LA JOLLA, California — Playwright Lauren Yee has returned home to roost at UC San Diego’s Potiker theater. No stranger to San Diego stages, Yee has been producing plays since before 2005 at the Old Globe, South Coast Rep, and farther afield as well. Audiences in Denver, Seattle and Miami have enjoyed Yee’s shows, many of which have garnered her coveted awards including the Doris Duke Artists Award, the Horton Foote Prize and the Steinberg/ATCA Award. Other projects have been seen on television and film.
Yee, a UC San Diego alumna returns to her alma mater for a San Diego premiere of Cambodian Rock Band, equal parts play and concert, with Dengue Fever’s original songs. Though the tale is set in Cambodia, recalling the oppressive and vicious Khmer Rouge takeover, the most honest part of the story is focused on a father-daughter relationship. This story knows no geopolitical boundary and is not specific to any era.
In this version, the protagonist is a young Cambodian-American woman, Neary (Brooke Ishibashi) who has come to Cambodia in the present day to gain insight into what happened in the country during the volatile 1970s, and how it has impacted her father, Chum (Joe Ngo). She knows he fled the county 30 years prior, but it’s not a subject he’s open to discussing and has left her with a questioning chasm where her sense of understanding should be.
Rounding out the cast/band members are Jane Liu, Abraham Kim, Moses Villarama and Daisuke Truji, all directed by Chay Yew. The band plays Dengue Fever’s songs with vibrancy and desperation that surely must have added to their becoming a target for the brutal political machine that wanted to destroy the rebellious music and music makers.
Other acclaimed works by this young writer/producer include The Great Leap (2018), King of the Yees (2015), and The Hatmaker’s Wife (2011). Fun fact: When Yee was just 18, two of her plays won the Playwrights Project for California Young Writers. It appears she is honing her craft and continuing to write and produce winners!
Cambodian Rock Band will be at La Jolla Playhouse through Dec. 15 and tickets may be purchased online at lajollaplayhouse.org, or by calling (858) 550-1010
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Eva Trieger is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. She may be contacted via eva.trieger@sdjewishworld.com . Another review of Cambodian Rock Band, by Carol Davis, may be accessed via this website.