Premiering in New York in 2006 and taken around the world in subsequent years, the play “Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven” makes its West Coast debut. The satirical play, by the scathingly funny, award-winning Young Jean Lee, takes the audience on a shockingly funny dissection of race. Obliterating conventions of Asian stereotypes through its violent and explosive theatricality, “Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven” follows four Korean women on a wild journey—sometimes hilarious, often times squirm-inducing. A Tarantino-esque collage of dance, monologues, scenes, and violence hilariously flood the stage where nothing is sacred, but everything is incisive and intelligent. New York Magazine calls SONGS “the strongest indication that the avant-garde isn’t dead, and has never been funnier,” while Time Out New York hails Lee as “one of the best experimental playwrights in America.” The West Coast premiere of “Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven” opens March 26, 2011, and runs for three weeks, through April 16, 2011 at the Thick House, 1695 18th Street, San Francisco, CA. This version stars Katie Chan, Lily Tung Crystal, Cindy Im, Alexis Papedo, Josh Schell, and Mimu Tsujimura.
Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven
More about Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company
Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company (YJLTC) is an experimental theater company that has been growing rapidly since 2003. They create and produce performances that are written and directed by Young Jean Lee in collaboration with company members from diverse backgrounds. Their work deals with major issues in unpredictable and complicated ways that stick in people’s minds and challenge them to think rather than reaffirming their pre-existing beliefs. They have presented our plays at many top downtown venues in New York and in over 30 cities around the world. They are unique in that, despite our focus on political and experimental theater, the impact of our work extends far beyond the marginalized “downtown” presence that such work is typically limited to. Rather than making alienating experiments in a vacuum and then complaining that nobody wants them, they have actively set about changing the artistically conservative, predominately-white-and-middle-class face of New York theater, one sold-out show at a time.
