Colonialism is Terrible, But Pho is Delicious at Chance Theater

Chance Theater will be working with Aurora Theatre Company for the first time to produce a livestream staged reading of Dustin Chinn's Colonialism is Terrible, But Pho is Delicious. The show is being directed by Chance Theater's Artistic Director Oanh Nguyen and will have one performance on Saturday, FEBRUARY 13th at 5:00 p.m.

Dustin Chinn's Colonialism is Terrible, But Pho is Delicious took its inspiration from two viral incidents around cultural appropriation and food. [Chef Tyler Akin did a how-to video for Bon Appetit, "PSA: This is How You Should Be Eating Pho," and Dan Pashman of The Sporkful suggested you could improve bibimbap using a bundt pan.] Chinn says he "followed the rabbit hole" and wrote Colonialism; what he dubs "a triptych about the ownership and authorship of food following the journey of Vietnamese noodle soup."

This dark comedy spans centuries, continents, and cultures in its three-part vignette structure. Beginning in 1880s Hanoi, the capital city of 19th-century French Indochina, where a Vietnamese cook finds herself in the kitchen of aristocratic French settlers. Then 1999, a century later, in Ho Chi Minh City, where American diners get their first taste of the local cuisine. Then finally, a present-day, gentrifying Brooklyn, where the simmering argument around culture, ownership, and authenticity come to a roaring boil.

This live stream reading stars Celeste Den (Broadway: M. Butterfly; TV/Film: WHAT/IF, The Blacklist), Elissa Beth Stebbins (Theater: Becky Nurse, Kings), Trieu Tran (Theater: Equus; TV/Film: Altered Carbon, Tropic Thunder), and Joseph Patrick O'Malley (Theater: MacBeth, Spamalot!).