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PUBLIC
RADIO WEEKEND AMERICA
Click
here to listen to It's Phuc Tap!
on American Public Radio's Weekend America:
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IT'S PHUC TAP!
The amiable and charming actress Eileen Fogarty was born of an Irish father and a Vietnamese mother, but unlike her four siblings she does not possess any of the physical traits of her Irish lineage. This intriguing fact, which she drops at the start of her one-woman autobiographical show It's Phuc Tap!, later becomes the main thrust of this one-hour play.
Fogarty's father was an Irishman who owned a shipping company and her mother was a nurse. They met in Vietnam during the war and later split; her mother went to live in the United States, and her father lived with the children in Singapore. In an amusing series of anecdotes, which take Fogarty and her siblings from Singapore to Los Angeles, she tells of what it was like to look completely Asian and have a completely Irish name. These seem cliché at first, especially to a New York audience where internationalism is not particularly unusual, but as the show progresses we realize that this serves to set up her story which begins when, after a careless comment from her Aunt Thuy, she starts to question her true genetic lineage. In the ensuing journey, Fogarty explores what truly makes us what we are and who we consider to be our true parents along with the rich heritage that they pass on.
The piece is perfectly at home at the cabaret room of the Collective: Unconscious space. The actress's proximity to the audience creates an atmosphere so intimate that even lighting changes seem intrusive. Fogarty is endearing as she plays the various characters in her story, including her father "who looks like Clint Eastwood" and her delightful, complex mother, but she is most effective when she plays herself because it is then that we understand what the story means to her. The story is so undeniably hers that the seamless direction by Jean Collins and Christine Schoenwald is virtually undetectable.
The colorfully phonetic title, by the way, is never mentioned in the show, but according to the press materials, it is Vietnamese for "it's complicated."
- reviewed by Jonathan Calindas
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LA
WEEKLY — IT'S PHUC TAP! |
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Eileen
Fogarty's dad looks like Clint Eastwood, "only
shorter and hairier," she concedes. Her four siblings
also have been complimented for their Dirty Harry
DNA -- thick reddish hair and slim Gaelic noses
in stark contrast to their half-Vietnamese features.
After her parents divided homes and Pop took the
kids, the entire household looked a little more
Eastwood than before. Except Eileen. "You just
look Vietnamese," clucked her Auntie Thuy disappointedly.
The distinction had consequences: English teachers
doubted her fluency, strangers never stopped her
on the street, and it took convincing before classmates
gave her bonus cool points for being Eurasian.
Still, Auntie's loose lips had to flap a bit more
before Eileen began to suspect that her odd-duck
looks might have deeper causes.
Her ensuing genealogical excavations rattled dear
old dad and sent her tempestuous mother into a
self-pitying fit worthy of Joan Crawford. Fogarty's
solo show enriches her sleuthing with insight
and humor, and her characterizations come alive
with a burlesque warmth.
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SMOKE THE KITTY (Improv)
Based on one brief audience suggestion at the
beginning of the night for why a family might gather,
this tight ensemble of six is able to create an
engaging and wry hour of fine comedy in a full-length
improv adventure that tackles family dynamics.
On the night reviewed, a bris, or ceremonial
circumcision, was proposed as the central event; what
followed was a hilarious portrait of a dysfunctional
family coping with religious differences.
The flat-out fantastic Jenny Noa took on the role of
the Jewish mother trying to restore some sense of
sanity to her divided family. Her daughter Joan (Gaye
Scott) recently married the aggressive Baptist Jeremy
(Eileen Fogarty) and fought ardently to raise her
daughter Christine (Rachel Watkins) with Jesus always
on her mind. And the young son Lenny (Trent Walker),
an obsessed musical theatre buff, was quick to jump on
the Bible bus as long as it involved a bit of song and
dance. Meanwhile, a devoted chain-smoker and Jew
(Kimberly Drooker), the other daughter, that is,
waited for the mohel to arrive to circumcise her
newborn son.
Drifting in and out of flashbacks, the troupe creates
a fascinating set of vivid characters and situations
on-the-spot that would rival any scripted show around
town. No one onstage here is afraid to indulge in the
excesses of stereotypes. Some of the more precious
moments of this particular show involved three
non-Jewish actors desperately trying to fake some
sense of authenticity. As the raspy-voiced religious
Aunt Bee, the Asian Fogarty chanted "Rosh Hashanah"
repeatedly as if it were some old Yiddish folk tune.
Later she pretended to be a white supremacist
Christian schoolgirl at Christine's Jesus camp.
Sabrina Hill is listed in the program as the show's
director. I'm not sure exactly what that means in this
production beyond calling light cues, but whatever
she's done to groom this litter of virtuoso kitties
has resulted in pure comic bliss. Out of an evening
focusing so attentively on the limits and
contradictions of religious faith came a new reason to
embrace aesthetic faith. If these six can crank out a
polished hour-long crowd pleaser without any
preparation and no pauses, then maybe anything is
possible.
- reviewed by Zach Udko
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