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Culture Theatre

Brown Balls

BROWN BALLS by Byron Abalos, directed by Nina Lee Aquino (fu-GEN). At Factory Studio (125 Bathurst). Runs to May 15, Tuesday-Saturday 8 pm, matinee Saturday-Sunday 2 pm. $10-$26. 416-504-9971. See listing. Rating: NNN

Sexual stereotypes of Asian men hit the fan in Byron Abalos’s Brown Balls, a funny and entertaining piece that manages, by its end, to be quite moving as well.

Audience members are guests at a tech gadget conference whose acronym FACKMEE, suggests an intentional touch of subservience. But instead of an exhibition of the latest in phones, computers and karaoke machines, the conference’s three organizers take us on a tour of Western images of Asian men, colonialism and the sometimes subtle control of white hegemony.

Academic and dull? No way. Abalos’s script is full of one-liners and parody along with its political and social comments political correctness is sent up as often as rigid stereotypes. A slide show of Asian art erotica adds another level to the material.

We also discover a lot about the three organizers. JP (Richard Lee) is Chinese, the leader of the group and creator of its manifesto. PJ (Sean Baek) is a Korean party guy, always on the make but sometimes not clued in on the subtleties of the discussion. Charles (David Yee) is gay, his parents are Filipino and Scottish, and also the most artistic and intellectual of the trio the slide show, which includes content that disturbs PJ, is Charles’s idea.

The chemistry between the actors increases the production’s laugh quotient. The show starts the moment you enter the theatre, with the characters seating audience members. You’ll have a good time if you interact verbally with them the pre-show laughs are as much fun as the performance.

Audience surveys – it’s pretty much all group involvement, so don’t worry about being singled out – add to the data about who has control in a social situation, who dates whom and the long-term effects of racism.

As the material becomes more personal, the play moves away from statistics and toward some strong character revelations, memories that these three friends have kept from one another as well as from the outside world. Director Nina Lee Aquino finesses the tonal shift from comedy to seriousness so well that it’s surprising to suddenly find ourselves in a world of real emotion rather than satiric send-up.

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