Dragon Lady at Marin Theatre Company

Dragon Lady starts in the year of the Water Dragon on the eve of Grandma Maria’s 60th Birthday, “your most important birthday of your old people birthdays,” when Maria Porkalob Sr. must share the dark secrets of her fantastical life with her first-born grandbaby Sara “so they remember after you are dead.” Through laughter, shock, singing, and tears, the two women discover that it is never too late to atone for pain we inflict on our loved ones and forgive ourselves for past regrets. Guided by the beats of her grandmother’s new karaoke machine, Sara portrays dozens of characters through 50 years of Maria’s bittersweet memories and sensational adventures – from a Manila nightclub in the ‘60s to a Washington state trailer park. This solo cabaret musical by Seattle-based storyteller and activist Sara Porkalob is the first in her trilogy of “matrilineal” musicals about her Filipino American gangster family; one play for each generation built around grandmother, mother, granddaughter, and her specific hero’s journey. Dragon Lady is a funny and fearless tour-de-force in two acts featuring a live three-piece jazz ensemble on stage. Directed by Andrew Russell, this family tale comes replete with gangsters, murders and more that explores what it means to be an immigrant single mom in America.