My biggest and most immediate takeaway after watching the world premiere of Kairos at East West Players is that I wish more stories were told in this particular manner, despite the genre or the size of the cast.

Written by Lisa Sanaye Dring and directed by Jesca Prudencio, Kairos is both a dystopian science-fiction play and a dark-comedy love story about an Asian American woman and a Black man. Their ethnic background is integral to the story but at the same time, it is not beholden to it. Coupled with a gorgeous set design, wonderful directing, an extremely thoughtful script, and awe-inspiring acting, Kairos is a shining beacon to the theatre world in how the next phase of diverse storytelling should be done.

What happens to commitment when death can’t do us part? Both a dystopian science-fiction play and a dark-comedy love story, Kairos is the story of two people falling in love during a tectonic shift in society. Their relationship is tested by the advent of Prometheus, a procedure that grants immortality to a select few. Kairos performs at the David Henry Hwang Theater in Downtown LA’s historic Little Tokyo district and is presented by East West Players.

Having seen an earlier work of Lisa Sanaye Dring with Hungry Ghost last year at Skylight Theatre, the extremely thoughtful and philosophical elements are very much present once again in Kairos but at a much faster pace as there are many, many time jumps within this love story. This requires the two actors to absolutely be on the edge of their feet to calibrate with every change and it is here that Sylvia Kwan and Gerard Joseph not only rise to the challenge but are absolutely endearing as Gina and David. We believe in their love and cherish them through all their up’s and down’s in a relationship that is put to the ultimate test when only one of them is granted the immortality procedure.

My only criticism of the play does however lie in this sci-fi element as we are introduced to this idea early on in the play and stays throughout as it is often brought up in conversations whether or not one of them want and should go through with it. Knowing understandably that this play is not a spectacle but an intimate story (that can be told literally anywhere, regardless of how elaborate the set and sound design is), the sci-fi geek in me perhaps wanted more of a pay-off in how the Prometheus element would truly be utilized. It was therefore an element that never does come to fruition as David and Gina decide not to go through with it and instead live their lives as normal human beings who age.

This is where actors Ren Hanami and William L. Warren come in as the older versions of Gina and David in a “When Harry Met Sally” interview style segment during the last ten minutes of the play that came off extremely jarring from everything that came before. To me, it felt like the safest choice for the couple to stay and age together but it would have been fascinating (and better fulfill the sci-fi element of the play) if the two did meet again with one of them not having aged a day while the other went through the curse of time. Hanami and Warren do a fine job with their limited roles but ultimately it ended on an anti-climactic note to an otherwise gorgeous story that came in the 60 or so minutes before.

Despite the ending being a personal let-down for me (and I may be the only one as others I talked to loved the ending), I do need to re-emphasize what I mentioned at the beginning of my review and that is the casting process of this show. Gina and David were written specifically with an Asian woman and Black man in mind (with compelling arguments that the genders could easily be switched, non-binary, or trans) and so the casting process was deliberate in being color conscious of the characters but not relying on any trauma or ethnic tropes that are often found in historically underrepresented plays. In the end, Kairos is a universal love story but deliberate in who their lovers are. That to me, is aligned with what I love sci-fi so much; it embodies the possibility in the improvement of humanity for the future but what Lisa Sanaye Dring is doing that the future isn’t some far off idea, it’s happening right now and more theatre companies need to catch up with it.

Tickets to Kairos may be purchased online at eastwestplayers.org or by calling (213) 625-7000. At time of purchase please mention any wheelchair/accessible seating needs. Student, senior, and group discounts are available. Box office is available 11AM – 5PM, Monday-Friday, as well as ninety minutes before all performances.

All performances of Kairos will be presented at the David Henry Hwang Theater in the Union
Center of the Arts at 120 Judge John Aiso Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 in Little Tokyo. Kairos
will perform April 4 through April 28, 2024 with opening night on Sunday, April 7. Performance times Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays are at 8PM, with additional 2PM matinees on Saturday and 5PM performances on Sunday. All Saturday 2PM performances are Masked Matinees, making theater more accessible to audiences who prefer a masked audience experience.

Ticket prices range from $39 to $69. A Pay-What-You-Can performance is scheduled for Monday, April 15 at 8PM. EWP offers $15 Access Tickets in limited quantity to all performances. Access Tickets are intended to lower the price barrier to access live theater by offering a more affordable option to EWP mainstage performances. Access Tickets are available via the same methods all tickets are purchased, with no additional steps necessary to purchase. Performance dates and details are subject to change.