Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Wesley Du’s HONG KONG MISSISSIPPI leans in on stereotypes in telling a cross-cultural coming-of-age tale

• By drediman
• May 16, 2023
• No Comments

This past weekend at La MaMa’s The Downstairs venue, I attended one of the closing performances of Hong Kong Mississippi. Written and performed by Wesley Du, the solo show chronicles the fictitious coming-of-age story of Pinkie, an Asian American boy who discovers his identity while engaging in an unlikely activity – playing the electric guitar in a San Francisco blues club.

First and foremost, it’s always a pleasure to see Asian American stories up on the boards of our stages – occurrences unfortunately much too faw and far between. In an interesting choice, Du leans in on the stereotypes, resulting in an experience more akin to spending time with comic book characters rather than fully fleshed out people. Indeed, his portrayals of Pinkie’s mom, his alleged father, and the various Black denizens of a San Francisco blues club all register as exaggerated caricatures that, while entertainingly wrought, I wish had exuded more depth and authenticity. Nevertheless, I came away from Hong Kong Mississippi moved by both the Dickensian heft of Pinkie’s journey and its cross-cultural perspectives.

The La MaMa presentation (by the way, do not miss the theater company’s thrilling New Tork premiere of Elizabeth Swados’s The Beautiful Lady playing a few floors above) has been directed by Craig Belknap, who gives the play an affecting stripped-down staging. Overall, Du gives a skillful and earnest performance, morphing between the work’s diverse set of characters with relative ease.

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HONG KONG MISSISSIPPI
Off-Broadway, Play
The Downstairs atLa MaMa
1 hour, 20 minutes (without an intermission)
Through May 14