Reviews: Exit the Dragon, Seattle

"We hear about bananas. We hear about Twinkies. But what we see is more like sea urchins.

"Banana" and "Twinkle" are derogatory terms referring to Asian Americans who are "yellow on the outside but white on the inside." A sea urchin, . . . well, you know what that is: all rough and tough and forbidding on the outside, but tender, quivering and defenseless on the inside...

"Falling into a culturally preordained identity is loathsome. Being a banana or a Twinkie is contemptible. And so, enter the sea urchin, all prickly on the outside and quivery on the inside...

"The business about stereotypes in Exit the Dragon is parochial at times. "Dragon" type-casting may well be onerous for young Asian American male actors. Philip Kan Gotanda made a similar point 15 years ago in a real play, Yankee Dawg You Die. But what keeps Exit the Dragon lively is its approach to the prickly sea urchin. Once past the brittle spines, we get a glimpse of the protean life within.

By JOE ADCOCK
Seattle-PI

"Exit the Dragon throws such pop-culture stereotypes of Asian men at the audience to show how those images shape the way Americans see Asians and how they affect Asian-American men themselves.

"These are worthy goals. But unfortunately, the show is mainly a presentation of stereotypes and issues; it doesn't add up to an involving play....

"Still, the zig-zag journey through various stereotypes-nerds, perfect students, martial-arts experts - is presented with brisk humor. And it often had the opening-night audience laughing along in recognition (one character recalls being embarrassed as a child because friends who came to his house had to take their shoes off; a nightclub where the Asian guys dance hip-hop)... "

BY JANET I-CHIN TU
Seattle Times

"Zee's Exit the Dragon is a satiric roller-coaster, swinging violently from side-splitting comedy to sincere and visceral drama for the full uninterrupted hour and 10 minutes. The play opens with a well known, well worn cliche. It is another Hollywood audition and tbree Asian actors Dave Woo (played by Eric Zee),Vien Vu (Tuan Tran), and Jun-Li Chow (Kipp Shiotani) are engaged in a choreographed two against-one, in a spin-kicking, fist-flying Kung Fu fght. This exposition quickly establishes Zee's theme, which is namely that Asian American males have been branded into a one-dimensional Hollywood stereotype: the dragon...

"By foregoing the muzzle of political correctness and traditional Asian taboos, Exit the Dragon openly explores sexuality, racism and the pressures of familial obligation. In bringing them all outfront, Zee more importantly gives his characters depth and a sense of realism with which we all can identify. The play thus avoids any temptation to become overly preachy or to offer a clear-cut moral...

"Exit the Dragon, throughout the play, becomes an extended metaphor for escaping the Asian stereotype.

"The play finishes with a call to step out of the stereotype-brand of the dragon and, in the closing words of the play, "step into the man.' The performance captures an essential slice of the Asian American experience and dares- to look at that which has rarely been examined. This play is not to be missed."

by Mark Colety
NW Asian Weekly

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