Thick Description presents Under Western Eyes

Thick Description will present the world premiere production of Karen
Amano's Under Western Eyes, an Asian American thriller, inspired by the Joseph Conrad novel of the same name. Jazz composer Francis Wong will provide an original score for the play, which will be presented November 30-December 19, 1999 at the Thick House, Thick Description's new performance space on Potrero Hill in San Francisco. This production is supported by grants from the Flintridge Foundation, the Creative Work Fund, the Cultural Equity Initiative of the San Francisco Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.The cast includes Kelvin Han Yee, Bonnie Akimoto, Harold Byun, Michael Ching, Randall Nakano, Trish Ng, Blancett Reynolds, and Sam Sheng.

For tickets call (415) 587-4465

Under Western Eyes
Joseph Conrad's novel Under Western Eyes deals with bomb-throwing assassins, political repression and revolt, and emigre revolutionaries infiltrated by a government spy. Ms. Amano's stage version of the 1911 novel moves the story from Tsarist Russia and democratic Geneva to the student lounge of Columbia University and a San Francisco coffee house.

In Amano's play, a racist political opponent of the Asian American community is assassinated by a terrorist's bomb, and progressive activists applaud the act. Conrad's Razumov becomes Asian American Philosophy graduate student Razuo, who turns in the assassin (an Asian American activist and fellow student) to the police leading to the assassin's death. Razuo is mistakenly honored by the radical activist community as a collaborator. He must decide whether to assume the false role of collaborator or to face the social and personal consequences of his betrayal. Amano's Under Western Eyes will explore the quintessentially American dilemma of balancing the pressures of one's ethnic culture against the drive for personal success and fulfillment in a multicultural society.

Saxophonist/flutist Francis Wong has been a part of almost every major development in Asian American Creative Music in the last 12 years, beginning with his debut on pianist Jon Jang's groundbreaking recording Are You Chinese or Charlie Chan? (1984). His work is well documented, having been a part of 24 creative music recordings, including works by Jang, L.A. based pianist Glenn Horiuchi and his own groups. He has also had the opportunity to perform with jazz luminaries George Lewis, John Tchicai, James Newton, Joseph Jarman and
Cecil Taylor.