Pay attention: How ‘Cambodian Rock Band’ Turned One of many Most Produced Performs within the U.S.
One of many hottest tendencies in American theater this season is Cambodian surf rock from the 1970s — and that’s because of “Cambodian Rock Band.”
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Playwright Lauren Yee’s genre-bending stage present, half household drama and half rock live performance, has develop into one of many most-produced performs within the U.S. this season. With the Off Broadway manufacturing of “Cambodian Rock Band” now in performances at Signature Theater, Yee and director Chay Yew appeared on Stagecraft, Selection’s theater podcast, to speak confronting historical past, rocking out, and why they suppose audiences have responded so enthusiastically to a present that Yee mentioned her husband didn’t consider she would truly write.
That’s as a result of she had the germ of an thought for the play again in 2011, nevertheless it took her 4 years to determine write it. Yee mentioned on Stagecraft that she had quite a lot of “dangerous concepts” about inform a narrative that appeared on the Khmer Rouge genocide, and its survivors, by the lens of Cambodia’s musicians, some 90% of whom died through the genocide.
“My husband was like, ‘You’re by no means gonna write this play,’ ” Yee laughed, remembering unsuccessful drafts of the performs that concerned two sisters coping with the dying of their mom, or a younger lady whose father kidnaps her.
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The second of inspiration lastly got here when Yee determined to include Cambodian surf rock, which she had found when she attended a live performance by the Los Angeles-based band Dengue Fever.
“The way in which that music operates on the earth [of the play] is that the story is about this band, so we should always hear this band play,” the playwright defined. “We should always fall in love with their music. However listening to particular person songs is just not going to be like, ‘Oh, I do know extra concerning the plot now,’ or ‘The characters are telling me narrative by tune.’ As a result of half the songs are in Khmai. I believe [the music] is about bringing that emotional high quality to the piece. … You need to hear it and know precisely why this music was so necessary.”
For Yew, a part of the enchantment of “Cambodian Rock Band” for audiences is the present’s compelling story of a father and daughter struggling to grasp each other. “The concept there’s this gulf, and with a lot emigration and refugee points which can be within the nation as we speak, there’s a coronary heart to the play, an immediacy to understanding why immigrants behave very otherwise on this nation,” he mentioned. “Why individuals who come to this nation as refugees convey their histories, and why they maintain silent. And the results of that silence is impacted to their kids.”
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