THE HANGOVER REPORT – Livian Yeh’s MEMORIAL is a fascinating if telegraphed chronicle of the Vietnam Memorial

James Patrick Nelson and Angel Lin in Pan Asian Repertory Theatre’s production of “Memorial” by Livian Yeh at A.R.T./New York Theatres (photo courtesy of Pan Asian Rep).

Earlier this week at the Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres in Hell’s Kitchen, I caught up with Livian Yeh’s Memorial, the latest offering from Off-Broadway’s Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. Based on true events, the new play chronicles the challenges faced by architect Maya Lin as she advocates for the construction of her strikingly modern design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

As a young Chinese American woman, Ms. Lin’s plight was destined to be an uphill battle. To complicate matters, some critics found her austere semi-subterranean vision of the memorial to be too severe and abstract, fueling a lightly-veiled racist retaliation to her winning design. Most importantly, many war veterans — encapsulated in the character of Colonel James Becker, a veteran on the memorial’s council — felt that it insufficiently reflected their heroism. As a counter to these opinions, Ms. Lin argues that her memorial isn’t meant only for veterans, but for Americans at large (regardless of their stance on the war), thereby questioning the role of memorials and the feelings they’re meant to invoke. According to the young architect, memorials should also inspire and not shy away from complicated, layered responses.

Memorial follows on the heels of Pan Asian Repertory’s production of Queen, another probing play that explores the nuanced relationship between Asian identity and contemporary society. Although I found the history lesson aspect of it all quite fascinating, much of the play’s ideological debates feel telegraphed, which isn’t helped by the similarly telegraphed if impassioned acting. That being said, the play has been elegantly directed by Jeff Liu, who gives the production a minimalist aesthetic that jives well with the memorial it tells the origin story of. 

RECOMMENDED

MEMORIAL
Off-Broadway, Play
Pan Asian Repertory Theatre
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through February 19

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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