The new play Chinese Republicans provides us a look back at the not-so-distant past. Offered by the Roundabout Theatre Company at their off-Broadway venue, the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, this world premiere play by Alex Lin focuses on the New York business scene in 2019. Specifically, it focuses on four Chinese women, some American-born, of three generations. They all work for the same company and meet monthly for lunch as a small affinity group.
Phyllis (Jodi Long), the oldest, endured the stereotyping faced by many corporate women in the 1960s, compounded by racial profiling. She mentored Ellen (Jennifer Ikeda), guiding her through the 1980s, encouraging her to shed her Chinese otherness to climb the corporate ladder. Phyllis now mentors immigrant Iris (Jully Lee) while Ellen takes American-born Katie (Anna Zavelson) under her wing as the women enter the 21st Century.
The play moves through betrayals, insecurities, and the diamond-hard retorts forged by years of familiarity. Among the four, Phyllis faces obsolescence; Iris fears deportation; Ellen keeps running up against the glass ceiling; while the opportunistic Katie learns all too well the uses of betrayal, treating Ellen as once Ellen treated Phyllis.
The cast pivots neatly from tense drama between Ellen and both Phyllis and Katie, to moments of manic hilarity from the perfectionist Iris and their cater waiter (a fine cameo by Ben Langhorst) at a corporate party the women are hosting.
Director Chay Yew gets fine performances from his cast, although playwright Lin offers a frosty landscape in which empathy or sympathy for the women is hindered by a small lack of depth in their background stories. The play is constrained by its sole act, and could do with a little more expansiveness.
Chinese Republicans (yes, the older women idolize Reagan) provides a satirical look at how women, no matter how much they try not to, contort themselves to fit the expectations of their male colleagues. It is sharp, funny, and at times exasperating. It also is surprisingly more moving than one may expect. To see how the more things change the more they stay the same, I recommend taking a trip to view the lives of these Chinese Republicans!
Chinese Republicans is presented by the Roundabout Theatre Company at the Laura Pels Theatre, 111 West 46th Street in New York, through April 5. For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to roundabouttheatre.org.
