BWW Reviews: THINKING OF YU Captivates and Inspires, Through May 5

We have all done it at some point - gotten completely obsessed with a story, an event, a person, an idea. We have all ignored our realities, our obligations, to fantasize about a different life, to search for some greater meaning. Of course, as Lin says in Carole Fréchette's THINKING OF YU, currently on stage at the Centaur Theatre: "There is no different life. There is just life." And what we are really searching for is ourselves.

THINKING OF YU, set in 2006, tells the story of Maggie (Danielle Desormeaux), a woman who becomes fixated on a small newspaper article about Yu Dongyue, a Chinese journalist just released from prison after serving 17 years for throwing paint on a portrait of Chairman Mao during the 1989 student riots in Tiananmen Square. He is now mentally disabled, having suffered repeated beatings over almost two decades. Through her research, Maggie Learns that Yu Dongyue did not act alone, but rather there were three young men who threw paint in the square that day.

Maggie's obsession with Yu Dongyue's story starts as a way to avoid going out in a Montreal blizzard, doing her translation work, and setting up her apartment, which after three months is still full of boxes. But the story quickly becomes all-encompassing, and Maggie spends her days researching, taping photographs and news articles onto her otherwise bare walls, and constructing her own reverent version of the event. Her self-imposed solitary confinement is interrupted by Jerry (Kwasi Songui), a lonely neighbour who accidently receives Maggie's mail and then finds excuses to visit her, and Lin (Shiong-En Chan), a young Chinese woman who Maggie has promised to teach English. Together, these three characters explore the story of the three Chinese men, wondering why they did what they did, what their gesture meant, and whether it made any difference at all.

The three characters are all too human, and as the play progresses they are equally sympathetic and frustrating. Although we can understand Maggie's obsession on some level, it is maddening to watch her praise the courage of Yu Dongyue's grand gesture for change while ignoring the chance to make a difference in the life of someone (Lin) who is standing right in front of her. Like Maggie, we want Jerry, a huge man with a deep, powerful voice, to break out of his complacency and become outraged. And Lin's persistent hopefulness and optimism are both inspirational and aggravating. The characters come together as they each explore their own lives through the lens of Yu Dongyue's story, and as they do, the meaning of the play changes. It becomes less about the meaning of an event that happened more than 20 years ago and more about the importance of what we do right now, in this moment. What will you do?

THINKING OF YU is an elegantly crafted play, well acted and with pitch-perfect direction by Micheline Chevrier and set design by Pierre-Étienne Locas. THINKING OF YU will also be staged in Belgium and Germany this season. If you miss the show at the Centaur, you'd best book your plane tickets now.

THINKING OF YU, translated by John Murrell and presented by Imago Theatre, runs April 24 through May 5 at the Centaur Theatre, 453 St. François-Xavier. Performance schedule: Wednesday to Saturday at 8:30 pm, Saturday and Sunday matinee at 2:30 pm. Tickets: $20-$25. Saturday matinee, April 27 and May 4 at 2:30 pm, are pay-what-you-can (Suggested donation: $10).

Box Office: 514 288-3161 or online: http://www.centaurtheatre.com/tickets.php
www.imagotheatre.ca

Photo credit: Ricardo Cellere

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