Henry Ong‘s final play Ascent, now having its world premiere at the Skylight Theatre Company, is an urgently relevant production from Plain Wood Productions based on a true story about Chinese aerospace engineer Qian Xuesen. Though the play’s pacing is bogged down by far too many short scenes coupled with laborious scene transitions and the second half of Qian Xuesen‘s fascinatingly complex life in China unfortunately omitted, it has tremendous heart that is filled with incredible performances from their ensemble cast.

A new play based on the true story of Qian Xuesen, the brilliant aerospace engineer from China who helped launch America’s space age—until Cold War paranoia forever changed the course of his life…and ours. Qian Xuesen, a promising young engineer from China, travels to America in 1935 on a Boxer Indemnity Scholarship. Advancing quickly through the ranks at MIT and Caltech, he becomes a pioneer of the American space age, co-founding JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and helping the United States of America win World War II. Then, as extreme nationalism swells at the beginning of the Cold War, Xuesen finds himself accused of being a Communist, and what happens next shapes the future of both his new and native homelands.

How do you properly tell a life story of a person in all their complexities and contradictions? Where do you begin and end? Which parts do you keep and which parts do you leave behind? These are the questions that traversed through my head as I was watching the world premiere of the late Henry Ong‘s final play. As I admired the set design by Randy Wong-Westbrooke, I had to contend with the sheer challenge of how to properly critique a play from an extraordinarily generous man who was perhaps one of the biggest champions of Los Angeles theatre as an artist and more importantly, the people who are part of it. Henry would go out of his way to make every individual feel truly special, particularly with his “Famous People” photo collections that I was most fortunate to be part of during his life. I, like many others, grieved immensely when he passed away in September 2018. So to not only critique his final play that but also everyone involved from him to director Diana Wyenn who is a dear friend of mine, the entire ensemble cast, and beyond, this was not an easy task. But I don’t think Henry would have wanted in any other way so here goes.

The anchor to this entire play rests on its main lead played by Trieu Tran and Tran is a marvel in this role. He imbues Qian Xuesen with such beautiful humanity in all his pride, righteous anger, and heart-wrenching humility. Iris Liu defies the supportive wife trope as Jiang Ying with her fiery spirit and immeasurable grace. Jorge Luis-Pallo and Russell Edge perhaps take on the most difficult tasks of playing so many characters but they do so with incredible distinction and energy, most notably with them transitioning from being Xuesen’s toddler kids to FBI agents within seconds. But it is Edge’s Theodore von Karman and Luis-Pallo’s Frank Malina that these actors shine the most in as these particular characters’ essences remind us of what humanity can be at its most inspirational. All of these are crafted under director Diana Wyenn‘s excellent and soulful guidance so it is in the acting that serves as the play’s strongest asset.

When films and television do quick scenes that serve primarily as information, they benefit from visual media, music, and edits that can engage the audience. In a play? Not so much, especially if they have props and scenery that need to be moved every single time. In fact, I have yet to see any play that has successfully accomplished this so it is here in this production that it takes a while before the play finally finds its footing and only because it allows itself to finally breathe in the last 30 to 40 minutes.

Though it was nice to see a general overview of Xuesen’s young adult life, the main thrust of the play is his 1950 trial and the United States government accusing him of being a Communist and it is here that the play should have focused on before moving forward. Before that, the frequent short scenes are coupled with laborious scene transitions that drag the pacing of the play down considerably. While there was a serene beauty in starting and ending the play with Xuesen in the afterlife up in the stars, I am of the mindset that it was not needed because the play omits 44 years of his life for reasons that I simultaneously understand and also wish they included anyway, for reasons I will explain below.

The entire premise of the play rests on Xuesen’s great desire to become an American and how the United States decided to treat him like a perpetual foreigner and drove him away. When he returned (deported) back to China in 1955, he was instrumental in leading the development of the Chinese space program. He also played a significant part in the construction and development of China’s defense industry, higher education and research system, rocket force. So for all his contributions, he became known as the “Father of Chinese Rocketry” and was nicknamed the “King of Rocketry”. The fact that this was not brought up in is perhaps one of the largest omissions that detract from it.

While the play acknowledges Xuesen’s contributions to China, they do so by putting a slight western imperialist tone that Xuesen was responsible for China becoming a superpower and by doing so, also helped North Korea, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia with the weapons he designed. It must be noted that the global perception of the U.S. has dramatically shifted the past few years as the current United States administration is once again revealing the rot of western imperialism that has never gone away in their bombing of Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine and all the global majority countries they have inflicted death and destruction upon throughout the years.

Though this play does a marvelous job of reflecting history’s tendency to repeat itself over and over (literally right now as we speak) especially when it comes to how the United States treat their immigrants as well as highlighting Ying’s disdain for the country, I can’t help but notice the main reason for the omission is that in reality, Xuesen was able to transition his pain from not being accepted into pouring everything he got for his motherland country. This might have presented a conflicting storyline but it is nevertheless a fascinating contradiction I would have loved to see the play delve more into and less on his youth.

For a play that also runs just under two hours, the lack of an intermission is noticeable. There were definitely several points of interest that could have served as an excellent place to end the first act. If Henry did incorporate Xuesen’s life in China, it would have been interesting to see if the first act was about his trial and deportation in the U.S. and the second act about him settling into life in China and becoming truly accepted by his people.

Despite my criticisms of the pacing and structure of Henry’s script, I cannot help but be in awe and have sheer joy that his last play has finally come to fruition. This was a decade in the making since its first workshop in 2016 and though Henry Ong passed away far too soon, he would have been proud of how much heart and spirit has been poured into this production from their director, the ensemble cast, and the entire creative team. I highly recommend for all to watch this play about this incredible man brought to life by such talented artists but also I encourage you to research what he was like in all the journeys he took on throughout his life as real life is often far too vast to be accurately encapsulated in any storytelling medium. Ascent will run until June 14th at the Skylight Theatre. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 3 pm. Tickets are available to purchase here.