Colonialism Is Terrible, but Pho Is Delicious”

This new play will be presented as a one-time-only live stream reading. We are proud to offer this as part of our On The Radar (OTR) New Works Program that aims to support the creation of diverse new stories by emerging US playwrights.

Dustin Chinn’s Colonialism Is Terrible, but Pho Is Delicious took its inspiration from two viral incidents around cultural appropriation and food. He wrote what he dubs “a triptych about the ownership and authorship of food following the journey of Vietnamese noodle soup.”

This dark comedy spans centuries, continents, and cultures in its three-part vignette structure. Beginning in 1880s Hanoi, the capital city of French Indochina, a Vietnamese cook finds herself in the kitchen of aristocratic French settlers. Then 1999, a century later, in Ho Chi Minh City, American diners got their first taste of the local cuisine. Finally, a present-day, gentrifying Brooklyn where the simmering argument around culture, ownership, and authenticity come to a boil.