by Richard Lord
There are few species outside the human that are as caring, playful and devoted to family as the wolf. But the wolf can also be fierce and dangerous if not treated correctly. Korean-American playwright Hansol Jung has used these facts to craft a most interesting play that manages to be engaging, painful and puzzling. Jung gave this work the rather pedestrian title of Wolf Play. But luckily, we don’t really judge a play by its title, do we?
The device that gets the central plot of Wolf Play moving seems almost incredible, but is sadly true: the process of ‘rehoming’, defined by the US government as “the practice of adoptive parents transferring custody of a child to another individual or family without the involvement of the child welfare or other appropriate systems.”
In Wolf Play, Peter – a Caucasian man in his late 30s – has put his adoptive Korean son up for sale on Yahoo. The reason, Peter explains to one of the new parents, is that Peter and his wife were unexpectedly able to conceive a biological child of their own, so this Korean kid had suddenly become a burden that they felt it would be best to relieve themselves of.
But even at his first appearance, Peter does not seem all that comfortable with the decision. His discomfort only deepens when he discovers that the new parents are a same-sex couple. He gets assurance from one of the wives that her brother will play the role of a near-surrogate father to his now former son. (Peter had even named the boy ‘Peter Jr.”, though the child later reveals that his true name is Jeenu.)
Matters just get more complicated from there, as we learn that one of the wives was not really that enthusiastic about expanding their family unit with the addition of a young child. This wife, Ash, is non-binary and has plans to become a professional boxer in a men’s division. Ash is getting ready for a first professional bout (against a male boxer) and did not see suddenly becoming a mother as a good part of her training program.
From there … well, I’m not a purveyor of spoilers, so I’ll just let you know that Wolf Play is an intriguing piece of theatre and those who are drawn to cutting-edge drama should make their way to Theatre Exile’s South Philly home to catch Exile’s potent production.
Wolf Play is undeniably engaging, but it cannot be described as a well-made play. Dramatist Hansol Jung works in a number of disparate theatrical elements in putting this work together. The play opens with a thick serving of metatheatre as an actor lets us know that everything is not as it seems in the world of theatre, and that he is – or may be – a wolf. He later becomes the voice as well as physical extension of Jeenu, who is rendered as a puppet. (A rather haunting puppet in the Exile version.)
The play operates on two very different levels, one a familiar strain of Naturalist theatre, the other a trance-like landscape. The Naturalist scenes with the former father, the new parents and the brother (who runs a gym and is Ash’s trainer in preparation for the upcoming boxing match) place us in the more relatable world, with a logical progression that we can easily grasp. The scenes where the Wolf takes control are, however, driven by the logic of dreams. Both suites of scenes are arresting in their own ways, but playwright Jung doesn’t really manage to bring the two styles together in a satisfying manner. Her one full attempt to stream the two worlds of the play into one current doesn’t quite come off in a satisfying way.
As already noted, Theatre Exile’s handling of this challenging material is quite strong. With a work like Wolf Play, relying on the imaginary ‘fourth wall’ makes little sense, so director Deborah Block and her team have wisely decided to stage this piece as quasi-arena show, with the central playing area facing three-sided seating. Much to the credit Block’s staging and her cast’s sense of space, no action, movements or facial gestures are missed by audience members in any of the three seating areas.
The five-member cast deserves kudos all around. They take Jung’s challenging script and make it work in an altogether successful fashion.
Makoto Hirano gives a commanding performance as Wolf/Jeenu. His early soliloquies establish the credibility of the character, which Hirano then rides through the scenes where he becomes the voice and internal spirit of the boy Jeenu. In his solo scenes, Hirano is totally compelling, but when he slips into the scenes with the other actors, his performance fits nicely rather than being dominating. (And he does show us in those solo segments just how dominating he can be.)
Bruce Baldini serves up a convincing Ash. The script sees Ash move from a chilly perch of parental reluctance to a warm relationship with Jeenu, and Baldini navigates this transformation neatly.
Kira Player gives us Robin, Ash’s wife and Jeenu’s welcoming mother. In the early going, it seemed as if Player was still trying to bring her character into full focus. But it soon seemed as if this may have been her strategic approach to the role, a way of showing us that Robin herself was trying to find her place in the emotional vortex of new relationships. When called upon to reach the emotional depths of the character in the later scenes, Player was pinpoint.
Keith Conallen took on the role of Peter, a deeply conflicted white man in his late 30s. It’s not easy to capture a character as conflicted as Peter, but Conallen succeeded wonderfully. His was one of the best performances in a production with notably strong performances.
Matteo Scammell is compelling all the way through as Ryan, Robin’s brother. Ryan is a bunco uncle who becomes a linchpin in the dramatic turns, large and small, the play takes. Ryan is, by turns, admirable, irritating, grating and loathsome. Scammell manages in his performance to be – by turns – admirable, irritating, grating and loathsome. In other words, he captures the character of Ryan perfectly.
Collin McIlvane’s minimalist set serves the overall tone of this production appropriately, while DeAnna Howard’s lighting adds just the right touch to McIlvane’s set as well as the different worlds of the play. Christopher Colucci’s sound design is also commendable. In short, Theatre Exile has put together an admirable production of Hansol’s Jung’s complex play.
Wolf Play runs at Theatre Exile, 1340 S. 13th Street (Philadephia) every day but Tuesday through November 20. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday performances are at 7:00 p.m., Friday and Saturday performances are at 8:00 p.m, Sunday performances at 3:00 pm. There’s also an additional matinee performance on Thursday, Nov. 17, starting at 12:00 p.m.
The Trivia Trail
In addition to writing plays in English, her adopted language, Hansol Jung has translated a number of leading English-language musicals (book and lyrics) into Korean. Jung’s list of translations include Spamalot, Dracula, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Evita.
Jung has also been successful with writing teleplays. She contributed the “Happy, Now?” episode for the Netflix series Tales of the City and has contributed to the Apple+ TV series Pachinko, an American-produced show set in Korea.