As a script, Lloyd Suh‘s The Chinese Lady has been a fascinating play that caught my attention since its world premiere back in 2018. It is an extremely dense and repetitive piece yet it has many moments of profound insight and depth that pierces through the much slower first half.

While I’ve always critiqued this, the play nevertheless found great regional success due to its ever relevant subject and it being a simple two hander. Chance Theater takes a crack at it with their production directed by Shinshin Yuder Tsai and while it takes some time to find its bearing, the play launches terrifically in the back half.

The Chinese Lady follows 14-year-old Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to set foot in
America, after she has sailed into New York Harbor to be featured in a museum. She sees herself as a representative of China, here to educate and entertain. Or, in the eyes of the paying public, is she merely a mesmerizing display? Moving and sharply funny, this play follows the idealistic Moy as she travels through America as a living exhibit for decades. Over the course of her travels, Moy shares her impressions of a young country struggling to define itself.

Any actor who takes on the role of Afong Moy has a considerable challenge ahead of them. They must convey the character from age 14 to an eternal age of over 200 years and in between those ages, the massive amount of text where they narrate and entertain the audience for that time period. Michelle Krusiec is an incredible and formidable actress with both experience on stage and film but on opening night, her inability to remember her lines greatly dragged the pace down that it added another additional 20 minutes to what should have been an 80-minute production. While this will most likely improve over additional performances, the other issue I found was that she was less successful in portraying Moy in her earlier years. I didn’t quite believe this was a spunky teenager and that disbelief, along with the halting line delivery, affected my perception of the performance.

On top of what is already the least interesting part of the play (at least plot wise), my biggest critique lies unfortunately all on her. However, Krusiec really shines once Moy is no longer part of the museum exhibit. Once she is in the heart of the play where it lays into the genocidal history of the United States and how it has destroyed so many Chinese immigrants’ lives, I see Krusiec more comfortable in her element. While it still stuttered with the line memorization issue all the way till the end, the dramatic spark was nevertheless present.

Albert Park is much more successful as Moy’s manservant, Atung. Combining both the comedic and the dramatic, Park does so much with so little and while his character is often described as “irrelevant,” he imbues so much character and life that it is impossible not to acknowledge him. While there are times where Atung’s moving monologue might have been staged a bit too presentational for my taste, there is no doubt that Park is very comfortable in his skin and gracefully puts in details of how Atung moves and act as he gets older. I have no doubt that Krusiec will settle more into the role with each successive performance and by doing so, the relationship and banter between the two characters will come to play more.

I did have to chuckle that the many white audience members on opening night oohed and ahhed rather loudly at the set design, as if they were just like the white folks watching Afong Moy in her traditional Chinese getup and display back in the day. I also wondered if the audience sitting around me would draw any parallels to the genocide the European Americans (I do absolutely love that Afong Moy makes us consider this label) conducted on the Indigenous and the Chinese immigrants to our current times with United States’ current role in the genocide of the Palestinians but I imagine this would not even cross their minds. I overheard a white critic complaining to his friend on why the play would lay it so hard on their audience about the role of genocide the United States played in its founding but as we are seeing the slaughter of yet another people paid for by U.S. tax dollars, perhaps it is for that reason this play needs to exist and keep reminding people.

This was overall a good attempt at this play and while this production did not convince me of the necessity of the first half being essential, the core of it is undeniably invaluable. And in that regard, Tsai and his cast understood that assignment very well and delivered the play home. By the time this review comes out, I have the utmost faith it will have found its groove so definitely check this out while you can.

The Chinese Lady will be performing June 8, 2025 on the Cripe Stage at the Bette Aitken theater Arts Center, located in Anaheim, CA. Tickets are available now at ChanceTheater.com/thechineselady or by calling the box office at (888) 455-4212, Monday through Friday, 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM.