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Culture Theatre

Pu-Ehr

PU-ERH by Norman Yeung (k’Now Theatre). At Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace (16 Ryerson). To May 15. $25, stu/srs $15. 416-504-7529. See Continuing. Rating: NNNN


The old saying is that you can’t go home again. [rssbreak]

In the case of Raymond, the son of Chinese-Canadian parents, it’s just as true that you can’t really leave home, even if you travel thousands of miles away.

Norman Yeung’s nuanced Pu-Erh follows Raymond (Jeff Yung) and his parents over a period of five years, beginning with the morning Raymond leaves Vancouver for an acting career in New York. He and his father (John Ng) are at odds over a number of issues, including language: Raymond’s unpractised Cantonese is as shaky as his father’s English.

But Yeung’s touch of magic realism – the two start to understand each other verbally and emotionally – gives surprising vibrancy to the confrontation.

This often prickly exchange between father and son doesn’t have all the emotional resonance it might under Keira Loughran’s direction, but the production gains strength with the introduction of the mother (Janet Lo), whose monologue closes the first act. As she recalls life with her husband in China and Canada and the problems with her distant son, Lo paints a rich, touching portrait of a woman who’s driven by both love and anger.

The emotional chemistry is strong in the second half, which brings the three characters back together, again with an element of fantasy. Mother has improved her English and her situation, chiding Raymond for not building a similar security in his life Father acts as conciliator between the two.

The play builds to an artfully written climax, tautly performed, that resolves some issues but intentionally doesn’t dissipate all the family tension.

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