For You at Woolly Mammoth Offers Unique Look at North Korea & U.S.

By Stan Kang

As I grew up Korean-American, thoroughly assimilated into American life, South Korea seemed strange and unfamiliar to me. So, when I was sixteen, my parents sent me to a summer camp in Seoul, Korea to learn about my heritage. One of my most vivid memories was visiting Panmunjom, the abandoned village on the border between North and South and home of the Joint Security Area in the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ. If South Korea seemed, well, foreign to me, North Korea seemed utterly alien. As I peered across the DMZ, I wondered, “What goes on over there in the land of Kim Il-Sung?” When I heard that playwright Mia Chung was having the world premiere of her play about North Korea at DC’s Woolly Mammoth, I thought, “How cool! A play that will answer my question.”

As the play opens, two North Korean sisters fight over who gets to eat their meager rations in the face of starvation. The older sister, Minjee (Jo Mei) refuses her meal so ill, weak Junhee (Ruibo Qian) will be able to eat what little they have. After fruitless visits to Doctor (Francis Jue) fail to cure Minjee’s illness, Junhee convinces her to attempt a perilous escape from North Korea. At the border, the meet Smuggler (Francis Jue), who warns them that passage carries a high price.

This play so beautiful, wrapped in lyrical language and the clever, sly way playwright Mia Chung makes one think about society. Looking at the U.S. through the lens of an immigrant from North Korea, where citizens are taught that America is a dark and menacing enemy and that their country is the envy of the world, is thought-provoking. I found myself wrestling with the issues Chung raises long after the play was over.

Chung indulges a taste of magical realism, aided by some brilliant work from director Yury Urnov and scenic designer Daniel Ettinger’s deceptively simple, yet effective, set which supports shifts of time and space in amazing ways. A towering slab backdrop splits open, changing from an omnipresent Asian red screen to an industrial scaffold, manifesting the play’s magical realism transporting Junhee from North Korea to New York. The play’s scope shifts from a small, beautiful tale of survival and sisterly love to a large, daring exploration of the immigrant experience and culture clash. As scenes shift between Junhee in New York and Minjee, trapped and waiting at the border with the Smuggler, I realize I might never get the answer to my question, but I don’t care because this experience is so rich.

Director Urnov worked with Chung and the actors during a New York workshop of this play over the summer, and the experience pays off with stunning stage pictures, especially the sisters’ passage across the border and Junhee racing across time. Urnov handles the symbolism of the play with finesse and ease, grounding the acting so that the play’s magical realism can soar.

Lighting designer Andrew Griffin uses stark, harsh lights at the border and warm, soft lights in New York, intelligently supporting the play’s shifts. The costumes designed by Frank Labovitz are both fun and dour as appropriate. The sound design by Elisheba Ittoop is sharp, scary and also effortlessly supports all of the myriad shifts and magical realism. Composer Mike Iveson, Jr adds a sense of whimsy with his compositions.

The ensemble cast is amazing and brings a difficult, daring, lyrical play to life with poise and brio. The funny, lyrical language is handled with panache by Kimberly Gilbert, who plays bottle blond Tiffany in all her American glory: funny, endearing and sometimes distasteful. Jo Mei is lovely as Minjee in the scenes focusing on the sisters, and she displays quiet grace in her scenes at the Border with the Smuggler. Ruibo Qian is wonderfully dimensional as Junhee, and the play hinges off of her marvelous work. Francis Jue plays the Doctor with edgy arrogance, and, doing double duty as the Smuggler, he finds qualities both unsavory and human in his character. In smaller roles, Matthew Dewberry is funny, sympathetic and likeable as The Man From the South and Francis Cabatac is adept as the Puppeteer.

Mia Chung’s You For Me For You is a transcendent gem. It is funny, lyrical and thought provoking, the first work of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s “Free The Beast” campaign to produce 25 world-premiere plays. I look forward to seeing more of Mia Chung’s work. It is exciting to discover a Korean-American playwright with such a unique and fresh voice.

Running Time: 90 minutes with no intermission. “You For Me For You” plays at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 641 D Street NW, Washington, DC through December 2. For tickets and information call 202-393-3939 or visit woollymammoth.net. This review was originally posted at AsianFortune.com