Atlanta Arts category interest

Television stars Keiko Agena and Rex Lee bring impressive power to playwright Lloyd Suh’s fact-based and moving play, The Chinese Lady, running on the Alliance Theatre’s Hertz Stage through October 17.

Directed by Jess McLeod, this 90-minute play about a historical exhibit, which adds the inner voices of those on display, uses its curious structure to tell the fascinating, decades-long story of Afong Moy (Agena), the first known Chinese female immigrant to the United States. Placed on display among imported furnishings and goods as “The Chinese Lady” at age 14, Moy is part of a traveling exhibit by American merchants Nathaniel and Frederic Carne, who perhaps purchased her from her family and smuggled her overseas. Moy’s presentation influenced the “exotic” way generations of Americans perceived Chinese culture and people.

For a small fee, people were invited to regard Afong Moy’s tiny, bound feet and gawk at her as she used chopsticks and drank tea, while interpreter Atung (Lee) saw to her needs and told audiences — including President Andrew Jackson, who regarded the exhibition like a carnival sideshow — variations of what she was saying in Chinese, without depth or nuance.

In Suh’s play, the exhibit is presented to us multiple times with extensive comment from Moy’s internal voice, which is full of verve and frustrated optimism over the possibility of fostering connection and understanding between cultures. Each time the curtain is opened and closed by Atung, more years have passed for Moy, who grows to resent her exploitation, her forced separation from her homeland and the stereotypical, racist and sexist way she’s been used. Her cruel depiction as a freakish, “othered” curiosity in history, quite beyond her control, did more harm than good.

It’s fascinating storytelling, well-presented by McLeod. It manages to be fun, quick and funny with deep, serious undercurrents.

The performers are required by the excellent script to perpetually exist both within the story and as modern perspectives, commenting upon the inhuman cruelty of the situation. The dialogue frequently requires Agena to provide exposition and context to the scenes she is in, and she manages the task deftly. Her delivery is frequently funny with a bitter edge. Fans of her work as Lane Kim in Gilmore Girls will not be disappointed, for much of the rapid-fire wit matches the vibe of that show, but The Chinese Lady is also devastating at points.

Lee’s work is excellent as well, finding what agenda would drive a character who is Moy’s servant and voice to the world. Atung is in many ways her only ally but not her friend.

Atlanta needs this show. The 2021 spa shootings still linger in our collective memories as a dark day for our city and the nation, and this play dares to try and explore why and when some began regarding Asians as disposable objects more than as people. It is a gigantic subject to tackle, but it is worthy and necessary work.

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Benjamin Carr is an ArtsATL editor-at-large who has contributed to the publication since 2019 and is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, the Dramatists Guild, the Atlanta Press Club and the Horror Writers Association. His writing has been featured in podcasts for iHeartMedia, onstage as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival and online in The Guardian. His debut novel, Impacted, was published by The Story Plant.