Katie Đỗ has a new play, love you long time (already), at Theatre503 – an intergenerational epic about mothers and daughters centring on Mai and Tâm.
Set mostly in the USA, it starts in the afterlife after Mai’s death then winds back to her leaving Saigon with prospective husband Long in 1975.
TK Hey’s clever set, lit by Cheng Keng, offers glimpses of half-remembered moments while making religion – Bible, crucifix – central.
We first meet Tâm as a teenager, wanting to escape from a house oppressed and hurt by her mother’s beliefs and actions. The expectations are heavy on her to study and find a professional career.
We watch Mai and Tâm grow through the lens of the parents’ marriage and young love, as Tâm becomes involved with Huy, a boy who has his own troubles to sort out.
If this sounds like heavy material, perhaps it is, but writer Đỗ and director Jennifer Tang find the humour in every situation, even as we move through forty years of family conflict.
It asks a lot for characters to age this much over an 85-minute run-time, but changes in hairstyle, costume and physical stance do well for actors Tuyen Do, Molly Harris, and Zheng Xi Yong.
Jon Chew’s Long hardly ages at all, but this probably fits with his calm demeanour and engagement with the words of Buddha. Off-stage characters are also sharply drawn and feel like they belong.
This is a love story at its heart between mother and daughter, despite differences, despite disappointment. It is also a love story between two couples who find their lives growing in different directions.
The use of music is also notable, with both traditional Vietnamese tunes and Western pop classics included. It helps us navigate the moments of dreams and memories Đỗ includes in her play.
love you long time (already) is a play that ends on a moving, yet uplifting note. It recognises the love between Mai and Tâm, while recognising that changes need to be made in many families to make it easier for us to connect.
Duty, devotion and divinity are also strong elements of the play, both in Mai’s resolution to stay in an indifferent marriage, and Tâm’s dream of a life that ‘could-have-been”.
Both Harris’s Tâm and Do’s Mai are strong, nuanced performances of flawed characters. Yong’s Huy is a touching portrayal of a man of principle, while Chew’s enlightened Long draws the eye.
This show is produced in collaboration with the New York City-based Sống Collective, whose mission is to reclaim the Vietnamese American narrative.
4.5 stars.
love you long time (already) continues at Theatre503 until 25 Jul – see here.
Photo credit: Ikin Yum