"A thesis of a play, unafraid of complexities and contradictions, pepped
up with a light dramatic fizz. It asks whether race is skin-deep,
actable or even fakeable, and it does so with huge wit and brio."
-TimeOut London
"A pungent play of ideas with a big heart. Yellow Face brings to the
national discussion about race a sense of humor a mile wide, an
even-handed treatment and a hopeful, healing vision of a world that
could be" -Variety
"It's about our country, about public image, about face," says David
Henry Hwang about his latest work, a mock documentary that puts Hwang
himself center stage. An exploration of Asian identity and the
ever-changing definition of what it is to be an American, Yellow Face
"is by turns acidly funny, insightful and provocative" (Washington
Post).
The play begins with the 1990s controversy over color-blind casting for
Miss Saigon before it spins into a comic fantasy, in which the
character DHH pens a play in protest and then unwittingly casts a white
actor as the Asian lead. Yellow Face also explores the real-life
investigation of Hwang's father, the first Asian American to own a
federally chartered bank, and the espionage charges against physicist
Wen Ho Lee. Adroitly combining the light touch of comedy with weighty
political and emotional issues, Hwang creates a "lively and provocative
cultural self-portrait [that] lets nobody off the hook" (The New York
Times).
David Henry Hwang is the author of the Tony Award-winning M.
Butterfly, Yellow Face (OBIE Award, 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalist),
Golden Child (1997 OBIE Award), FOB (1981 OBIE Award), Family
Devotions (Drama Desk nomination), and the books for musicals Aida (
co-author), Flower Drum Song (2002 Broadway revival), and Tarzan,
among other works. David Henry Hwang graduated from Stanford University,
attended the Yale School of Drama, and holds honorary degrees from
Columbia College in Chicago and The American Conservatory Theatre. He
lives in New York City with his wife, actress Kathryn Layng, and their
children, Noah David and Eva Veanne.
