Review: Chinese Gender and Economic Politics with Seattle Public's WORLD OF EXTREME HAPPINESS

Life is hard for female children and for women in general in China. This is the basic message from Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's play "The World of Extreme Happiness" currently playing at Seattle Public Theater. The big problem with this is that we all know this and so beyond that, what story do they want to tell with this play and why are they telling it? For the life of me, I was never really certain.

The play follows the life of Sunny (Mika Swanson), a young girl who started out being tossed into a pig slop bucket immediately after birth due to not being born a boy. Circumstance and a willingness to survive get her out of that bucket and back into the arms of her mother. Cut to 18 years later and this country girl is now working in the city as a custodian at a factory. She sends what money she can back home to send her little brother Pete (Kevin Lin) to go to school but she wants more. She comes upon another factory worker Ming-Ming (Maile Wong) who introduces her to some self-help classes run by "Mr. Destiny" (NIna Williams-Taramachi) to help her find her inner potential and get her what she wants. But at what cost?

The play meanders about between focusing on Sunny but then switches over to her father Li Han (Van Lang Pham) and his obsession with his pigeons and then moves on to factory owner James (also played by Pham) and the vice president of a store that sells his products Artemis Chang (Kathy Hsieh). Ultimately, I'm not sure who they were trying to tell the story about. Yes, eventually all the storylines kind of come together but up to then it was so unfocused and with a lack of conviction that I didn't really care. Plus, Cowhig's writing style seems to insist on scenes of gratuitous language. I'm fine with profanity if it serves a purpose but when you focus it all on one or two scenes then it ceases being about how people talk and more about shock value.

And it's not just the script that was all over the place, the level of performances in the piece were quite uneven as well. You may think this would result in some in the play to shine above the rest but in an ensemble piece like this it just makes a show feel scattered. Swanson, Lin, and Wong managed some engaging moments in the piece, especially Swanson who does keep the audience on her side for the majority of the play. But the remainder of the company felt uneven ranging from over-doing it to not committing or listening enough. And watching a show with that much inconsistency is just tiring and unengaging.

I applaud Seattle Public Theater or branching out and making sure there's more diversity in their season. I just wish this outing had been more interesting. And so, with my three-letter rating system, I give Seattle Public Theater's "The World of Extreme Happiness" a MEH-. As with any play you want to tell an engaging and interesting story and give good performances. We only had half of each of those things here and in this case, two halves did not make a whole.

"The World of Extreme Happiness" from Seattle Public Theater performs at the Bathhouse Theater through November 5th. For tickets or information visit them online at www.seattlepublictheater.org.

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