"David Henry Hwang is a true original. A native of Los Angeles, born to
immigrant parents, he has one foot on each side of a cultural divide. He
knows America - its vernacular, its social landscape, its theatrical
traditions. He knows the same about China. In his plays, he manages to
mix both of these conflicting cultures until he arrives at a style that
is wholly his own. Mr. Hwang's works have the verve of well-made
American comedies and yet, with little warning, they can bubble over
into the mystical rituals of Oriental stagecraft. By at once bringing
West and East into conflict and unity, this playwright has found the
perfect means to dramatize both the pain and humor of the immigrant
experience." -Frank Rich, New York Times
Throughout his career, David Henry Hwang has explored the complexities
of forging Eastern and Western cultures in a contemporary America. Over
the past twenty years, his extraordinary body of work has been marked by
a deep desire to reaffirm the common humanity in all of us. This volume
collects a generous selection of Mr. Hwang's plays, including FOB,
The Dance and the Railroad, Family Devotions, The Sound of a
Voice, The House of Sleeping Beauties, The Voyage, Bondage, and
Trying to Find Chinatown.
FOB is an OBIE Award-winning play that explores the contrasting
experiences, attitudes, and conflicts of established Asian Americans and
fresh-off-the-boat (FOB) Asian immigrants. One of David Henry Hwang's
earliest plays, FOB has been called "a theatrically provocative
combination of realism and fantasy... A sensitive, insightful, and
multilevel play" (Christian Science Monitor).
In The Dance and the Railroad, two Chinese workers on the
Transcontinental Railroad struggle through poverty and hunger to
reconnect with the traditions of their homeland. "An evocative portrait
of the immigrant experience," The Dance and the Railroad is set in
1867 during a strike in an Asian labor camp (New York Post).
Family Devotions takes a different look at the clash between East and
West through the perspective of a Chinese American family living in a
Los Angeles suburb. The Chicago Tribune calls Family Devotions "a
funny and compassionate piece of writing."
The Sound of a Voice is the original story of a lone samurai warrior
and his encounter with a rumored witch in the woods. Inspired by
Japanese folk stories and Noh theatre, this play of desperation and
desire is about "timeless human emotion, a subject made all the more
powerful by dialogue that rings with the power and rhythm of poetry"
(Asian Avenue Magazine).
In The House of Sleeping Beauties, an elderly man visits a unique
brothel filled with sleeping virgins, where customers are only permitted
to sleep in a shared bed. Based on Hwang's exploration of how the
novelist Yasunari Kawabata was affected by his own stories, this play is
"an earnest, considered experiment furthering an exceptional young
writer's process of growth" (New York Times).
Hwang's libretto for The Voyage was written in collaboration with
composer Phillip Glass for the Metropolitan Opera's 500th year
celebration of Columbus Day. Instead of focusing on Christopher
Columbus, however, the three act opera is a more general exploration of
time, space, and possibility.
An encounter in an S&M parlor between a man and woman in full bodysuits
sets the scene for Bondage, where their role play becomes "an
exploration of race, love and politics in the weirdest possible
contortions" (Northwest Asian Weekly).
Trying to Find Chinatown, an exploration of racial identity and
appearance, revolves around the interaction between an Asian street
musician and a Caucasian man who claims Asian American heritage.
