Linden Tailor in The Great Leap (AdamsVisCom) |
The Great Leap
Seattle Repertory Theatre
Through April 22, 2018
If we were to attempt to publicly analyze talented,
nationally acknowledged playwright Lauren
Yee, we might start by suggesting that she’s been working out aspects of
her relationship with her father, also pretty publicly, for a few years. Their
relationship was explored, recently, in King
of the Yees, performed here at ACT Theatre, where Larry Yee and Lauren are
both characters in the play.
In her latest, world premiere (at Seattle Repertory Theatre
and at Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company) The Great Leap, she says she mining her
father’s love for basketball and his history of youthful play to explore a
story about a Chinese American high school basketball player who loves the game
as fiercely as any basketball-loving high school kid can love basketball –
which is pretty fiercely.
But Yee also has serious intent and large canvases in mind
which weave into her “small” family-style stories. Here, she contextualizes her
play into the great leaps of change that China went through in the 20th
Century. Using basketball, which is played world over, and a fictional matchup
in 1989 of University of San Francisco and Beijing University, Yee introduces
this teenager with a burning desire to go on that trip and play that exhibition
game.