Exclusion--A New Play

Exclusion, by Kenneth Lin, has been playing here in D.C. at the Arena, where we saw it Friday night. The promos said it was about the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, by which all Chinese in the U.S. were told to depart and there was no immigration quota for Chinese people until 1943. That, by itself, didn't necessarily portend a great theatrical experience, if the theme was merely that the U.S. for many years was definitely employing a racist immigration policy against Asians.

However, although the theme as it turned out did fit a pattern of previous dramas--David Mamet's Speed the Plow is one example, it made for a good evening of dramatic theater. An actress who goes by the one-name identity of Karoline plays a writer, Katie, who has published a book about and against the Chinese Exclusion Act. It has been optioned by Hollywood.

The opening scene finds her in the office of a Hollywood deal man--a producer--who is seeking to get it produced as a streaming series. He has the slippery feel of so many of his kind who have been portrayed on screen, stage, tv, and streaming. Gradually, Katie senses that her screenplay she adapted from her book is going to be massively rewritten and reshaped in the highly anticipated manner that so often is the way this process pans out.

The way this impacts on Katie and her partner, Malcolm, however, proves to be the most interesting part of the play, because it's less predictable. In fact, although the deal man, Harry, is well played by Josh Stamberg, but after a while, one only expects him to move further in the direction described by one critic: "But when a Hollywood bigwig named Harry (Josh Stamberg) and his associates strip the series of historical accuracy and fill it with racist stereotypes, Katie reassesses her Faustian bargain." 

The play is a problem play in the best Shavian tradition, although Arena has labelled it as one of the Power Plays it is presenting, which appears to mean that it explores how power affects the lives and careers of marginalized groups as it "delves into how Hollywood misrepresents, suppresses and distorts Asian American history."

I thought the play was generally successful in what it set out to do and provided a good dramatic experience. It would be excellent if it received more productions so its presentation of history and how it is received today can be transmitted to a wider public.