Walking Wounded

On Tuesday, I went to Factory Theatre to see Marjarie Chan's Lady Sunrise, a re-imagining of Cao Yu's play Sunrise from 1936. Relocated to Vancouver circa 2008, it revolved around the lives of Asian women from all class strata. There was the main character, ex-model and current party girl Penny (Lindsay Wu) who worried that her looks were fading and her adopted "auntie", Tawny (Crazy) Ku (Ma-Anne Dionisio), a rich widower with a penchant for lost causes and get-rich schemes in Vancouver's condo scene. Ku's wealth was being managed by the driven Banker Wong (Rosie Simon), who had little patience for profligate spenders and do-nothing socialites. Additional women including black-jack dealer Li (Zoé Doyle), "massage parlor" manager Charmaine (Louisa Zhu), and Sherry, one of the girls who worked there (Belinda Corpuz) also wove themselves into a narrative about the pragmatic, often tragic, intersection of women and money. Everyone on stage tonight was the victim of trauma.

There were several scenes that knocked me back with their intensity. But the two main pillars of this play ultimately left me unable to fully connect with these characters. Firstly, almost every scene was a monologue. A character was either recounting essentially a flashback or if the scene was more or less "present-day", it wasn't "as it happens". As such, I never felt I was witnessing a visceral moment with real people who were actually there. Everything was an oral story, a series of memoiristic vignettes. Even if "show, don't tell" doesn't apply 100% to theatre, this was all tell.

Secondly, there was too much melodrama. Lady Sunrise's interconnected stories (à la Pulp Fiction/22 Short Films About Springfield) was turned up to the max. After a while, the coincidences and backstories that made these characters interact just felt forced. Perhaps if spread out and elaborated over a TV series, it would feel more natural. When compressed into a 1h45m play, the playwright's pen was often visible.

There was a good story at the core of Lady Sunrise. I like seeing more stories about POC on the stage. And I also know that, without a doubt, many women have suffered similar experiences in real-life. But I could not commit to this tic-tac-toe script.