Also this issue: Three's a Charm A trio of shows that made the grade. -David Anthony Fox Stolen Glances Mark Shetabi lets us look through his peepholes. -Susan Hagen Bratwrst 㚳 -Debra Auspitz "Lets' sit upon the ground ..." -Toby Zinman Jonathan Schell -Andrew Milner artsquicks More stuff going on this week Lighten Up Elise Juska on writing yourself out of a funk. -Kevin Plunkett Anna Maxted reading -Alex Richmond

May 22-28, 2003

artpicks

Red

For the first time in Philadelphia, award-winning playwright Chay Yew will present his play, Red, at the Wilma Theater. Featuring a three-person Asian-American cast, the play centers around romance writer Sonja Wong Pickford (the satirical parallel to Maxine Hong Kingston's nom de plume is no coincidence), who returns to China to find inspiration for her latest book. Instead, she is haunted by her painful past, marred by the scars of the Cultural Revolution, which lasted from 1966 to '76. "And in the midst of all of that, she unveils a history that becomes very personal and tragic," says Jade Wu, who plays Sonja.

Wu's own grandfather, the renowned Chinese actor Wang Yung-Lung, escaped to Taiwan just before those tumultuous times. The choreographer for the show, Jamie H.J. Guan, was not so lucky and was selected by Madame Mao to perform warrior roles in a state-controlled Beijing opera troupe. " We spent a lot of time to realize the actual history of what happened during that era," says Wu.

Written in the 1990s in response to the National Endowment of the Arts' budget cuts and restrictions on artistic freedom, Red's multi-layered plot still resonates as a current-day commentary and a trip back in time to Mao's Cultural Revolution.

Red, through June 22, $9-$41, Wilma Theater, Broad and Spruce sts., 215-546-7824.

—Helen i-lin Hwang