Review: THE HEART SELLERS at Aurora Theatre Company

Without flash or bang, without glitter or glam, but with truth and beauty, THE HEART SELLERS will steal your heart. It is a simple story with a simple set, and only two actors, but the show makes an impact that will resonate for some time. Both laughter and tears flow freely in this magic mix of a show. Starting a new life in a strange, new place is a topic that never ceases to provide new insights into the human spirit. From the fascination with the new to the longing for faces and places of the past, THE HEART SELLERS reminds us how much we are really all alike.

Set in 1973, the show opens with Luna inviting Jane into her apartment after running into each other at the grocery store on Thanksgiving Day. They are both recent immigrants, Luna from the Philippines, and Jane from Korea, and their husbands are medical interns. From discussing this strange American holiday to their fascination with K-Mart, Luna and Jane begin to find common ground. Their stories are not the same, but their struggles and doubts and hopes and fears are all too familiar. As they spend the evening together while their husbands work, they prepare a turkey and share a bottle of wine. But what happens between them is more than passing time in polite company. Yearning for connection and grappling with their new lives, Luna and Jane begin to truly open up and share with each other. And sometimes it is in your differences that you find connection.

With only two actors, the show relies on them not only to embody their characters, but to create a chemistry and interplay between them. The show succeeds not only due to the brilliant performances of Nicole Javier (Luna) and Wonjung Kim (Jane) but due to how they contrast and complement each other. Javier is a powerhouse, a fast-talking Filippino that barely takes a breath. Her nerves and anxiousness are fully on display, and every word is tinged with a touch of desperation. Luna uses noise, talk, and movement to cover the hurt she feels in being away from her family, and Javier makes sure that we still see it in her eyes. While equally brilliant, I’m not sure powerhouse is the right word for Kim’s performance for it is laced with so much subtlety and nuance. From her stoic entrance as one surveying the room for potential land mines, we know that Jane’s approach to her new life is completely different from Luna’s. Kim reveals her character in bits and snippets, and more often in looks that are filled with ghosts of the past rather than a ramble of words. Every gesture, movement, and grimace is perfectly calculated. Together Javier and Kim make magic.

The power of the show begins with a masterpiece of a script by Lloyd Suh. The story and characters provide a strong foundation upon which this collaborative production builds the show. Working with TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and Capital Stage, Aurora Theatre Company has produced a piece that leaves you wanting more. Under direction from Jennifer Chang, the pace of the show is one designed for maximum impact. Things move quickly and build, and poignant moments seem to hang in space for that perfect amount of time before moving you on, often with humor. Chang uses the frenetic energy of Luna to dictate movement within the set which can seem unnatural in a thrust stage, but with Luna feels authentic. The scenic design by Arnel Sancianco is like a time-capsule into 1970s America. While the sound design is mostly understated, we do enjoy a few nice touches when Jane is using her imagination. The program lists Nicole Limon as dramaturg, and I was hoping to have some additional information and insights from her. There was a nice bit of background on the Hart-Cellers Act from a previous production, but nothing else from dramaturgy. The only tiny flaw amid this tremendous production was Javier’s dialect was not consistent throughout the performance, often sounding like a native English speaker rather than a recent immigrant, especially in moments of high emotion.

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