By Greggory Moore, Curtain Call Contributor
If you’re of Asian descent, there are only two reasons you live among the 1,000 inhabitants of Breakneck, Wyo. — either you were adopted, or you wanted to start a new life after a bad experience in the big city. These very personal reasons explain why Chester (Perry Pang) and Travis (Lee Samuel Tanng) are Breakneck’s only Asian residents.
But No. 3 is coming and everything is about to change.
Contrary to its titular implications, the conflict in Cowboy versus Samurai isn’t between Asians and Caucasians. It isn’t even between two people or cultures. Rather, it’s four characters who come into conflict with themselves once catalyzed by the Cyrano de Bergerac conceit, making for a night of theater reminiscent of the Steve Martin film Roxanne, minus the firemen, with a sprinkling of cultural awareness. It’s good-natured, slightly amusing and unlikely to mark you deeply.
Meet Chester (Perry Pang) and Travis (Lee Samuel Tanng), who together constitute the whole of the Breakneck Asian-American Association (BAAA — you know, like a sheep). Chester worships Bruce Lee (“the perfect Asian man”) and wants his hometown to stop acting like there are no Asians here — you can’t even get tofu or Kirin, for fuck’s sake! His militancy is fueled mostly by his personal identity problems. He’s never been outside of Wyoming, his white parents neglected to find out from the now-defunct adoption agency where they found him and just what sort of Asian he is (Japanese? Chinese? Korean?). Growing up, he never had an Asian friend.
But then came Travis, a high-school English teacher who moved to the middle of nowhere to start over after his heart was broken in Los Angeles. But militant he ain’t.
In fact, he actually likes his quiet, semi-monkish existence here. He’s even made a best friend of Del (Christian Skinner), a wannabe cowboy (he won his six-gallon hat in a contest) and pot-smoking physical education teacher who once upon a time was quick with the racial slurs but turned out to be a good guy.
Enter Veronica (Rosie Naraski): a native New Yorker who has landed in this backwater-berg by design. They desperately needed good teachers, and hey, she just wants to try something completely new. That is, except for dating Asian men, even though she and Travis immediately hit it off. She’s gone white almost all her life (“preferences,” she says, not prejudice), and she isn’t about to change now. Actually, she’s committed to staying single for a while. But when Del is smitten, Travis — despite his own amorous feelings — helps his ineloquent pal woo her. That’s what friends are for, right?
There are few surprises in Cowboy versus Samurai. The comedy is sitcom-level with the occasional curse word; the politics are only skin-deep. And if you’ve seen one Cyrano adaptation, you’ve pretty much seen them all. But not all theater has to be compelling.
The opening-night audience seemed mostly appreciative of playwright Michael Golamco’s humor (although I have no theory to explain why they would laugh at one moment and then give no reaction to an equally [un]funny line the next). Unfortunately, the actors had yet to truly inhabit their characters. Rather than really talking to each other, it felt as if they were reading from a teleprompter behind the eyes, leaving almost every exchange feeling flat.
The notable exceptions are Del’s monologues, which we come to learn are the passages from the letters Travis composes for him. Part of the difference is that Christian Skinner is simply better here than he or anyone else is when they’re talking to each other, but these also happen to be Golamco’s best passages.
There’s an old writer’s rule saying that if you’re going to show the audience anything your characters are claiming is brilliant, beautifully written, etc., it damn well better be — otherwise you’ve just made your characters look like idiots. But Golamco avoids such a pitfall. Del/Travis’s reflections on love — e.g., how it makes you willing to fly all your colors in a world where camouflage keeps you safe, how it allows you to be more comfortable being seen in society because of the self-knowledge that you’re truly not alone — contain beautiful imagery and reveal a thoughtful soul for whom it’s easy to see a gal falling. M. de Bergerac himself never wrote anything so good (at least not that Rostand lets us hear).
Del’s monologues also contain the show’s nicest technical moments. The highlight is Paul Tran’s lighting design during a monologue about a burning barn. Tran makes compelling choices concerning what to illuminate or enshadow and when, helping us feel the night air, the darkness, the prairie, the flames, the eyes of a fiery steed slowly emerging toward us.
Cowboy versus Samurai is lite fare, but maybe you don’t want a full meal every time you go to the theater. First-time Director Shinshin Yuder Tsai does a respectable job with material that, while not exactly paradigm-shifting, gets you from point A to point B. You may not be transformed by your journey to Breakneck, but you’ll come away no worse for wear.
Time: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays, through Aug. 19
Cost: $14 to $24
Details: (562) 494-1014
www.lbplayhouse.org
Venue: Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach