Yellow Face

The lines between truth and fiction blur with hilarious and moving results in David Henry Hwang’s unreliable memoir. Fresh off his Tony Award win for M. Butterfly, Hwang leads a community protest against the casting of a famous white actor as the Eurasian pimp in the original Broadway production of Miss Saigon, condemning the practice as “yellowface.” His position soon comes back to haunt him when he mistakes a Caucasian actor for mixed-race, and casts him in the lead Asian role of his own new play.

When Hwang discovers the truth, he tries to conceal his blunder by passing the actor off as a “Siberian Jew.” As Hwang struggles to ‘save face’ amidst family politics, international intrigue and government investigations, he explores timeless questions surrounding cultural identity, dual loyalty, and responsibility.