A playwright, screenwriter, and TV writer adept at balancing the intimate with the universal, Lauren Yee is an accomplished and widely produced voice in American theatre. The recipient of The Dora Artists Award, the Steinberg Playwright Award and Whiting Award to name a few, Yee’s work interrogates history while demanding the audience recognize its interplay with the present. Heartbreakingly funny and sharply nuanced, Yee’s body of work is a celebration of the deeply painful and joyful experience of being human.
Here’s a selection of five of Yee’s celebrated plays, all exploring a captivating clash between the past and present.
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The Great Leap (US/UK)
When an American college basketball team travels to Beijing for a “friendship” game in the post-Cultural Revolution 1980s, both countries try to tease out the politics behind this newly popular sport. Cultures clash as the Chinese coach tries to pick up moves from the Americans, and Chinese-American player Manford spies on his opponents. Inspired by events in her own father’s life, Yee “applies a devilishly keen satiric eye to…her generation (and its parents).”
The Great Leap premiered off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company’s Stage 2 on May 23, 2018. Directed by Taibi Magar, the production featured Ali Ahn, Ned Eisenberg, Tony Aidan Vo and BD Wong.
Cambodian Rock Band (US/UK)
In 1978, Chum fled Cambodia and narrowly escaped the murderous Khmer Rouge regime. Thirty years later, he returns in search of his wayward daughter, Neary. As the play jumps back and forth in time, thrilling mystery meets rock concert until both father and daughter are forced to face the music of the past. From playwright Lauren Yee comes a story filled with horror, humor, pathos and songs by the best unknown rock band in Cambodia!
Cambodian Rock Band was commissioned and first produced by South Coast Repertory, opening March 4, 2018.
King of the Yees (US/UK)
For nearly twenty years, playwright Lauren Yee’s father, Larry, has been a driving force in the Yee Family Association, a seemingly obsolescent Chinese American men’s club formed a hundred fifty years ago in the wake of the Gold Rush and the building of the transcontinental railroad. But when her father goes missing, Lauren must plunge into the rabbit hole of San Francisco Chinatown and confront a world both foreign and familiar. At once bitingly hilarious and heartbreakingly honest, King of the Yees is an epic joyride across cultural, national, and familial borders that explores what it means to truly be a Yee.
The Hatmaker’s Wife (US/UK)
In Lauren Yee’s whimsical and poignant new play The Hatmaker’s Wife, a young woman moves in with her boyfriend expecting domestic bliss, but instead has trouble getting comfortable. Her strange new home seems determined to help out – and soon the walls are talking. They reveal the magical tale of an old hatmaker and his long-suffering wife, who runs away with his favorite hat. This sweet and surreal story bends time and space to redefine the idea of family, home, and true love itself.
The Hatmaker’s Wife premiered off-Broadway at The Playwrights Realm in September 2013, under the direction of Rachel Chavkin.
The Lost Girl (or First Chair) (US/UK)
When Katie, first violinist in a prestigious high school orchestra, disappears suddenly, the school’s music program is left in disarray. Mr. Lee decides to hold auditions for first violin, but the politics of the band program are surprisingly complicated, and the process is fraught with conflict.
Notably excluded from this list are the following plays:
For more great plays by Lauren Yee, visit Concord Theatricals in the US or UK.
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