Review: EXOTIC DEADLY: OR THE MSG PLAY at SF Playhouse

Award-winning playwright Keiko Green’s surreal comedy is a sure-fire hit featuring a stellar cast, smart writing and absurd situations. Director Jesca Prudencio who helmed the 23 world premiere at the Old Globe once again directs this outrageous  story that involves time-travel, high school awkwardness, family legacies and the mysterious story of the famous seasoning MSG (monosodium glutamate). Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play is wildly inventive and laugh out loud funny.

Its 1999 and Japanese highschooler Ami is having a tough time: brother is an over achieving hunk, she doesn’t fit in at all, her mother’s smelly bento box lunches are not helping. When she discovers her family helped create the addictive and dangerous additive MSG, all hell breaks loose and launches her into a time travelling search for the truth.

What makes this play so creative is the direction and cast. Green is a talented writer and performer as well, takes the mundane topic, and wraps it up in witty perspectives on Western racism and finding one’s value. There’s comic caricatures of American schoolboys, slow motion action, an evil Yelp reviewer, fake news and an anthropomorphic symbol of MSG in the character Exotic Deadly (Francesca Fernandez).

Ana Ming Bostwick-Singer is amazing as Ami, full of anger against her family, meek and invisible at school, opting to be mediocre. When the super cool Exotic Deadly arrives, Ami’s life changes. She becomes cool by association and hangs out with the ridiculously funny Matt (Phil Wong) and Ben (Edric Young) who strongly resemble the dudes from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Nicole Tung and James Aaron Oh are solid as Ami’s mother and brother among other roles.

The pacing is fast and furious and sometimes the time jumps become confusing. MSG turns out to have received a bum deal via a fake news article and Ami works through her family shame and finds her footing in life. Overall, the show is thoughtful comedy sure to please.

Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play continues through March 8th. Tickets available at sfplayhouse.org or by calling 415-677-9596.    

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