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Unbroken Thread: An Anthology of Plays by Asian American Women
This book contains plays by Genny Lim (Paper Angels), Wakako Yamauchi (The Music Lessons), Momoko Iko (Gold Watch), Velina Hasu Houston (Tea), Jeannie Barroga (Walls), and Elizabeth Wong (Letters to a Student Revolutionary). The volume includes an extended introduction, a profile of each playwright, and an appendix. The six plays of this anthology represent some of the best dramatic literature written by Asian American women since the 1970s. Each is a groundbreaking work and addresses in its own way the experiences of Asians in America. All six playwrights are American-born daughters of Asian immigrants, and their voices span the genres of naturalism, impressionism, ritual drama, postmodern collage, and media-influenced episodic drama.
328 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 3, 2021
This anthology contains six plays by Asian American women. Roberta Uno's introduction is excellent and helpful, and the biographical information for each playwright is better than biographies in anthologies of plays usually are: these focus on the context of the playwrights' works, their production histories, and the threads (if you will) of influence on the writers.
I am not sure how I feel about Uno's decision to sort the plays in order of the time period they cover. This move seems to want to emphasize a kind of history of Asian Americans rather than the history of Asian American drama. I get why she's done this, especially since all of the plays are designed to discuss history, but it makes for a less clear picture of Asian American theatre than I wanted.
Genny Lim's Paper Angels is an intense, poetic drama that takes place on Angel Island. This is a pretty good piece of theatre, though it doesn't feel like there's much to it.
I was not prepared for the intensity and brilliance of Wakako Yamauchi's The Music Lessons. Not prepared at all. This is a gorgeous, devastating treatment of the realist kitchen sink drama. I am in love, and I immediately ordered another of Yamauchi's plays. Wow. This is one of the best plays in the collection.
Momoko Iko's Gold Watch feels like a play that wasn't written by a playwright. This isn't really a bad thing, but I think Gold Watch would work better as a novel or a short story. It just doesn't use the form very well, even though the plot is very interesting, the narrative feels important, and Iko is attempting to do real tragic drama.
Velina Hasu Houston's Tea is ok. I like the way it moves around in time. But I guess for me the five women's stories all seem to blur together. The five women are types, and they stand in for women who responded in various ways to emigrating from Japan after WWII. It is as if the author's interest in telling the story of so-called war brides overwhelmed her ability to tap into the protagonist's journey. And so Tea winds up being a play that is about these women in general rather than something that felt specific to me.
Jeannie Barroga's Walls is flat out brilliant. It's easily the best play in Uno's collection, and it's formally innovative, thought-provokingly powerful, smart, fascinating, and totally gripping. This is a play about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC, and it tells the story of the design of this monument while also telling stories of people in the war, protestors of the war, and those who lost people in the war. It's a play about mourning and loss and friendship. It's just so damn good. Lisa Lowe opens her book Immigrant Acts with a discussion of this play, and somehow I'd never read it even though it's been something I've been meaning to read since I read Lowe's book over a decade ago. It's been my loss not to have had this play in my life until now.
The final play in the collection, Elizabeth Wong's Letters to a Student Revolutionary, on the other hand, is terrible. I won't say much more about it, because I do dislike being unkind about these things, but next to the rest of these plays, and especially after the brilliance of Jeannie Barroga's play, Letters to a Student Revolutionary feels almost shockingly shallow and underdeveloped.
I am not sure how I feel about Uno's decision to sort the plays in order of the time period they cover. This move seems to want to emphasize a kind of history of Asian Americans rather than the history of Asian American drama. I get why she's done this, especially since all of the plays are designed to discuss history, but it makes for a less clear picture of Asian American theatre than I wanted.
Genny Lim's Paper Angels is an intense, poetic drama that takes place on Angel Island. This is a pretty good piece of theatre, though it doesn't feel like there's much to it.
I was not prepared for the intensity and brilliance of Wakako Yamauchi's The Music Lessons. Not prepared at all. This is a gorgeous, devastating treatment of the realist kitchen sink drama. I am in love, and I immediately ordered another of Yamauchi's plays. Wow. This is one of the best plays in the collection.
Momoko Iko's Gold Watch feels like a play that wasn't written by a playwright. This isn't really a bad thing, but I think Gold Watch would work better as a novel or a short story. It just doesn't use the form very well, even though the plot is very interesting, the narrative feels important, and Iko is attempting to do real tragic drama.
Velina Hasu Houston's Tea is ok. I like the way it moves around in time. But I guess for me the five women's stories all seem to blur together. The five women are types, and they stand in for women who responded in various ways to emigrating from Japan after WWII. It is as if the author's interest in telling the story of so-called war brides overwhelmed her ability to tap into the protagonist's journey. And so Tea winds up being a play that is about these women in general rather than something that felt specific to me.
Jeannie Barroga's Walls is flat out brilliant. It's easily the best play in Uno's collection, and it's formally innovative, thought-provokingly powerful, smart, fascinating, and totally gripping. This is a play about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC, and it tells the story of the design of this monument while also telling stories of people in the war, protestors of the war, and those who lost people in the war. It's a play about mourning and loss and friendship. It's just so damn good. Lisa Lowe opens her book Immigrant Acts with a discussion of this play, and somehow I'd never read it even though it's been something I've been meaning to read since I read Lowe's book over a decade ago. It's been my loss not to have had this play in my life until now.
The final play in the collection, Elizabeth Wong's Letters to a Student Revolutionary, on the other hand, is terrible. I won't say much more about it, because I do dislike being unkind about these things, but next to the rest of these plays, and especially after the brilliance of Jeannie Barroga's play, Letters to a Student Revolutionary feels almost shockingly shallow and underdeveloped.
Want to read
November 14, 2021I'm specifically interested in reading Gold Watch as it's believed to be the first play written by an Asian American woman that was produced in the United States.
August 25, 2023
Six plays are featured, in a variety of styles and voices. By far the best and my favorite was Velina Hasu Houston's Tea, followed by Elizabeth Wong's Letters to a Student Revolutionary.
December 19, 2007
Asian Drama written by women.
December 16, 2008
I just read "Walls" by Jeannie Barroga, per a professor's recommendation. It wasn't particularly earth-shaking.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews