Past Shows
Porcelain
"...an elegantly designed, smoothly executed production...
the combination of the lyrical and the graphic in the play's dialogue,
its mix of deep-seated violence with an equally deep longing and
alienation, lend it a gritty and unflinching power... "
— Robert Avila, SF Bay Guardian
"Highest recommendation to Porcelain. It's raw, risky, and
all too real theatre at its best!"
— Tom W. Kelly, SF Bay Times
Porcelain
by Chay Yew
directed by Mei Ann Teo
played November 4 – December 17, 2005 at Exit Stage Left
Crowded Fire's 9th season began with Porcelain by Chay Yew, a potent and lyrical examination of a young gay man's crime of passion. Nineteen-year old John Lee struggles against his alienation in a Britain whose homophobia and racism leave him very much alone. Now, instead of attending Cambridge as planned, he sits in a prison cell, having confessed to shooting his lover in the public bathroom where they had their first sexual encounter. A winner of the 1993 London Fringe Award for Best Play, Porcelain dissects John's crime through a prism of other voices—his Singaporean father, his memories of his lover, newscasts, man-on-the street interviews, and the Rorschach tests of a prison psychiatrist.
The play which launched Chay Yew's career as one of the premier chroniclers
of the gay Asian experience, Porcelain is a poetic and poignant
exploration of the deep loneliness of a boy who finds himself at home
nowhere. Even in porn, he laments, all the men are white. A tale of
first love gone horribly wrong, Porcelain spirals outward
to include the commentary of the Asian community, the response of other
gay men to the murder, and the ceaseless chatter of the tabloid press;
and inward to reveal John's memories of his lover and the haunting
melodies of Carmen, another tale of passion-driven violence.
Told with extraordinary lyricism, Porcelain is a modern-day
exploration of an ancient dramatic question—what could drive
a person to kill someone they love.
Featuring: John Atwood, Brian Erlich, Jeremiah Hill,
Kalli Jonsson, and Jason Wong
Scenic Design: Melpomene Katakalos
Costume Design: Kyra
Lighting Design: Jarrod Fischer
Sound Design: Cliff Caruthers
Dramaturg: Enrique Urueta
Assistant Director: Michelle Thomas
Dialect Coach: Clayton B. Hodges
Stage Manager: Peggy Powell
Graphic Design: Julie Baum
Porcelain was supported in part by the generosity
of:
The Dramatists
Guild
Grants for the Arts