Dahlia Katz
acquiesce
David Yee
ACQUIESCE by David Yee (Factory Theatre/fu-GEN, 125 Bathurst). Runs to November 27. $25-$55. See listing. 416-504-9971, factorytheatre.ca. Rating: NNNN
Intergenerational family patterns, including violence and an inability to communicate, are the subject of David Yee’s thoughtful, moving acquiesce.
Its central character, successful Canadian-Chinese author Sin Hwang (Yee) – well, he’s written one well-received novel – finds himself, following the death of his father, on a trip to Hong Kong to deliver documents to his cousin, Kai (Richard Lee).
He finds that he’s travelling with more than papers: his father’s body is in the cargo hold, and Sin discovers that he’s required to follow a ritual mourning and deliver a eulogy for the man he hasn’t seen in 15 years, nor been close to for years before that. We eventually meet Sin’s father, Tien Wei (John Ng), and discover the reason for their difficult relationship.
The script moves back and forth in time and place, the Canadian scenes involving Sin’s girlfriend, Nine (Rosie Simon), from whom he’s kept secrets and emotional problems he doesn’t want to face.
Nina Lee Aquino directs with her usual strong sense of theatricality, the characters hinting at feelings they keep buried until those feelings erupt in anger or sadness.
With touches of magic realism, fantasy and eccentric comedy – a Paddington Bear doll comes to life, and a quipping Buddhist monk (Ng in one of several well-performed, contrasting roles) revels in stand-up groaners – the play examines the connection between father and son from all sorts of angles.
But that’s not the only key relationship in the play. The self-denigrating, sarcastic Sin and the regimented, by-the-book Kai, temperamental opposites, have to find a middle ground on which they can relate to each other. Playing off Yee’s seemingly nonchalant but really distressed Sin, Lee offers one of his finest performances.
There’s also, though it only comes up occasionally, the strained link between their deceased fathers, whose history echoes the tension between the cousins.
Not all of the play’s elements succeed. Nine is two-dimensional until halfway through the second act, and the elements of Buddhism could be further developed in terms of Sin’s growth.
The production elements shine, with Robin Fisher’s set that includes hidden drawers and shelves, Michelle Ramsay’s sharp lighting and Michelle Bensimon’s sound design.
As the title suggests, acquiesce is about Sin’s reluctant acceptance of what’s asked of him, a letting go of patterns he (and his cousin) have followed, but also an acknowledgment of what made those patterns and why they have to be relinquished.
Sin’s journey, rich and emotionally sensitive, finishes at a moment when he looks at both past and present, not only seeing but also, possibly for the first time, understanding and accepting who he is and what he might be.