Reviews
Language of their Own
by Chay Yew
The Group Theatre
February 1997

"Two young people in Boston meet at a party, feel an instant attraction to one another, date, move in together and, after four years of unwedded togetherness, break up.

"In his recent Off-Broadway drama, A Language of Their Own, Chay Yew considers this familiar roundelay in present tense. The lovers he follows are two gay men of Chinese ancestry, Oscar and Ming. Oscar has AIDS; Ming doesn't.

"Contrapuntal and choral-like in structure, A Language of Their Own comes through in the Group Theatre's production as a tough-minded -yet softhearted, chamber-quartet bulletin from the contemporary romantic front.

"What's most intriguing about Yew's script, in directorJose Carrasquillo's spare but fine-tuned staging, is that it can't be easily classified as an AIDS play, or a gay play, a comedy or a drama. The push-pull, come closer-go away, oil-and-water dynamics between the diffident, almost prissy Oscar (Ken Chin) and the effusive but unreliable Ming (Scott Koh) could easily apply to lovers of different ethnicities and genders...While the dimensions of story, and its conclusion, are too predictable, Yew's fluid, witty dialogue and behavioral insights are evidence of an emerging talent."

Misha Berson, Seattle Times

"Having read a lot about Chay Yew's 'beautiful, poetic language,' a phrase hat usually means a lot of high-flown abstraction, I braced myself for a vague evening of theater. But pleasantly, his play A Language of Their Own finds its poetry in the concrete world: in cardboard boxes, in Audrey Hepburn, in bathhouse sex, in IKEA. The play tells the story of two gay AsianAmerican men who break up their relationship and find new lovers, but never quite lose the hold they have on each other.

"The first act is particularly strong, cutting to the heart of its themes. The second wanders in the same territory of loss and yearning, still engaging but not thickening. This may be due in part to the relentless pacing; the actors speak a little faster here and a little slower there, but the resolute steadinesss of rhythm flattens the narrative. The play skips fluidly through their lives and shifts quickly from place to place, so the drive is understandable, but as the production settles into its run, some moments may find a litde more time to breathe."

Bret Fetzer, Seattle Weekly

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