![]() ![]() And the direction, by Ed Sylvanus Iskandar, keeps the pace racing on Mimi Lien’s exquisite set: a gleaming white shoe box raised above the stage floor, trimmed with a strip of glowing, neonlike tubing that changes colors. Moggie, Stephen Duff Webber and Welker White - are all energetic and engaging, nimbly moving between genders, nationalities and species as needed. The fate of the poor young kitchen worker afflicted by a toothache is the most potent, but it is also the most preposterously comic: a tragedy written as farce. None of the various story lines accrue much emotional heft. (One of the flight attendants is dating a man whose attraction to her derives from her resemblance to a Barbie doll.)īut the abundance of subplots dilutes the impact of each of them, and the densely layered style ultimately impedes our engagement more than it enhances it. ![]() It suggests that the increasing ease with which people move across the globe encourages us to dehumanize our fellow men and women, devouring them as we might an exotic new delicacy. ![]() “The Golden Dragon” plays loosely with ideas about the alienation endemic in contemporary culture. Schimmelpfennig’s comedy, translated by David Tushingham, whizzes dizzily by, jump-cutting among story lines in the manner of a movie, you begin to get the sense that beneath all the dazzling style, there really isn’t much substance. Descriptions of the bewildering array of dishes served are used as transitions in the often frenetic, staccato dialogue: “Number 83: Pat Thai Gai: fried rice noodles with egg, vegetables, chicken and spicy peanut sauce - medium hot.” The characters regularly speak the stage directions (“Short pause”), narrate their actions (“The first stewardess says: hello”) or describe the settings as the play shifts between scenes (“In the kitchen of a four-room apartment a couple of floors above the restaurant. The play is also loaded with stylistic garnishes, many of which turn from arresting to tiresome rather quickly. Seasoning this complicated soup are curious allegorical interludes about the relationship between a cricket and an ant. These include the five Asian immigrants working in the kitchen (the city is unnamed) a young couple quarreling over an unexpected pregnancy an older couple on the verge of an emotional breakup the owner of the convenience store next to the restaurant and a pair of flight attendants who are regular patrons and live upstairs. The restaurant’s long, melting-pot menu reflects the complicated assemblage of characters in the play. Set in the sweaty kitchen of the restaurant, its poky dining room and various apartments in the building in which it is housed, the play moves at an antic pace as the five cast members leap among more than a dozen roles. Schimmelpfennig’s darkly whimsical play turns on a grisly series of events that finds a human tooth landing - well, let us just say where you would never want to find a human tooth. And Vietnamese.Īctually, should you eat after, you’ll probably feel inclined to do the same.Īll those cuisines are featured on the lengthy menu of the hole-in-the-wall restaurant of the title. ![]() Here’s a suggestion: should you eat before, avoid Chinese. Plan your evening carefully if you choose to see “The Golden Dragon,” a play by the acclaimed German writer Roland Schimmelpfennig being presented by the Play Company at the New Ohio Theater. ![]()
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